Looking For Feedback On NFFC Cutline Championship

[Azzurri]

DId not read quite all of the thread but thought I would throw in my thoughts since this type of contest was the worst bad beat I will ever endure.

1. For me personally, less FAAB is better. That being said, I think it cheapens the contest and is bad for new players. They want to manage their club. They should be able to. 20 rounds is plenty if normal faab. And you are going to have a great deep team making drops tough. Faab won't take as long as the bigger leagues, as while you will have a much better free agent pool obviously, the caliber of player that belongs in great 10 man lineups drops in proportion.

2. Perhaps make this championship FAAB the opposite of all the other brands and the competition major brands and have a "deal with the Thursday game" situation where FAAB for this is ran on Friday only. You could do it either that you can or cannot bid on Thursday players. Probably not for those than need to have them done ahead of time, but either way would work. That would give folks more time to get to these, and wouldn't hinder their ability to do the higher stakes contests. Would also be a way to test this method for your other contests, although I think it is correct as is on that aspect.

3. Thanks for reminding me of the Deangello Williams fiasco.

i think it might have been but am not sure if its the same year (year one or two FFOC?) Chad but i was flat out loaded at WR and had to sit a stud. LONG story short had I not NOT benched Andre Johnson the week he played Tenn, dam u Cortland Finnigan! (think was week 14 or 15 first year ffoc maybe 2nd getting old her lol) my team would have gone on to win that whole thing and the Million first place prize (and i think top prize was paid that year @ 50k a year x20? ) so i may have saved you your heart ache had I just played Andre that one dam week tough call that ill take to the grave with me. Will never forget that whole week leading up to that decision...all week i knew and was telling my buddies that this is the type of call that could cost me the whole million.....and it did...cant believe im being reminded of this right now..uggg! i was over this years ago...i thought ..worst tough lose ever here by a million dam that sucked so bad guys.

[Diesel]

Any word on when signups will start for this event? I'm not seeing a signup page for this.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Any word on when signups will start for this event? I'm not seeing a signup page for this.

We are finalizing the Prize Grid page and signup page now. We hope to get this contest live soon so that we can begin taking signups. All is good here and we'll have it live soon. Thanks all.

[Greg Ambrosius]

how much like the old FFOC and current Stanima.com contest is this? I know this, im definitely interested big time....cut line FF is really great fun!...

I'm not sure if there are similarities at all. Those contests start 2 QBs, which changes everything. We are using our same NFFC scoring format and same 10-player starting lineup. Our playoff format is obviously very different. The similarities involve the playoff cutline, which we all can relate to. It should be fun as you watch your team in real-time hover above or just below that cutline, knowing that if you advance you move onto the next round with a shot at the $50,000 grand prize.

Should be a lot of fun with a lot of daily drafts.

[Greg Ambrosius]

My bad, read further tonight. Don't like the rules and will pass here. Too many rounds make drafts take way longer than they need to. When you start 10 players 26 rounds is way too many. And I consider this a high stakes contest and I want to be able to make roster moves if I want to shape my team for the race at the end. I am sure it will be popular anyway, just not my deal. Extremely quick drafts so people jump in more, and good software to do the necessary moves quickly is the way to go with this contest. But my bad. Didn't see the thread in time but it angled in the complete wrong direction IMO.

Chad, thanks for the feedback here. We appreciate hearing all opinions on our contests and your points are well taken here. They are very valid.

One of the first questions we need to ask ourselves whenever we introduce a new game is: Who are we trying to reach with this contest and how is it helping the NFFC? Ideally, with a $125 entry fee and a grand prize of $50,000 our first goal is to bring in new users who can't just jump into our Classic or Primetime at $1,600 or maybe even our Online Championship at $350. With our reach on SiriusXM and with our industry promotional partners, it's possible that this game has the best chance to bring in new users.

But as FFOC found out, you can't create an entire contest just for owners who take one team and call this low-entry point their "high stakes." You need the support of your own die-hard audience who sees a $125 investment for a $50,000 grand prize as great ROI. So I think it is important to create a format that appeals to our core audience and that still is a great entry point for new customers.

Does adding 6 more rounds make the drafts last too long? Well, the additional 6 rounds likely is another 30 minutes of drafting, so these might take 2 hours and 30 minutes rather than 2 hours.

Does having 3 FAAB periods rather than weekly FAAB ruin the contest? As you said, for first-timers maybe they want more free agent action. But with the deeper rosters to start the season and still a chance to improve your roster three times during the season hopefully there's enough action there for new and old players to enjoy this format. We'll find out soon.

When we created the $350 price point for our NFFC Online Championship in 2008, it was our way of trying to introduce a new entry level national contest that would attract new players to the NFFC and NFBC. We soon learned that our die-hards loved it more than newcomers, but make no mistake, it definitely has brought in new players who have stayed with us through the years and even become Main Event participants. It has been a huge success for us and others in the industry who followed the same format. Now the hope is that the Cutline Championship does the same thing, while adding another competitive contest in a unique format for our current players. And we do believe that this cutline technology with real-time scoring has the potential to work in the other sports as well, so finding the right format is key.

Your points are spot on and I don't doubt that others will feel the same way. But to get this contest off the ground, we need our current players to enjoy the format. Then it's critical to introduce this to a whole new audience and hope they find the thrill of Draft Day and the in-season "cutline" appealing. If we are able to do that, we may have another winner on our hands. If not, then I'll blame Quahogs!!

Quick drafts on good draft software every single night for a chance to win $50,000 is our goal as well. We're working on improvements to the draft room and the Draft Prep and everything else to make our online contests easier and more enjoyable. Importing your own rankings very easily for every upcoming draft is what will speed up these drafts and allow users to easily do more drafts. But at the same time we must promote this contest to new users. That combination has the potential to make this contest work and allow us to expand this format to other sports.

Thanks again for your feedback and we look forward to more feedback from everyone.