To help or not to help? (1 Viewer)

[Blue Thunder]

I know that there has been some discussion, both pro and con, on just how helpful we, as veteran ff players, should be (if at all) towards our fellow league owners, some of which are relative newbies.

I am the commish of a league of friends, some of which are quite knowledgable and some of which could, frankly, use a little help, so I sent out the following email to everyone in my league.

Here's a little help for your draft preparations

Fear Only Originates Truly Bad And Lopsided Losses; Gentlemen Understand Your Situation. Courage Obviously Matters

First, I'm curious to see how many of our league owners get this (do you?) and second, am I being too helpful here?

What do you think?

 

[PhilyFn]

FBG's.com and no I wouldn't be that helpful.

 

[mightyeskimo]

I know that there has been some discussion, both pro and con, on just how helpful we, as veteran ff players, should be (if at all) towards our fellow league owners, some of which are relative newbies.

I am the commish of a league of friends, some of which are quite knowledgable and some of which could, frankly, use a little help, so I sent out the following email to everyone in my league.

Here's a little help for your draft preparations

Fear Only Originates Truly Bad And Lopsided Losses; Gentlemen Understand Your Situation. Courage Obviously Matters

First, I'm curious to see how many of our league owners get this (do you?) and second, am I being too helpful here?

What do you think?

It's very clever. And no, I would not and do not give away my web sources to anyone.

 

[Blue Thunder]

Let me 'splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

This is the fifth year of our keeper league and I have been in the championship game all four years, winning both of the even years.

Also, I do know that 5 out of the 10 of us already frequent this site, so I just thought that I would level the playing field a little here. I already know that even with everything helpful that is available here, most of the other guys won't spend nearly as much time preparing as I will. Well, one or two of them might.

It should be fun and I'm ready for a dogfight this year now. Plus, I figured that David and Joe would appreciate the extra customers.

 

[mightyeskimo]

To quote the great American movie Airplane, "They bought their tickets, they knew what they were getting into. I say, let 'em crash".

 

[Warpig]

FBG.com is my dirty little secret in my money league.

 

[perry147]

Give them some other source but not footballguys.

Something like "cbssportsline has its new rankings out and I think they are the best ever, do any of you use them?".

 

[-OZ-]

Level playing field =

I heard about FBG from my main league, most of us use it. I like the fact that we do, as it helps create a better level playing field.

 

[-OZ-]

Give them some other source but not footballguys.

Something like "cbssportsline has its new rankings out and I think they are the best ever, do any of you use them?".

don't lie.Use stats to your advantage, but don't lie.

 

[NoFBinLA]

Level playing field =

I heard about FBG from my main league, most of us use it. I like the fact that we do, as it helps create a better level playing field.

Giving info is one thing. It's not like you draft and set lineups for them.

I want a good competetive league. If there are greener guys who need a hand, why not help? I like the competition anyway.

Finally if a team or teams keep losing because they are still learning they drop -- I want a league that is cohesive and owners who come back year after year.

Unhappy/frustrated owner = owner we need to replace.

besides are peopel THAT paranoid that if they give help they might lose?

 

[SSOG]

First off, I don't play for money. Ever. It does strange things to people, and it's just not worth it. It's stupid watching friendships get strained over a lousy $50 or whatever. Now, if you do something like the WCOFF, then absolutely you do NOT help your leaguemates, because that is first and foremost a competition. I don't participate in Fantasy Football "competitions", I participate in Fantasy Football "leagues", where the goals are not to win at all costs, but to make friends, have a lot of fun, and earn some serious bragging rights.

To that end, I will help any and all of my league-mates to the utmost of my ability to do so. I had a draft last year on a message board, and the message board went down, so I personally registered all of my leaguemates over here and we finished the draft up in the Mock Drafts forum. And I hope that they did some exploring while they were over here. If one of my leaguemates is out of town and cannot make the draft, then we will have one of the consistantly better players in the league make his selections for him- and when we're selecting for someone else, we play it as if we were selecting for our own team. If I honestly thought he was the best guy on the board for that team, I would select the player I had an eye on for my own team in a heartbeat. As an example, two years ago in a startup Keeper league draft, someone drafted Antonio Gates, a sleeper TE he had a big eye on, for another team in the league.

Again, as far as I'm concerned, fantasy football has three goals. The first is to have fun. I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't think it's "fun" to play against a league full of people who have no idea what they're doing and just romp through undefeated. The second goal is to make friends. Personally, the best way to make friends with someone is to HELP THEM OUT. The third goal is to earn some bragging rights. There's nothing to brag about when someone only loses out of sheer ignorance. If you want to brag, then you teach everyone in your league everything you know- you make sure that they come into the draft more motivated and more prepared than any owners have ever shown up to a draft before- and then you still put together a championship team and beat the snot out of them with it. *THAT* is something worth bragging about.

Whenever anyone posts that they have won 9 of the last 10 titles, or 6 straight titles, or whatever, I think to myself "Why are you bragging about how much your leagues suck?"

 

[Blue Thunder]

First off, I don't play for money. Ever. It does strange things to people, and it's just not worth it. It's stupid watching friendships get strained over a lousy $50 or whatever. Now, if you do something like the WCOFF, then absolutely you do NOT help your leaguemates, because that is first and foremost a competition. I don't participate in Fantasy Football "competitions", I participate in Fantasy Football "leagues", where the goals are not to win at all costs, but to make friends, have a lot of fun, and earn some serious bragging rights.

To that end, I will help any and all of my league-mates to the utmost of my ability to do so. I had a draft last year on a message board, and the message board went down, so I personally registered all of my leaguemates over here and we finished the draft up in the Mock Drafts forum. And I hope that they did some exploring while they were over here. If one of my leaguemates is out of town and cannot make the draft, then we will have one of the consistantly better players in the league make his selections for him- and when we're selecting for someone else, we play it as if we were selecting for our own team. If I honestly thought he was the best guy on the board for that team, I would select the player I had an eye on for my own team in a heartbeat. As an example, two years ago in a startup Keeper league draft, someone drafted Antonio Gates, a sleeper TE he had a big eye on, for another team in the league.

Again, as far as I'm concerned, fantasy football has three goals. The first is to have fun. I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't think it's "fun" to play against a league full of people who have no idea what they're doing and just romp through undefeated. The second goal is to make friends. Personally, the best way to make friends with someone is to HELP THEM OUT. The third goal is to earn some bragging rights. There's nothing to brag about when someone only loses out of sheer ignorance. If you want to brag, then you teach everyone in your league everything you know- you make sure that they come into the draft more motivated and more prepared than any owners have ever shown up to a draft before- and then you still put together a championship team and beat the snot out of them with it. *THAT* is something worth bragging about.

Whenever anyone posts that they have won 9 of the last 10 titles, or 6 straight titles, or whatever, I think to myself "Why are you bragging about how much your leagues suck?"

See, this is exactly how I feel. I play fantasy football for the enjoyment of it also, and not for money either. Everyone in the league that I mentioned above is either a relative or friend of mine from one stage of my life or another, so I wouldn't want to strain any relationships there.

The one league that I'm in that I do pay a little for is a 32-team keeper league where each owner pays $3 to cover the mfl.com costs and a trophy. I've been in that league for three years now and it's a blast.

I also commish a couple of free Yahoo leagues (one live draft and one autodraft) for my fellow Chargers fans at one of the Chargers forums that I belong to. These are just done for fun too and usually will have some different people in them from year to year. The level of competition is a little lower here, but I go into it knowing that in advance and I also feel that I'm helping to introduce fantasy football to some new people every year. So, that's kinda cool.

That's usually it for me. Four leagues is about the right amount to be able to be relatively obsessed about football but not totally off the deep end.

 

[dlptown]

We don't play for big bucks, about $250 with a 12-14 team league, but I HATE table talk and we actually try to temper it until the later rounds. The thing I do provide, as agreed upon with the other co-commish, is simple cheat sheets or stats from last year- and that is it as the info is clearly out there for all to find, if so willing to do the work.

 

[cstu]

I'm in only one league for money and that's only because of the competition since it's with other FBGs. In my free other leagues I help out anyone that needs it because I'd rather have stronger competition than weaker - it doesn't make me feel good to beat people who have no idea what they are doing. FF is meant to be fun and if it's not fun for the people in the league, there's no point to it.

 

[-OZ-]

besides are peopel THAT paranoid that if they give help they might lose?

If you can't win with the same info as everyone has, or at least the same access, you don't deserve the win.As I read this, I'm thinking more that I wouldn't play in a league where suggesting this site would be a problem. As much as I enjoy this thing, I have yet to see a perfect prediction from anyone. good tips, good discussion, good strategy, but nothing top secret.

 

[Blue Thunder]

besides are peopel THAT paranoid that if they give help they might lose?

If you can't win with the same info as everyone has, or at least the same access, you don't deserve the win.As I read this, I'm thinking more that I wouldn't play in a league where suggesting this site would be a problem. As much as I enjoy this thing, I have yet to see a perfect prediction from anyone. good tips, good discussion, good strategy, but nothing top secret.

Another There are so many varying opinions over so many different topics that are discussed here that it's quite possible that no two owners in a league will interpret things the same way.

I appreciate the comments guys and I do feel that I've made the right choice in

spreading the word about FBG to my friends. After all, everyone (within reason)should get to enjoy this place.

 

[radballs]

besides are peopel THAT paranoid that if they give help they might lose?

If you can't win with the same info as everyone has, or at least the same access, you don't deserve the win.As I read this, I'm thinking more that I wouldn't play in a league where suggesting this site would be a problem. As much as I enjoy this thing, I have yet to see a perfect prediction from anyone. good tips, good discussion, good strategy, but nothing top secret.

Another There are so many varying opinions over so many different topics that are discussed here that it's quite possible that no two owners in a league will interpret things the same way.

I appreciate the comments guys and I do feel that I've made the right choice in

spreading the word about FBG to my friends. After all, everyone (within reason)should get to enjoy this place.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. Between different people having different player rankings and draft positions, two people with similar projections would end up with dramatically different teams anyway regardless of being exposed to all of the learning tools on this site.

 

[Beaumont]

I dont think I play in any leagues were each and every owner has not heard of FBG ...