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Live Draft Gone Bad (2 Viewers)

Anarchy99

Footballguy
Two player keeper money league. Already paid. Had a live draft but there were technical issues with draft site. Ended up not being able to get into draft. Commish didn’t know what to do so set team for auto draft. 

Of course, system picked players with issues and no logic to what was on the team. Two keepers were WR in a start 2 WR league. System picked 7 receivers. Also picked 3 QB early. Only RB drafted was Gordon. Drafted both the first Def and first PK. 

Commish says not his fault access to draft site didn’t work. Other owners love their teams and say they didn’t do anything wrong either. Commish says man up or try to sell team to someone else. Told 100% there will not be another draft. Too hard to find a time for everyone to be available in the first place. 

I said a drive by may be in order. Rest of league not sure why there is an issue. Options?

Revised roster as of 9/13 . . .

QB - Mahomes (12). Wilson (11)
RB - Peterson (10), Cohen (6), Gordon (12), Brown (9), Henderson (9), Hilliard (7), Montgomery (4)
WR - Hopkins (10), OBJ (7), Fitz (12), Crowder (4)
TE - Hooper (9), Ebron (6)
K - Zuerlein (9)
D - Bears (6)

 
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Yikes. 

Thats alllllll kinda bad. 

I have no advice for this scenario. 

I assume you called the commish to tell him you couldn’t get in? 

If that’s the case & you communicated your issue & he set your team to auto draft anyway, that’s on the commish. He should have paused it & helped you get in. 

:shrug:

i’ve had to do that in the past. 

 
If you were the only person who couldn't get into the draft, tough.  If nobody could get into the draft, a redraft is a no-brainer.  

Let me guess, the commish has a good team.

 
If you were the only person who couldn't get into the draft, tough.  If nobody could get into the draft, a redraft is a no-brainer.  

Let me guess, the commish has a good team.
Initially, all teams had issues with invites to draft site. All teams got in and draft was set to start . . . 4 hours late. Draft site crashed again and 11 of 12 teams were able to get back on. After multiple attempts to get on, was told too bad would have to start without our team and hopefully we could get on eventually. Never could. Was not allowed to try to draft my text or email. 

So that merits a TOUGH as a comment and outcome?

 
It sounds like the rest of the league isn't willing to cut you a break due to the technical issues you had. You are probably out of luck but I would certainly be done with that league. I would probably try to negotiate a settlement and be done. Perhaps the league would be willing to refund you your entry fee and adjust their payouts and they could allow someone to play this year for free and take over your bad team? Perhaps they can find a replacement to buy you out or maybe even a partial buyout to lessen your hit? I would look to those avenues because I wouldn't want to be back in that league.

 
Initially, all teams had issues with invites to draft site. All teams got in and draft was set to start . . . 4 hours late. Draft site crashed again and 11 of 12 teams were able to get back on. After multiple attempts to get on, was told too bad would have to start without our team and hopefully we could get on eventually. Never could. Was not allowed to try to draft my text or email. 

So that merits a TOUGH as a comment and outcome?
Nope, that merits a “quit the league & don’t pay”. 

 
It sounds like the rest of the league isn't willing to cut you a break due to the technical issues you had. You are probably out of luck but I would certainly be done with that league. I would probably try to negotiate a settlement and be done. Perhaps the league would be willing to refund you your entry fee and adjust their payouts and they could allow someone to play this year for free and take over your bad team? Perhaps they can find a replacement to buy you out or maybe even a partial buyout to lessen your hit? I would look to those avenues because I wouldn't want to be back in that league.
Same. 100%

 
Told I can try to find someone else to buy the team if someone is willing to buy it. But no money will be coming back from the league. 

 
My point above was I would have already decided I am out of here. I would work with the rest of the league in a friendly matter hoping to reduce my losses as part of my exit strategy.

 
Already getting insanely stupid trade offers. Four scrub backups for Hopkins. The other thing is any trade involving odd numbers means I would have to cut guys to have a legal roster. 

 
Since there were connection issues for everyone prior to the draft starting the correct move by the commish would have been to wait on starting the draft until everyone was logged in
The draft was set to start at 6 pm on Sunday. With all the issues, the draft didn’t start until after 10. People got a impatient and said they had to get up early to go to work. The mob mentality took over and no one else wanted to wait. There was a lot of difficulty getting people tighter to draft in the first place. 

 
Commish could've paused draft at each of your pics and made picks by phone call - too late now, oh well.  If all other owners don't agree to a redraft (there is plenty of time between now and 5 Sep), I would sabotage the league, then never play again, because these guys have no scruples.  You seem to be a seasoned FF vet, so get creative and have fun.  Turn into the Antonio Brown of your league.  Get your monies worth by torturing these 11 clowns.

 
Are these people you know well?  I'd go ahead with the drive by at this point.  Or maybe I misunderstood your definition of drive by and these people will still be alive during football season.  In that case, I'd find the one biggest weasel in the group and trade him all your best players with the understanding that he donates $350 of his winnings to you.  Then walk away.

 
I’ve found that the higher the stakes, the greater the emphasis on “fairness” is. 

In a $350 league I would expect that the draft would be paused until all 12 were in.

a unilateral commish decision to set your team to “autodraft” should mean refunding your $.

thats a horrific situation, poorly handled. 

 
Are these people you know well?  I'd go ahead with the drive by at this point.  Or maybe I misunderstood your definition of drive by and these people will still be alive during football season.  In that case, I'd find the one biggest weasel in the group and trade him all your best players with the understanding that he donates $350 of his winnings to you.  Then walk away.
These are all people my son worked with. I mostly am done with fantasy but he really wanted me to participate. Since it was a good father son thing I said sure. I don’t really know anyone. 

I like the idea of befriending another owner, trading anyone good for peanuts, and trying to get a cut of the winnings. However, I believe this archaic league can put trades to a vote of the owners to get trades overturned, so that may not work. 

 
Ridiculous!  The Commish should've had you on speaker phone, especially since it's a money league.  Things like this are why I'm only in leagues with people I know.....this kind of thing doesn't happen.

 
I'm sorry to hear this, man. That really stinks.

What's he biggest **** move this guy can do now? Trades may be tough with vetoes. Cut all his players? Don't set a lineup until week 12, hope you're playing the commish and he needs a win to get in and you take him out?

 
The main issue I have with what the Commish did was that he made the decision to put you on auto draft.  

I am making assumptions though that 

A. You were attempting to get on the draft site before and during the draft going on.  This is important to me because if you gave up the commish can only delay draft until another day, which you said was difficult to coordinate anyway, or carry on with draft hoping you make it in by the time your pick is up.

B. The technicality wasn't a user issue

Regardless of if I am wrong about assumptions this would upset me greatly and I don't encourage cheating, but legal havoc seems a good step if the other owners aren't willing to each pitch in 35 bucks as the team you have is not really your own.

 
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These are all people my son worked with. I mostly am done with fantasy but he really wanted me to participate. Since it was a good father son thing I said sure. I don’t really know anyone. 

I like the idea of befriending another owner, trading anyone good for peanuts, and trying to get a cut of the winnings. However, I believe this archaic league can put trades to a vote of the owners to get trades overturned, so that may not work. 
If that's the case then you probably have to just suck it up and not make a bigger deal about it.  Sucks but make the best of it and don't sour his relationships with these guys, just do your best to recover and quit at the end of the year.  

 
If that's the case then you probably have to just suck it up and not make a bigger deal about it.  Sucks but make the best of it and don't sour his relationships with these guys, just do your best to recover and quit at the end of the year.  
So he needs to take the high road when 11 others are being shady?  No way.  It's very easy to screw with the league.  If they veto, you can always call one of the owners, and drop a player at a given time, so he can pick him up.

 
The main issue I have with what the Commish did was that he made the decision to put you on auto draft.  
This is the key right here. The commissioner is a *******. He unilaterally decided to put your team on auto-draft, the money should come out of his pocket.

If you want to be the "bigger man" work the wire, make some trades and win anyway. You don't really have much of a choice to be honest.

 
Cut your whole team.  Pick up Jake Butt and Matt Gay, then fill the rest of your roster with guys whose last name is either Brown or Johnson or plays for the Browns.   Change your team name to The Gay, Brown Johnsons and Butts.  
I want to say that at 48 years old I’m far too mature to have laughed my ### off at this. 

I want to say that. But I can’t. 

 
The main issue I have with what the Commish did was that he made the decision to put you on auto draft.  
That’s where I pumped the brakes as well. 

Thats a unilateral commish decision that directly F’d Anarchy’s draft. 

To me, as a commish / from a commish perspective, that’s the singular most jacked thing that happened here & led to everything going sideways. 

Doesn’t matter how impatient the other owners were, what their bedtimes are, or anything else. 

The issue was league-wide, and at one point the commish took direct action. And it was a terrible call to make unilaterally, regardless of league fees but *especially* in a $350 league. 

Commish fail. 1000% 

 
So he needs to take the high road when 11 others are being shady?  No way.  It's very easy to screw with the league.  If they veto, you can always call one of the owners, and drop a player at a given time, so he can pick him up.
Can’t even do that. There is a waiver claim system. Anyone cut only becomes available the first time through that 1-12 waiver claim order. If you submit a claim and you win that player, you fall back to the #12 waiver claim. 

 
This is the key right here. The commissioner is a *******. He unilaterally decided to put your team on auto-draft, the money should come out of his pocket.
Yep - that was my take-away above as well. First thing that sounded wrong. 

Commish did this. He set a team that couldn’t get in to “auto pick” instead of working to get that team in.

fail. 

 
Can’t even do that. There is a waiver claim system. Anyone cut only becomes available the first time through that 1-12 waiver claim order. If you submit a claim and you win that player, you fall back to the #12 waiver claim. 
Email all the owners.

Because of your misfortune, ask to have the #1 priority for the first five weeks or whatever. 

 
Can’t even do that. There is a waiver claim system. Anyone cut only becomes available the first time through that 1-12 waiver claim order. If you submit a claim and you win that player, you fall back to the #12 waiver claim. 
Each week, you could call the guy with the #1 waiver claim and work out a price for you to drop player X.  Post your roster, and let the masses tell you how much to sell each player for.  These 11 guys are all losers, and will buy your players.  Imagine this scenario - you have DeAndre and threaten to drop him to the guy with the #1 waiver claim.  You demand $5 from all other owners, then sell him anyways.  Rinse and repeat with your studs.  You may be able to get more than $350.  Hold this league hostage!

 
To flesh things out a little more, part of the issue lies with the website, which is the NFL.com site. You have to be invited to the league. Then you have to be invited into the draft. The site didn’t want to let us do either. 

We tried to have both of us in the draft but apparently only one team rep can be in the draft. The other (alleged) issue is the commish says the NFL site makes it exceedingly difficult to stop and start the draft and/or make replacement picks. Again, I don’t use the NFL site and don’t like anything about it, so I can believe it is difficult to navigate. Which is why rescheduling the draft or going to a slow draft would have made way more sense. 

 
Email all the owners.

Because of your misfortune, ask to have the #1 priority for the first five weeks or whatever. 
LOL. Mercy in a money league? People have already voiced their opinions. They didn’t do anything to cause the problem. Their opinion is why should they have to do anything? Not their fault, not their problem. 

 
I still would in a friendly manner approach the league and try to get them to agree to refund your entry fee and adjust the payouts with you stepping away. They could either find a new owner to play with no fee for this year or they could determine a way to set a lineup for your inactive team. My goal here would be trying to recoup all or part of your fee because you got screwed in the draft process. A calm sensible approach might allow you to recoup something. If not, trade your entire team for the 2 best prospects you can get and create imbalance.

 
Two player keeper money league. Already paid. Had a live draft but there were technical issues with draft site. Ended up not being able to get into draft. Commish didn’t know what to do so set team for auto draft. 

Of course, system picked players with issues and no logic to what was on the team. Two keepers were WR in a start 2 WR league. System picked 7 receivers. Also picked 3 QB early. Only RB drafted was Gordon. Drafted both the first Def and first PK. 

Commish says not his fault access to draft site didn’t work. Other owners love their teams and say they didn’t do anything wrong either. Commish says man up or try to sell team to someone else. Told 100% there will not be another draft. Too hard to find a time for everyone to be available in the first place. 

I said a drive by may be in order. Rest of league not sure why there is an issue. Options?
This year make a couple terrible trades to people you want to help.  Randomly fail to roster a team during the year to mess with results. 

Next year don't pay ahead of time and pull a no call no show.

 
This is all on the Commish assuming you communicated with him regarding your issues.  We have run into this situation many times over the years and we always pause the draft until everyone can get on or if they can't then they get in communication with the commish and call in their picks.  The draft gets paused each time it is their pick until the pick can be made. 

It takes some time but everyone understands and just wants to be fair.  The commish totally blew this and shouldn't be commish or at least should refund your money.  If I was the commish in this spot I would be refunding your money and playing with 11 teams.  I know it blows but it isn't right to screw you over like this.  Of course, I wouldn't play in a league for that type of stakes without knowing who I am playing with.  It makes it much easier to get screwed if you don't know anybody. 

 
This sounds like a real mess. If I was commish I'd like to think I would have pulled the plug after 4 hours of unsuccessfully trying to get the draft started - especially on August 11th. I know its hard to reschedule and get people together but at an ante of $350, figure it out.

 
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