What Happened With KDS On Sunday?

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 2:41 am

While it was embarrassing to admit that there were errors in processing the KDS preferences initially, it's reassuring to know that eventually we got this right for the main event teams and that a DISASTER was avoided. The KDS process is set up to allow owners to get their preferred spots and with the way that we received the KDS listings from STATS it actually wound up hurting some teams. Once we finally figured out the problem, there was only one thing to do: Re-run each league individually and manually.

So what actually happened with KDS and our first announcement of draft spots? And how did we detect the problem? Here's the lowdown:

When we announced all of the draft spots for each NFFC satellite league, Draft Champions Leagues and the Ultimate League, Tom went into every single team page and looked up that person's KDS settings. Since each was just a 14-team league, it was easy for Tom to spend 10 minutes or so to get these spots set. Those were and still are accurate listings.

With 364 teams for the main event, however, we asked STATS to provide an Excel document to us with each person's KDS preferences listed in order to save some time and effort. Since we were receiving these each week to monitor how many teams were actually setting their preferences, we felt confident that what we were receiving from STATS was accurate. We then received the final KDS preferences on Thursday night from STATS and took them to Chicago with us in preparation of filling up the main event.

On Sunday when Tom and I came in to select the main event leagues and run the KDS preferences, we used the Excel spreadsheet. It was perfect for us with just a person's first name, last name and the preferences in order (1,2,3,14,13,12,etc.). It didn't take us long to run these on Sunday and we of course announced everything on time.

Then on Monday morning, I did get a polite e-mail from Bluefoot asking about his spot in the draft. He was polite and later followed with another polite phone call, but he was inquiring about his individual spot in the random draft. I then forwarded his info via e-mail, telling him that he was picked in the top half and according to his KDS settings he asked to move down to the 13th spot. I sent him the KDS settings we received from STATS.

He called back last night and said those were not his KDS settings and sent back what they were. I then called Tom and he looked up Bluefoot's setting on his team page and then checked every team in that league. Sure enough, they didn't all match up. He did a quick scan of another league and the same problems were occurring. At 9:30 pm CST, we agreed we had a big problem and needed to solve this immediately. There was no way the leagues were correct as we posted them on Sunday and we had to correct them.

What we found out is frustrating, but the hell with it now. For those in the NFBC, you know that STATS set up two columns for your Draft Preferences there and that was confusing and cumbersome and a hinderance for some owners. We have just one column set up for football and it's self explanatory and easy. Unbeknownst to us (and apparently to STATS), when they output this in an Excel document it didn't display as your preferences in order, it showed 1-14 in order (with that number hidden) and your preference. They never set them in chronological order for Tom and I to quickly apply. In other words, you actually were getting hurt by Sunday's process as some spots that you had ranked low appeared to be your preferred spots when we looked at the Excel document.

So I came back into the office at 10:00 last night and Tom worked from home and we used the original lists from the random selections in each city and then manually called up each person's team page and looked at each person's KDS preferences. It took 3 hours to do all 26 leagues, but there is NO QUESTION now that everyone got the preferred spot they should have gotten on Sunday. The league draft orders are now accurate and we will send out as many e-mail blasts as possible this week to show everyone the new draft orders.

Bottom line: Tom and I probably should have double-checked a few preferences before announcing the picks on Sunday. If Bluefoot hadn't alerted us on Monday, we never would have caught this. But plain and simple, there was a bad presentation of the KDS preferences by our provider and it shouldn't have happened. We all look bad as a result and it hurt our customers. That isn't right.

The good news is that the KDS process worked well. I'll analyze each city to prove that today, so stay tuned. But the process worked and many people moved up or down last night once the preferences were accurately applied. You now have the draft spot that fate and your offseason planning (KDS settings) planned for.

We will take any criticism anyone has to offer on this, but the bottom line is that human mistakes were made, but they were caught before Draft Day. We cost some folks two days of planning (more than half of our participants moved spots yesterday), but at least we got it right. Now have a good Draft Day and we'll see you on Saturday.

TexasHeat · Post by **TexasHeat** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 2:48 am

Thanks for all the hard work Greg and Tom and for making certain all is correct. We appreciate the effort!

hammer · Post by **hammer** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 2:51 am

thanks for explaining, Greg

much better to get it right

LET'S DRAFT!

mikeybok · Post by **mikeybok** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 3:00 am

This is actually very interesting ... This process should actually sell KDS as I am betting 70% to 80% of the players will like their new draft choice better (early christmas) than their old spot.

The spot everyone had was random (kind of what would have been without preferences) ... the new spots will be more preference (KDS) oriented.

The lengths you guys go to to sell a concept is amazing!

TOMDOG · Post by **TOMDOG** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 3:09 am

Agreed with all said in the posts above.Thanks guys.

mkrucek · Post by **mkrucek** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 3:12 am

Originally posted by SNAKE:
...thanks much guys - right, wrong or indifferent - it is what it is and Greg & TK should be commended for their honesty, owning up, getting things right and perhaps MOST importantly - actually explaining it in great and honest detail here (which should not be taken for granted ISHO)...a minor faux pas in the grand scheme of things...let's all carry on here...SNAKE Minor? I went from my 8th preference to my 2nd.

BillyWaz · Post by **BillyWaz** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 3:21 am

Great job guys, and incredible job on fixing it.

Nipping the problem now is HUGE, but be prepared for the "whiners/excuse makers" to still complain at the end of the year, that "if I would have had..... blah, blah, blah".

Knowing that the CORRECT KDS was used should alleviate that, but some people will still beatch.

No worries though, as you guys have bent over backwards for this contest, and I could see the NFFC growing to 500+ teams next year!

Just bump that grand prize up to 150K, (or dare I say 200K) and the people will come in DROVES!!

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 3:31 am

We're prepared for that Billy and the truth is we have to take the heat. The good news is NOBODY in the event is getting a wrong draft pick. These are the spots they deserved to get based on KDS. The bad news is this should have been done on Sunday. Hopefully things will smooth out but this is not a good day for us, that's for sure.