Virtual mocking tool (1 Viewer)

[Doug Drinen]

As a part of MyFBG, we've whipped up a tool that lets you mock against 11 (or however many) virtual opponents with league rules set by you. For now, we're releasing this to the Shark Pool so you guys can help us clean up any bugs that are lurking. The AI isn't perfect, nor will it ever be, of course. But we think it's good enough to help you out a bit with your draft planning. If nothing else, it'll be a fun way to kill time.

If you're a subscriber, you can check it out right here -----> FBG mock draft tool

 

[OldMilwaukee]

That little teaser worked! I opened the wallet, let the moths fly out and renewed my subscription!

 

[-OZ-]

S Jackson dropped to #8 and Vick to the 11th round, but nice system.

I assume we'll be able to use larger than 12 team leagues, and adjust rules, later.

 

[Doug Drinen]

S Jackson dropped to #8 and Vick to the 11th round, but nice system.

Did Jackson really drop to #8, or are you pulling my leg? Even with wacky drafters, I don't see how that could happen. Hmmmm.

I assume we'll be able to use larger than 12 team leagues, and adjust rules, later.

You can adjust rules now. All you have to do is set up a league profile right here, then select that profile on the first screen of the virtual mocker.

 

[joey]

looks good so far.

a couple of suggestionsif I may (as if you didn't see this coming )

- can you put the team and, especially, bye week next to each players name in the list?

- can you separate each position into a different list (QB, RB, WR, etc) instead of one long list?

Besides those little nitpicks, it's looking very promising.

 

[-OZ-]

I assume we'll be able to use larger than 12 team leagues, and adjust rules, later.

You can adjust rules now. All you have to do is set up a league profile right here, then select that profile on the first screen of the virtual mocker.

Had not done that yet. Thanks!ETA: How do you add flex in there? Like 0-2 RB, 3-5 WR, etc.? I see 2.8 WRs, but how do we calculate that?

S Jackson dropped to #8 and Vick to the 11th round, but nice system.

Did Jackson really drop to #8, or are you pulling my leg? Even with wacky drafters, I don't see how that could happen. Hmmmm.

If not #8, close to it. After Addai, Gore, LJ, LT, and (IIRC) Parker, I think there were more, but don't remember right now. In any event, much lower than reality would have him. The next few times all had him #2. Just a quirk I guess. Peyton went #12 each time (my pick)

 

[kurtrudder]

SJax went No.1 in my first draft.

The computer drafting didn't seem to pay attention to roster spots too well. In the league I have set up, 26 man rosters, 15 start, 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 O/flex, 1 PK 2 DB, 2 LB, 2 DL but the mock was all over the place....some guys picking 6 DB's or 7 DL's.

The only other suggestion i can think of is with the available selection of players. Ideally it should be more extensive and sortable.

 

[BLOX]

Yeah, my IDP league mock had a couple of teams not draft some positions like LB or DB.

 

[Doug Drinen]

OK, I will give a look to the IDP issues. Not much testing has been done on that side of things, but I'm pretty sure there are some quick adjustments I can make to bring it better into line.

Thanks for the workout, everyone

 

[OldMilwaukee]

Yeah, my IDP league mock had a couple of teams not draft some positions like LB or DB.

Yes, drafting a starting lineup should be a requirement of the virtual opponents draft.

 

[Doug Drinen]

OK, I will give a look to the IDP issues. Not much testing has been done on that side of things, but I'm pretty sure there are some quick adjustments I can make to bring it better into line.Thanks for the workout, everyone

Just made some minor tweaks that should result in major differences with the IDP behavior noted earlier. Still more work to do...

 

[Routilla]

Is it better than FantasyFootballCalculator? TIA.

 

[WampusCat43]

I thought it was something to generate random insults, but I tried it.

Drafted every RB in sight, and left a number of starting QBs off completely (Schaub, Delhomme...) A few teams had only one QB on their roster.

I like it, though. Good start.

 

[Tough As Nails]

This is great. A few tweaks and it will be awesome. Solid effort here.

 

[fridayfrenzy]

Is it better than FantasyFootballCalculator? TIA.

FF calculator is useless unless you have the standard league set up on that site.

 

[Byron_nyc]

Great tool! But it would be great to be able to sort undrafted players by position

 

[Zoomanji]

S Jackson dropped to #8 and Vick to the 11th round, but nice system.

I assume we'll be able to use larger than 12 team leagues, and adjust rules, later.

I just took Vick as my b/u QB at 15.07 in a 12 team WCOFF mock (with real people).Nice system BTW

 

[Tom Servo]

I just ran through a mock for my 16-team redraft. So far, the site doesn't seem to draft the way most leagues do (e.g., taking 2 QBs). Some teams in my mock had 1 QB (one had Alex Smith) while others take 3. Oddly, the team that took Manning also took Losman.

Here's how my team came out, drafting from the 5 spot.

QB Donovan McNabb

QB Philip Rivers

RB Willie Parker

RB Chester Taylor

RB Tony Hunt

WR Reggie Wayne

WR Roy Williams

WR Deion Branch

WR Isaac Bruce

WR Kevin Curtis

WR Mike Furrey

WR Rod Smith

TE Alge Crumpler

PK Robbie Gould

TD Baltimore Ravens

I'll take that!!!

A worthy first effort, to say the least. This tool will rock when it's up to speed. Thanks, Doug!!!

 

[laxiepoo]

Feature suggestion: it'd be great if either the My Team or this Mock Tool allowed for Keepers. The Peytons and LTs just aren't available in my Keeper league.

Great tool though! Can't wait to check it out some more.

 

[3C's]

I thought it was something to generate random insults,

me too. what a letdown.

 

[amphibianbri]

Is McNabb really dropping this far in drafts? I usually wait for QB's, but round 12 in all 4 mocks I did? I was thrilled.

 

[DLeo]

Nice Doug very cool. Only thing would be to list all remaining picks together..all QBs the RB..WR..etc on top of each other...in the middle of the draft it can be confusing trying to figure out who is left...otherwise just more great stuff from you and FBG.

 

[code]

Doug, I'm generally a huge fan of your work, but I think the user interface needs a fair amount of work...the model is good and being able to tweak the bot behavior is great...however the interface is not especially intuitive, it wasn't immediately apparent which picks were occurring in order, and likewise it wasn't clear how the teams were shaping up...I realize all the data is there, but something (and I'm sorry I can't better articulate what) wasn't intuitive and made it hard to decipher what I was seeing...additional nice to haves would be the ability to identify keepers and being able to back up one pick, rather than just start from the beginning, once I see the effect of my pick...

Off to a good start, but usability and presentation need some work...

 

[Mo_Steel]

Nice tool. It got put to the test with our League... IDP and 29 players per roster. It pretty much sticks to the cheatsheets, several teams loaded up at the expense of up to three other positions. Several teams went minimums on def positions and one team only drafted 1 QB...

A littel more tweaking but a great start

 

[kurtrudder]

I've got a tool that has been mocked by virtually every woman that's seen it.

yeah I'm hearin ya!edit to say that after my earlier post, the IDP selection is now much closer to the starting limits for each position.

 

[Verbal Kint]

Doesn't DD have a mocking tool? How is this one different?

 

[Doug Drinen]

Doesn't DD have a mocking tool? How is this one different?

A couple of ways:1. this one has randomness built in, whereas I don't think the DD does. The DD has a few more settings, but for a given collection of settings your opponents will take the same players every time (assuming you do). Whereas this app will give you a different draft each time you run it. At least I think that's the case.2. this one is probably not as smart in many situations. One reason for that is that I'm not as good as Bruce is. Another is that we're trying to keep the server loads light. When Bruce programs the dominator, he is free to use all the computing power that your chip has to offer. But the computations for this app are being done on our server, which means that there is at least the potential for it to bog down under heavy use. That said, we don't expect to have any problems. And if we do, we'll deal with them appropriately. But that's why we have aimed to keep this app pretty slim.

 

[Doug Drinen]

Doug, I'm generally a huge fan of your work, but I think the user interface needs a fair amount of work...the model is good and being able to tweak the bot behavior is great...however the interface is not especially intuitive, it wasn't immediately apparent which picks were occurring in order, and likewise it wasn't clear how the teams were shaping up...I realize all the data is there, but something (and I'm sorry I can't better articulate what) wasn't intuitive and made it hard to decipher what I was seeing...additional nice to haves would be the ability to identify keepers and being able to back up one pick, rather than just start from the beginning, once I see the effect of my pick...Off to a good start, but usability and presentation need some work...

I definitely hear what you're saying. Unfortunately, if I'm being honest, I have to report that the interface and presentation are not going to change much this year. Maybe the whole thing will get a facelift in February or March, but between now and then it'll likely just be minor changes to the AI.

 

[lebowski]

Nice Doug very cool. Only thing would be to list all remaining picks together..all QBs the RB..WR..etc on top of each other...in the middle of the draft it can be confusing trying to figure out who is left...otherwise just more great stuff from you and FBG.

 

[IM666]

I do like it. However, until it can support team's rosters (for dynasty leagues) I have to stick with the DD. Great job though.

 

[Verbal Kint]

Doesn't DD have a mocking tool? How is this one different?

A couple of ways:1. this one has randomness built in, whereas I don't think the DD does. The DD has a few more settings, but for a given collection of settings your opponents will take the same players every time (assuming you do). Whereas this app will give you a different draft each time you run it. At least I think that's the case.2. this one is probably not as smart in many situations. One reason for that is that I'm not as good as Bruce is. Another is that we're trying to keep the server loads light. When Bruce programs the dominator, he is free to use all the computing power that your chip has to offer. But the computations for this app are being done on our server, which means that there is at least the potential for it to bog down under heavy use. That said, we don't expect to have any problems. And if we do, we'll deal with them appropriately. But that's why we have aimed to keep this app pretty slim.

Thanks Doug. I'm enjoying messing around with it. I was just curious. the randomness is pretty cool. Is there a way to tie the AI to the ADP tool instead of FBG rankings?

 

[Doug Drinen]

Is there a way to tie the AI to the ADP tool instead of FBG rankings?

I agree that that would make it better.The one nice thing about tying it to the FBG rankings is that, when something happens, it will be reflected almost immediately. If a top-10 RB tears his ACL in training camp, Dodds usually has the projections updated within an hour. And those changes will be automatically be reflected in the mocks you run after that point. ADP takes awhile to catch up, and we update it once a week. Even with that said, I think it's probably worth the effort to make the switch to ADP. I don't know when (or even if) this will actually happen, but the next time I find a chunk of time to work on this, I will try to make that change.

 

[RIM]

I was surprised Adrian Peterson was there in the 11th round...then i realized

how about putting some teams in there with the player names. And i agree that we need to force each team to at least fill out their starting roster positions. any way to let us set min and max roster spots in the MYFBG area and have it use those in this tool?

anyway, great tool thus far!

 

[Verbal Kint]

Is there a way to tie the AI to the ADP tool instead of FBG rankings?

I agree that that would make it better.The one nice thing about tying it to the FBG rankings is that, when something happens, it will be reflected almost immediately. If a top-10 RB tears his ACL in training camp, Dodds usually has the projections updated within an hour. And those changes will be automatically be reflected in the mocks you run after that point. ADP takes awhile to catch up, and we update it once a week. Even with that said, I think it's probably worth the effort to make the switch to ADP. I don't know when (or even if) this will actually happen, but the next time I find a chunk of time to work on this, I will try to make that change.

Can't say it enough. You guys rock!

 

[joey]

I know Doug said he might not have much time to tweak this cool mock tool

but one more thing to add to the list...

One of my league profiles has 0 TE starters but, when mocking, every

other team drafts a TE and sometimes 2. I know in my "real" league,

probably only Gates, Heap, Gonzolez and Shockey will be drafted

since it's not a TE-mandatory league. It would be great if this type of thing

was taken into account in the mock tool.

thanks for the great tool

ETA: one other little thing: can you make a link to the virtual mocking tool from

the MyFBG page? Unless I'm going blind and just missing it there somewhere.