Roster Sync Issue - How to handle it (1 Viewer)

For all intents and purposes I am going to layout a scenario that occurred this weekend and it really sucks, because I guarantee it to be true.

Team A is the #1 team in the league.  He has Mike Evans on his team.  Picks up Breshad Perriman after the Evans injury.  Owner of Team A, claims to have put in Perriman before the game but ESPN doesn't save the roster changes.  He sends out a text after the games started saying the issue and sends screens of him trying to update his roster that won't update.  

Games playout, buddy loses by .18 points and could have put anyone in place of Mike Evans to win the game.  Does the league have reason to vote on this?  

Just call it sour grapes and say better luck next time.  It's fairly high stakes, but as the commissioner - I feel damned if I do and damned if I don't.  Any feedback is appreciated.

Thanks!

If he has screen shots time stamped before the game starts I’d put Perriman in his lineup.

My rule in these situations is to ask the following question: "How would this scenario have played out in the pre-internet days?"

(And the answer to that is: the guy would have called the commish and told him to swap Perriman for Evans, and that would have been the end of it.)

I think it's clear in this case that he made a good faith effort to start Perriman.

BTW, ESPN's website sucks. It has been tweaked to cater to tablets, but the result is a slow and glitchy site that doesn't work for anyone.

TVT 0 N S T A said:

He sends out a text after the games started saying the issue and sends screens of him trying to update his roster that won't update.  

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Something seems fishy here.  He sent a text after the game started with screen shots of him trying to update his roster before the game started?  I guess if he sent the text at 1:05 or something right after the games started it might make sense.... like he was trying to make a last minute change and then immediately notified the league when it didn't work.

When was the text sent and where is the timestamp on the screen shot?  My league uses ESPN and I can't recall any timestamps on the site where you are trying to make a roster change.  AFAIK, they timestamp successful lineup changes.  For fun, can you share the screen shot?  

ESPn site sucks on certain platforms.  On my iPad it’s been a season-long exercise in page reloads, crashes, and moves not updated properly.  I’ve conditioned myself to reload the page after every round of moves to make sure it worked as I intended.

So I am more sympathetic here than I would usually be, provided the message got to your phone before Perriman’s first visit to the endzone.

Arodin said:

ESPn site sucks on certain platforms.  On my iPad it’s been a season-long exercise in page reloads, crashes, and moves not updated properly.  I’ve conditioned myself to reload the page after every round of moves to make sure it worked as I intended.

So I am more sympathetic here than I would usually be, provided the message got to your phone before Perriman’s first visit to the endzone.

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Yeah, it doesn't look good from a proof standpoint.  This is a dynasty league, so... options are pretty endless.  The dynasty owner is a little more... seasoned and into the injury report versus a redraft filled with slaps, which is why... I believe him.  It was pretty common knowledge, Evans was out.  I just think he probably would have subbed ANYONE in over Evans.  It gets more dicey, because even down a man - he lost by just .18 points.  That sucks for him.  

Looking back on the text, it was originally - him freaking out saying none of his lineup changes were saved.  Then, it is showing an error of Kenyan Drake not being subbed in for Devonta Freeman.  He then said, he had Mike Evans out for Perriman, but that was after the first touchdown...

Just a ####ty situation with faulty equipment/apps?  I have had a ton of issues with ESPN, personally.  I think it is the worst fantasy platform, but was recommended for Dynasty.  I want to do the right thing and everyone in the playoffs is glad he lost, because now other teams have a chance.  

The difficult thing is literally anyone could have been in his lineup for an injured Mike Evans and he wins... then he is having trouble getting Drake in his lineup, which was supposedly a part of the change he made earlier in the morning.  I think it's impossible for me to reverse but maybe the owner of TEAM A shames the winner enough to get a forfeit?  I don't know if I want to touch the topic and I think it has to be worked out within the league, no?

Text was sent at 2PM** edit

In my league if someone sends in an “illegal” lineup, I give them the lowest score from amongst the overselected choices,

Apply8ng something like that here, give him his lowest scoring active player.  I think your reasoning is sound.  Evans still being in the lineup after being declared out LAST Sunday isn’t the play of someone manipulating his lineup to pull a fast one and gain unfair advantage.  Sounds like a real site issue.

I am sure though, that whoever would lose due to your making that move is also going to be up in arms.  What about a 3-way playoff next week?  And perhaps followed by an ex post facto week 17 tiebreaker to see which of them actually gets to count their week 16 score, so as not to disadvantage the other finalist...

No proof (phone call or email before the games start, screen shot before the games start etc) and it didn’t happen unfortunately.  I always double and triple check my starting lineup before the games start in the playoffs. Not sure why he noticed this right before game time anyways. Evans has been out all week.

fruity pebbles said:

No proof (phone call or email before the games start, screen shot before the games start etc) and it didn’t happen unfortunately.  I always double and triple check my starting lineup before the games start in the playoffs. Not sure why he noticed this right before game time anyways. Evans has been out all week.

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I think that is the issue at hand though.  The guy is saying... he changed him out right away and it appeared to have saved.  He thought everything was kosher and then checked his phone for whatever reason and Evans is in.  He actually told me, a list of moves he had made with his roster.  His starters are the exact same as last week... it is just an unlikely move.  I know it is difficult to say, but - he has never sat idle even when losing.  It's difficult to navigate.

The lowest points for subbed player is interesting... does anyone else go by that?

What time after the game started did he send the text?

Was this sent before or after Perriman scored? Weird situation. This sort of happened to me a few years ago in a non-playoff game. I was trying to switch starters 10 mins before the game and it didn’t save. I was able to text the group chat right after the games started when I noticed it didn’t take. Everyone was fine with the change and it did up end up making a difference in the result. The guy I subbed out only scored a couple points and the guy I subbed in scored a TD. Nobody complained after the fact. If I had texted after the player scored, I’m thinking everyone would have told me to get lost. 

TVT 0 N S T A said:

For all intents and purposes I am going to layout a scenario that occurred this weekend and it really sucks, because I guarantee it to be true.

Team A is the #1 team in the league.  He has Mike Evans on his team.  Picks up Breshad Perriman after the Evans injury.  Owner of Team A, claims to have put in Perriman before the game but ESPN doesn't save the roster changes.  He sends out a text after the games started saying the issue and sends screens of him trying to update his roster that won't update.  

Games playout, buddy loses by .18 points and could have put anyone in place of Mike Evans to win the game.  Does the league have reason to vote on this?  

Just call it sour grapes and say better luck next time.  It's fairly high stakes, but as the commissioner - I feel damned if I do and damned if I don't.  Any feedback is appreciated.

Thanks!

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If i's screenshot and time stamped I see no issue. Send the screen shot time stamp to the league to explain your final decision. Put Perriman in for him. 

I had an issue in my basically league. I dropped one of my best players about 2 yrs ago by accident thanks to fat thumbs and using my phone. I immediately sent a message on the league board and Comish explaining the issue. and it was fixed no problems from others. 

ALso for some reason my league last week (ESPN) had me losing by 1 pt when I clearly won. I'm in a losers bracket and giving up 26PTS or so to start (We go off of PT differential in losers bracket person with the lesser PTs get X amount of whatever the other outscore them by this year) the guy had about 120 plus pts. SO ESPN gave him 146.something to end. But on the Scoreboard and playoff bracket it has me losing by 1 instead of beating him by 30 plus pts. I'm contacting my comissoner tomorrow as I actually saw this last week and thought nothing of it. Figured it was one of ESPN's typical glitches they commonly have. 

Maybe there was a separate knob for the radio alarm?

This happened a bunch of times in CBS Leagues I was in because you had to hit "submit" as a second step after substituting a player.  So the person would be 100% sure that they made the substitution because they can remember seeing the player in the correct slot.  It is usually human error when a person blames a computer for a problem.

Steeler said:

Something seems fishy here.  He sent a text after the game started with screen shots of him trying to update his roster before the game started?  I guess if he sent the text at 1:05 or something right after the games started it might make sense.... like he was trying to make a last minute change and then immediately notified the league when it didn't work.

When was the text sent and where is the timestamp on the screen shot?  My league uses ESPN and I can't recall any timestamps on the site where you are trying to make a roster change.  AFAIK, they timestamp successful lineup changes.  For fun, can you share the screen shot?  

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Depends on when sent vs when commish saw it... 

But a key point here is maybe ESPN allows the Commish to review Log transactions of Lineup moves for the team in question.  MFL allows this.  You can see each separate submission and each effort not allowed / denied.  

Just a thought ...

Birdie048 said:

But a key point here is maybe ESPN allows the Commish to review Log transactions of Lineup moves for the team in question.  MFL allows this.  You can see each separate submission and each effort not allowed / denied.  

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In my CBS league, I can see what time a person activated and benched a player in their lineup.

Just remember this will set a precedent for future "lineup submission mistakes".  The simplest (although harshest) black and white ruling is to make the site official.  Your lineup is what the site has.  The onus is on the owner to make sure it takes the changes.  Then there is no argument moving forward.  It sucks but it is the best way to make sure there are no shenanigans. 

If your league doesn't try and push the envelop or game the system maybe you can get away with allowing this change in this instance but be ready for someone else to do something similar in the future.