Can't Make Live Events? Call Us

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 5:20 am

Over the first four years of the NFFC, we have not filled up each city perfectly with 14-team leagues. Sometimes we're a few owners short in one city and a few owners over in another city. What we've done in the past is either combine those two cities or hook up owners who were on standby and could draft via phone. It's not the most ideal situation for everyone, but it works easily in drafts.

This year I will admit that I've talked to a lot of folks who for one reason or another would like to compete in our events but can't make it to our live events. Some of them have been AFFL.com owners who want a shot at a contest guaranteeing a $100,000 grand prize, but they can't make it to either of our four draft locations. Others are folks who fly to Las Vegas for the WCOFF and just can't make it out there twice over two weekends. And honestly a few folks have told me that travel costs are making their decisions tougher this year in regards to the high-stakes contests.

With that in mind, I'm considering an option for those who can't make it to our live events but would like to still participate in the main events. We will again provide a phone option and put folks on standby if the situation presents itself in any of the four cities. Several folks have done that in the past with us, even though we've never promoted this option. This year if you are interested in participating this way and it's your only way to get involved, just contact me at [email protected] or at 715-445-4612, ext. 13284 and we'll figure something out.

Those on this list could be inserted in any city depending on the final numbers and we'll randomly pick those folks and split them up if we have multiple cities that end this way. All earlybird signups are guaranteed to be in full leagues, as stated in our rules. A speaker phone will be provided at the draft in any city that needs additional owners and the phone drafters would just call into an 800-number and announce their picks when their turn is up. It works easily enough for everyone.

The phone hookups have worked in the past and it's inevitable that we'll have a city or two that will need a few owners to fill out their 14 or 12-team leagues, so why not publicize this option? If it helps you get involved, we'll try to work it out.

Last year, we sold out at 364 teams for the NFFC main event, but still needed to hook up callers in Orlando, Las Vegas and New York. Now we'll all know who those potential callers will be well in advance if they are needed to fill some leagues. Good luck all and let me know if this helps in your situation.

weber7777 · Post by **weber7777** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 8:20 am

why not make the main event choice of either live or online.. there is no advantage as long as drafts occur same time..i assume this may happen next year..

Uncle Rico · Post by **Uncle Rico** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 5:25 pm

I have to say that the drafting live vs. drafting online issue poses some things to consider. Does one pose a significant advantage over the other?

Drafting live gives you the advantage of actually seeing your opponents. Drafting online lets you have the resources of your computer, predraft rankings, etc. Does one outweigh the other?

Mike Costaglio · Post by **Mike Costaglio** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 5:43 pm

Whale, there are no rules against having your computer at the draft. You have the same info as an online draft.

Raiders · Post by **Raiders** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 12:39 am

Plus you also have rankings with you at the draft, No? No advantage either way. Just Greg and Tom giving more people the chance to Play, and that's what it's all about.

John

Shrink Attack · Post by **Shrink Attack** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 1:47 am

Originally posted by Mike Costaglio:
Whale, there are no rules against having your computer at the draft. You have the same info as an online draft. The only difference is that you DON'T typically have online access at a live draft, although it would be possible if the hotel/convention center had a wireless signal in the drafting room. I've drafted in multiple live events over the last four years, and NONE of them to date have had internet access within the drafting room that I can recall. And even if they did, it would probably be less reliable and/or slower than a home connection.

This could make a slight difference in having access to late-breaking news or conducting an unexpected, emergency internet search for critical information that could affect drafting decisions.

I can remember two years ago I was drafting in the WCOFF and there was a question of whether TJ Housh's leg injury would prevent him from starting the first game of the season. Players were literally racing up and down the elevators to access their computers in their rooms (no wireless) to get the latest information just minutes before the draft. So a possible advantage of having that kind of access just prior to (and even during) the draft is not that far-fetched.

kapefear · Post by **kapefear** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 3:04 am

The whole idea of being at one of the live sites is like being at the SUPER BOWL.This is xmas in August.If you live for fantasy football and haven't been live you don't know what your missing.You can mock,mock mock till you drop or join up for ESPN or YAHOO,but to sit face to face vs. your opponents and feel the INTENSITY, is 2nd to none.I personally plan my year around a 4hr drive to NY and spend the weekend in the big apple.I live on Cape Cod Ma and a die hard bosox fan.I even got crap from the ny pd for having red sox plates.This will be my 4th live draft and get the bonus this year to have 2 shots at $100,000.I'm sorry you just can't beat it.

Uncle Rico · Post by **Uncle Rico** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 2:14 pm

No question, I enjoy the buzz of the live draft as well. I was also simply posing the question for debate. I'm not sure one has a distinct advantage over the other, but there are enough differences to raise the topic.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Sun Jul 06, 2008 3:12 am

Originally posted by Fudgie the Whale:
I have to say that the drafting live vs. drafting online issue poses some things to consider. Does one pose a significant advantage over the other?

Drafting live gives you the advantage of actually seeing your opponents. Drafting online lets you have the resources of your computer, predraft rankings, etc. Does one outweigh the other? It's certainly a worthy question Tom and one that I've thought about a lot. Maybe that's why we don't offer the online version. But as I see folks on Draft Day with their laptops, it's obvious that some folks have all the technological advantage available and yet many folks still just bring a Cheat Sheet, pen or pencil, and their brains with them to the draft. Nobody seems to complain that they have access to the latest info on their Blackberrys or their cell phones.

Personally, I think there's nothing that beats one big draft room with hundreds of people in it all drafting with the same goal in mind. I LOVE the live drafts, but in today's tough times I felt having a phone option made sense and at this point nobody knows what league they'll be competing in. We also won't know until the end when we see how the cities match up and figure out what works best. It remains a random draw, which is good.

At the end of the day, no matter how much info access you have, YOU still have to make the right draft selections. And we all know that we can all excel or screw up when it comes to that!

Be good and I'll see ya in Las Vegas.

moyer1313 · Post by **moyer1313** » Sun Jul 06, 2008 12:51 pm

I was hoping this would just blow over and go away, but since it appears to be growing legs and is being discussed on other Message Boards, too, I'm going to chime in.

I hope that Greg's and Tom's intention is to develop a list of people who are willing to draft by phone in the live events only if they are needed to fill in, as a last resort. They would take the spots of people who have to cancel at the last minute or just don't show up. They could also be used to fill in leagues that do not quite fill up.

I totally support using phone drafters in the live events to fill out leagues that wouldn't quite fill up. Allowing 12 people to draft in a full 14-team league with the use of 2 phone drafters, is much better than telling 12 people that the league did not fill and the league is being cancelled.

However, as someone that drafted in Chicago's Main Event League 4 last year from the comfort of my hotel room in Las Vegas, I believe the phone drafters have several advantages over the live drafters and that the phone drafters should be used only as a last resort.

From a competitive standpoint, if I had the option of drafting from my home or drafting live, I would choose to draft from my home.

Some of the advantages that I would have drafting from my home vs. drafting live are:

1. I am not limited to one co-manager, if I could even get one to travel to a draft. I can have as many of my buddies over to my house as I want.

2. I can have my laptop, my desktop, Internet access, my TV, and whatever other tools I may want, without having to worry about my laptop going out on me. If my laptop does go out on me, then I just switch to my desktop. If my laptop goes out on me during the live draft, I'm flat out of luck.

3. If my pre-game meal doesn't agree with me, I can make a quick trip to the restroom whenever I want and my buddies can keep track of the draft. At a live event, the trip to the restroom will take longer and if I don't have a co-manager, I'll fall behind. Trying to wait until the next break, while trying to hold it in, is distracting and will take away from my concentration.

4. There will be no eye-candy allowed at my home to distract me.

5. I can sleep until 1 hour before the draft instead of having to get up much earlier and worrying about getting to the draft on-time. Or maybe not getting to the draft on time, despite my best laid plans and allowing 1 hour to make a 15 minute trip from my hotel to the draft.

6. If I'm drafting at home and leave my cheatsheets on my desk, I can go get them. If I am drafting live and leave my cheatsheets on the desk in my hotel room, I'm out of luck.

7. I can have access to up-to-the-minute news. Anyone that thinks that that isn't important wasn't at the WCOFF live draft a few years ago when the TEN at MIA game was moved from Sunday to Saturday because of the impending bad weather. We were drafting during the game! Chris Brown blew out his ankle and TEN's DEF scored a TD. If I was at home, I could have seen how bad Brown's injury was, who took his place, and how they looked. Instead, I had to run back to my hotel room during a break, catch what I could on the Internet, and then draft TEN's DEF too early just to be sure I got them.

I'm sure there are other advantages, but I'm stopping here.

There are so many things that can go wrong when drafting live, that from a competitive standpoint, if I was given the opportunity to draft from the comfort of my own home or drafting live, it is a no brainer to draft from home.

The ROI on drafting from home is also much higher.

To keep the playing field as level as possible, phone drafters should only be used as a last resort.

If phone drafting is eventually going to be a standard available option for the live events, then phone drafters should be placed in their own league(s).

Preparing for and executing a live draft, and dealing with all the distractions and possible problems that can come with it, makes it a much more difficult task than drafting from the comfort of your own home.

Mark
Follow Me