Draft Procedures Poll

[Aston]

Draft Procedures poll (link)

Hey, please take a moment to let us know how you'd like the OSFL draft to be run.

There are two questions here, dealing with simple, but significant aspects of the draft schedule.

Question 1 is about the 5-day slow roll period, where Round 1 teams get 14 hours to make their selections.

Question 2 is about the live draft period. It asks whether, and how, the day-by-day Round schedule (where the draft stops after the scheduled round has been completed) should work.

For reference: this year, we scheduled a 5-day slow roll, and a 6-day live draft with separate days for Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, Round 4, Round 5, and Rounds 6-7.

Please bear in mind that these procedures affect ONLY the draft. Rookies will not land on teams sooner or later. Early Free Agency will still take a standard 2 weeks-ish from start to finish.

We're going to make this the best drafting experience we can for everyone, dadgummit.

[IrishGuy65]

I like the slow roll and the way the draft is run here. After the round is completed, leaving it open to continue drafting is a good way to go.

My problem is simple with any MP draft... people who completely miss their picks and don't have a list set up and turned on. You can set a list for 30 minutes, and ask for an email and/or SMS. If you are in a meeting, you don't slow the draft, but if you have the time to come and make the pick yourself, you have 30 minutes to do it.

My solution is simple, the longer the time you have to make the pick that you missed, the bigger the penalty should be. If someone misses a first round pick, it is very likely they are going to miss more picks, as that is by far the most important. So, they should be dropped down to 15 minutes if they miss a first round pick. However, if they are making other picks, the time should go up for each further pick, until they are at 50% of their pick time. I think the current penalty, getting 50% penalty is virtually useless... they are still using up a lot of time (45 minutes) in rounds 2-4. And if it is someone with multiple 1st round picks... ugh.

All you have to do is use a list!

As for the timing, I like to see rounds 1 and 2 on a Monday and Tuesday. This means the draft is done on Sunday, and we can finish the LFA and TC in a week, the preseason the following week, and start the regular season on a Monday. Basically, the schedule would work like this:

M:FA1 (Open draft untimed)
T:FA2
W:FA3
Th:FA4 (if less than half the first round not completed, 14 hour clock, otherwise, remain untimed)
F:FA5
M: Round 1 (FA6)
T: Round 2 (FA7)
W: Round 3 (FA8)
Th: Round 4 (FA 9-10)
F: Round 5 (FA11-12)
Sat: Round 6
Sun: Round 7
M: LFA1
T: LFA2
W: LFA3
Th: LFA4 & 5
F: TC
M: Pre1
T: Pre2
W: Pre3
Th: Pre4
F: Pre5

This season, Christmas corrected the schedule. I like to have the weekend to study and be ready to pick on Monday. Having the draft untimed allows players to find the time to study. This season, with Christmas around, I had no time to study, and the more I think about my pick, the more I hated it. Not because of the setup we had, but because of the time of year... Christmas takes up a lot of my time, as I have many things I do in the community AND with my wife and daughter. So I had very little time this year, and it shows in my draft here and my terrible record in other leagues. Anyway, with untimed for a week, that gives ample time to get a pick in. And if we seem to not be moving, it's easy to add the 14 hour clock to move things along. In most cases, we should easily be into round 2 on Monday with untimed picks. I am assuming most people, like me, are very excited to get their first round picks in. The only problem I could foresee with this is that someone will want to trade their pick, and inexcusably wait DAYS hoping to get a trade. I hope no one here is that much of a dick. Again, if something like this happens, you can slap a 14 hour clock on them, and proceed from there.

[IrishGuy65]

I would also like to note that I absolutely HATE that the AI teams are set for anything less than immediate picks. And they shouldn't have a list, they should be set to Scout Pick. 25 minutes is a real waste of draft time for 6 or 7 AI teams... that's 3 hours wasted each draft round.

[Matt]

Agreed. AI instant.

Also if you miss picks the time is reduced. We do that in the BLB. You're just set to Auto.

[Aston]

The AI is instant, or it should be, but for some reason it shows as 25 minutes. However, under draft options the "autopick" button is checked and their "time allotted" is reduced to 0% -- I'm not sure why they're showing as 25.

Missing picks should cut 50% of your time, but this was reset for people after Round 3 because email notifications hadn't been happening. My bad about that, guys. I guess the admin emails and regular notifications go through two different systems somehow.

[Delandis]

Slow roll is fine. Great actually. However, waiting for consecutive missed picks is frustrating. It kills off season momentum in every league I've ever participated in. The day by day run is fine also but I agree with Irish that penalty for missing picks should be more severe.

[Guest]

Exhibition games 1 and 2 should be run on the same sim. Teams who play in ex1 don't have games in ex2 and teams who play in ex2 don't have games in ex1.

Roster cuts still have to be in by ex1, so why not just get those two games over so we all have a game that sim?

Of course, I'm of a mind to pretty much run the preseason in two sims, but that's in large part because I truly believe the preseason is nearly useless. That's not the topic at hand, however.

[Sharkn20]

I agree to severe punishment for those which misses the picks.

I also want to add that I would prefer a Draft slotted times for each pick

[Guest]

As far as "punishment" goes, the standard is 50% off your clock time, which then compounds. Are you guys noticing it happening or not? It should be automatic and I've never seen a draft that has a harsher penalty than that, you still need to give people time to show up.*

The issue surrounding people missing multiple picks and then setting them to auto is that there's no report saying whether or not someone was autoed (unless the admin emails say so). You, literally, have to watch the draft to see who gets autoed and that's nigh impossible.

*Again, I really don't think we can underestimate the importance of the emails and texts not working for the first part of the draft.

[sawblade300]

Okay. Since it seems like I'm the one who started all this, I'll chime in. I agree with IrishGuy. Start the draft on Monday. Allow it to run the week. Clock on at 8am. Off at 11pm EST. Untimed in-between so guys can still pick if they want. I like the slow roll, 14 hour clock the week prior. It allows for a head start and if someone has done their homework, they can pick. It also give the "gee, I'm in a league and a draft is going on, but I'm not paying attention" guys plenty of time to make a pick.

Missed picks should be penalized. 75% time reduced for 1st offense. Auto after 2nd. Done and done. You're in a MP league with other people. You know when the season ends and when the draft starts. PAY ATTENTION. "Well, I was at work...I was traveling...I went out for the night...blah blah blah." MAKE A LIST OF POTENTIAL PLAYERS AND SET YOUR TIMER TO A REASONABLE LIMIT!!!!!!!!!! It's not rocket science boys. Also, set you options for emails and text notifications. I know this draft had issues with that, so we'll let this one slide for now. But no excuses going forward.

As for the other subject Garion brought up about preseason games. I have played in week one and two in leagues before, so there are teams that do that. I don't have a problem simming each week individually. I like being able to swap out players game to game and trying new game plans. This however, isn't a deal breaker kinda thing for me. I'm flexible in this regard, but the option is nice.

[IrishGuy65]

Remember that the biggest problem with a draft are missing picks when the picks are set to a long time (i.e. the first couple of rounds). The slow roll fixes some of the issue of this type, but not all. We should, EASILY, be into round 2 by the day round 1 officially gets under way. There is a ton of time for people to make picks. We should easily get 10-12 picks in a day with the slow roll, IMO.

The second problem is late in the draft when no one cares any more, whether it be boredom, lack of players, or such weak players that no one cares. I personally LOVE the last few rounds. It's the time to find some possible gems, or, as I like to do, find good guys to play special teams.

Frankly, I'm content with the way the draft is run now. I like untimed overnight. I like the slow roll (but I think it should be for a longer period than it currently is... as soon as FA starts, FA3 at the latest). The top 5-10 picks are not usually going to be affected much by free agency. What I don't like is missed picks, and with the notification system working, I think there should be severe punishment for missing picks. I will never believe there is a good reason to miss a pick, including and up to death. Set a list, it's really simple. Even if you die, your pick is still made!

As for punishment for missed picks, look at it this way... 4 missed picks in round 1 is 1/3 of the full 24 hour day lost. This is where the most severe punishments should occur. If someone misses a round 1 pick, they have to prove they are going to be available for later picks to get time back. So, a big penalty for missing early picks, with the benefit of getting time back when you start making your picks as the draft progresses.

Finally, I'll watch the Anchorage pick later and see if it is immediate or not. Hopefully, you are right and it is immediate.

[Aston]

Exhibition games 1 and 2 should be run on the same sim. Teams who play in ex1 don't have games in ex2 and teams who play in ex2 don't have games in ex1.

I don't think this is true, and the biggest barrier to running Ex1 and Ex2 at once. If it were true, I see no problems with it. I think you'll just have to be patient, though

As far as "punishment" goes, the standard is 50% off your clock time, which then compounds.

Yeah, the punishment wasn't put in during the slow roll, and then I reset it after Round 3 because of the email issue. Probably contributed to the delays. We'll make sure the penalty is in place from the start next time, and that emails are working. That was huge and I'm sorry about that, guys.

there's no report saying whether or not someone was autoed (unless the admin emails say so).

The admin login's "users" tab keeps a counter of how many times a pick was missed. However, 50 turns to 25 turns to 12%, so it's pretty effective without manual intervention.

...

So it sounds like most of the issues should hopefully resolve themselves. With a working email system, the penalties would have kicked in earlier, and more people would have been notified. There's variability in how much people are paying attention and that can only be controlled to a certain extent.

If we do keep the status quo, however, keep in mind it does come with "weird" days. Especially if we start day 1 of Round 1 already at 1.27, or if we blow through Round 4 or 5 quickly. There will be a lot of time spent with no movement because the clock is inactive. Hopefully, it can be understood that the day's scheduled requirements have been met and everyone is free to check out until the next day.

[IrishGuy65]

It isn't true. In another league, my team played week 1 and 2 in the preseason and had off week 3.

I still believe the penalty is not nearly as valuable in its current form. By the time we get to the later rounds, a big penalty really is meaningless, but missing the first few rounds is where it hurts the draft the most. Missing a 2 hour pick should incur a bigger penalty than missing a 1 hour pick.

Finally, if a team misses consecutive picks, unless they are close together in the draft (i.e. - 1.21 and 1.25), you can pretty much assume they aren't going to make many, if any, of their picks. If they miss the more important early picks, then why would they suddenly show up for the less important later picks. And if they miss some later picks, they are most likely done with this draft season. So, IMO, anyone missing consecutive draft picks should go to a minimum time (5-15 minutes max). That way, they waste less of the time of the GMs who are here, waiting to make a pick.

Just my two cents. I'll leave it at that. Just want to get my opinion across as clearly as I can to be understood.

[IrishGuy65]

Portland makes my point... We are at 6.26 now... at 6.13 he was at 50%, because he missed another pick. Now we have 3 missed picks in a row by Portland. We would have saved time if he was down to 5 minutes after missing 2 consecutive picks.

I can't say this enough... all you need to do is set a list!

[Guest]

As for the other subject Garion brought up about preseason games. I have played in week one and two in leagues before, so there are teams that do that. I don't have a problem simming each week individually. I like being able to swap out players game to game and trying new game plans. This however, isn't a deal breaker kinda thing for me. I'm flexible in this regard, but the option is nice.

It isn't true. In another league, my team played week 1 and 2 in the preseason and had off week 3.

I stand corrected.

I still think the preseason borders on completely unnecessary and useless.