With a few weeks to go before the puck drops on a brand new season, it’s time to get our fantasy leagues in order. This year, without inviting all those participated during the lockout-shortened season of 2012-13 back, we will have a minimum of 20 open slots available on a first-come, first-served basis. As current members decline invitations, additional spots will open up.
If you wish to join, either put your email address in the comments below or email me at geoff.detweiler@gmail.com. I much prefer the comments of this thread, but either works.
Just as last year, we will have three tiers, five leagues, and 100 participants.
Joining
First, invitations are purely on a first-requested basis. Any method of delivering your email address (e.g. in this comment thread, Twitter, email, Facebook, text, Brian Boucher delivery service) to me will work just fine. Be aware that the waiting list is likely to include many more names than available slots. If you do receive an invitation, do not hesitate to accept. We want to fill the available spots as soon as possible.
Secondly, if you participated in BSH Champions or one of the Tier 2 leagues, you have until Thursday at 7 pm to accept the invitation that was sent to you over a week ago. If you have not received such an invitation but feel you should have, let me know as soon as possible. Invitations will be sent to those on the wait list Thursday evening, and at that point, whoever accepts their invitation first is in, regardless of prior year’s results.
There are currently 8 of you who have yet to accept your invitations, so, you know, check your spam folders or those decade old email addresses you gave to Yahoo! way back when. If you finished in the bottom-10 of a Tier 2 league, you were invited to Tier 3 Monday evening. Check your spam folders as well.
Promotion and Relegation
Because we have so many people who wish to join, we instituted a three-tiered, 100 member league. Here is how the five leagues and three tiers work, visually:
Hooray for two-year-old, Microsoft Word created flow-charts. More specifically, here’s how it works:
- Champions League – The top ten teams in regular season standings will remain in Champions, with the bottom half of the league being relegated (five teams each) to Tier 2.
- Each Tier 2 league will promote five teams to Champions, relegate the bottom ten teams to Tier 3, and have the middle five teams remain in Tier 2. (see Playoffs for further detail).
- Each Tier 3 league will promote the top ten teams in regular season standings to Tier 2, with the bottom ten teams being relegated. This guarantees a minimum of 20 new players every year./
Playoffs
Anyone who is a fan of the English Premier League will recognize how we have structured promotion and relegation. In order to promote competition and reward extended success, we will rely heavily on the 22-week regular season to determine the final standings.
The playoffs in all three leagues will consist of two groups of four teams. The top four teams after 22 weeks will play in one bracket while the teams ranked fifth through eighth play in a “consolation bracket”.
We will utilize this consolation bracket to determine the final standings and thus the fifth and final team promoted to Champions from Tier 2. For example, in last year’s Tier 2 Black Consolation bracket, The Loopholes were the 8th best team after 22 weeks and won back-to-back games:
As a result, The Loopholes finished in fifth place, and earned the final promotion spot to BSH Champions League for this season. The other three teams have been invited back to try again this year.
Got it?
In short, across all three Tiers, the top-10 regular season finishers are guaranteed an invitation to return to the same level or better. That should be the minimum target for all.
League Rules / Draft Date
One of the worst aspects of Yahoo!’s fantasy hockey is their limited amount of statistics available to use as categories. Add in the size of our leagues and you get limited options that need to be carefully balanced so as to avoid disproportionate importance.
Four years ago, Yahoo!’s inability to accurately assign positions to forwards resulted in the faceoffs won category dramatically increasing the value of centermen incorrectly labeled as wingers. Three years ago, our switch to counting stats for goalies proved misguided when forcing teams to roster a minimum of two goalies.
In other words, the scoring system has not been, and probably will not be, perfect. We’re always looking for ways to improve it, but we will be keeping the same rules as last year:
These will be the rules for all leagues, however the draft date is up to each league to decide on their own. The season starts October 8, so there is time to decide when they want to draft. It’s worth noting, however, that Yahoo! draft slots do fill up quickly, so this decision should be made sooner than later.
Good luck.
