DISCORD Channel link: Real Team Allegiance League on DISCORD
Alas not many people took the chat rooms option up for my leagues but there still there should anyone want to lead the way - encourage other GM’s to join you in chat - each of my leagues has its own dedicated room to discuss things about that particular league but there is a general chat area for anyone who partakes in any BLM fantasy games I run here: BLM Fantasy Games general chat room on DISCORD
REAL TEAM ALLEGIANCE
Keeper Deadline Date: Friday, Aug 28, 2020
Live Draft Date: Saturday, Aug 29, 2020 at 3:00pm EDT / 8:00pm BST (Auction style draft)
Full RTA settings can be viewed here: RTA League Settings
Bold & Boxed text always means new for this season (to aide returning GM’s to quickly find internal rule changes or new rules).
This league was my smallest ever league - just 10 teams - but from 2020 was expanded after a poll in 2019 voted for this. Right now a poll is being conducted to see if we go to 12, 14, 16 or 18 teams (and I will amend these rules once the poll is resulted) and as all my leagues are, will be hosted on NFL.com .
I like each and every league I play in to have a different feel and strategy etc. making them unique and very different in how they work. I have plagiarised some rules I have seen mentioned in other peoples custom leagues on other NFL forums over time - they do say that plagiarism is the best form of flattery so if you see any rule you had first being used in this league then all I can say is thank you for the idea.
RULES
As the league name suggests my #1 golden rule will be all team names and logo’s within this league will be of real current NFL teams. In theory you will be coach of your beloved team and there can only be one of any team in the league.
Unbelievably last season I met resistance from players selecting the current and up to date team logo for their respective teams. It’s tiring to have to keep asking owners to do this so as it’s my #1 golden rule I am taking the decision to replace owners that can’t be arsed to meet this small request. So should a team not display the correct and up to date logo after being asked to do so for 3 consecutive weeks then they will be replaced. YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!
Alas last season NFL.com had a reboot and changed all the default logos of teams and this changed all the team logo’s in the leagues history section. Messing up this crucial aspect (real teams logos) for me. I’ve been arguing by messaging from the website and in e-mail replies to the fantasy bods at NFL.com since to either change the default logos back to what they were originally (real teams logos) or allow me as commissioner the option to edit team pics in the history section to be able to manually correct the past teams logos in the history area but have been getting nothing back other than generic replies that don’t answer my questions or request. I still don’t get why a reboot should change archived historical team logos in the first place, but NFL.com has been far from perfect in its Fantasy Game product - very rarely fixes issues!
It is a league requirement that you must start 2 players (one Offensive and one Defensive) from your real team every game week - including post season - with the exception of your teams Bye week.
This league is a long term dynasty league so you have the option to select up to 22 keepers from your finishing team the previous season (subject to the internal cap restrictions - see next).
CAP / DRAFT BUDGET
The draft money per team default is 200 and your player rooster is 22 players so to make things simple for all and for me to administer it this is how it works - keepers cost you money from your draft allowance budget as follows:
Any RTA player kept will cost 5 from your draft budget allowance.
All other keepers will cost you 10 from your draft budget allowance.
This is a very simple thing for me to work out annually and leaves all of you to now work out which players on your roster from last year you want to pay that price for or if you should let them go back into the draft and take your chances finding better value there.
Please note you have to carry a minimum of $40m into the live draft room so if you don’t have enough to cover paying for all your keepers I will override your keeper settings removing the last player(s) on your keeper list to make sure you have enough to comply with that NFL.com system setting.
(In earlier seasons I used to increase everyone’s budget to allow for this setting should any ones total keepers mean they didn’t have enough to comply with this NFL.com rule setting but from 2018 onward this no longer happens.)
To allow me to adjust the team draft budgets accordingly I have to make the keeper lock date a few days prior to our draft date so pay attention to the keeper lock date once a draft date has been set for this year.
I am not sure how NFL.com works regarding the time it locks keepers so hence picking a date 2 days before our draft date so I would air on the side of caution if I was you and make sure you are happy with your chosen keepers before the the deadline date.
This league uses an auction style draft (and not the usual snake style draft). From 2017 the draft was changed to a Custom Linear nomination order… in a reverse of the previous years final league standings.
Waivers will be done by a blind bid system known on NFL.com as the Waiver Acquisition Budget or WAB for short.
Waiver Acquisition Budget (WAB) - Each team is allotted a seasonal budget. This seasonal budget is the amount of points that each team has at their disposal to bid on available players. The team with the highest bid wins that player and is charged the amount of WAB points that they bid to obtain the player. If you bid on a player, but lose to a higher bid, you do not forfeit the amount of points that you bid. All of the WAB points that you bid will be returned to your seasonal budget. In the event of a tie, the team with higher waiver priority will win the bid.
PLAYER POACHING (Introduced from year 2 onward)
As this league is a maximum keeper league I wanted a way where GM’s could still get hold of their favourite players and change the look of teams season to season. I wanted to have something really different to any other league I am in and so came up with this idea - ‘Player Poaching’.
In a new twist for this RTA league every week of the regular season (not play-offs) the winner of each game can select one of their starting players from that game and swap him for a starting player from the team they beat - within the following criteria:
Only starting players on each team can be swapped.
The players swapped must be of the same position so QB for QB or LB for LB (not LB for TE etc.).
RTA players are exempted - so any players in the team of the real team represented are protected. So for instance in my case I am GM of the Detroit Lions so any Detroit Lions players in my starting line up can not be poached even if I lose.
Clarification - From NFL Week 2, (2020 season) no longer can a player that registers zero stats in a match be sent back in a poach request. A zero stat player in a starting line up can still be poached but a zero stats player can not be sent back in return. Scoring 0 or a minus score is fine as long as the player took part in a game that week. But 0 with no stats whatsoever is now forbidden. Any such poach requests will be denied. For avoidance of doubt a player injured in a game regardless of if he is out for the rest of the season or not can still be sent away in a poach - that just a bad beat and lucky for the team off loading them who still managed to win.
Game winners must post on the leagues message board (aka wall) before midnight Wednesday (going into Thursday) UK time their swap (so everyone can see it). If it breaks any of the above rules it will not be actioned. Assuming it is bona-fide it will be actioned between midnight Wednesday and Thursday morning.
Should any team fail to start the required number of RTA players on any given week (except the teams real bye week) then they forgo their chance to poach a player that week should they win!
The Player Poaching rule if everyone buys into it and takes advantage of it throws up new strategies on who you start and sit against other teams as the season unfolds. It will also offer a very new dynamic to get to grips with long term, as well as allow for greater roster movement throughout the season in this dynasty league.
Lastly if a match is a TIE then no poaching occurs.
STRIKES RULE XXX
A three strikes and out policy is in effect in the RTA. The reason for this is I want a competitive but fun league. The bane of most leagues (as any one who has played for a while knows) is flaky owners that give up when they are not doing well or don’t pay enough attention with regard to setting valid line-ups a few weeks in when the initial interest has waned or they have decided their team sucks.
As the RTA is my smallest ever league (10 teams) I will have no truck with owners who show the league this kind of disrespect.
Strikes are usually only given if you do not win your match up (i.e. lose or tie). In that event then for each player in your starting line up on a BYE , or who was listed as INACTIVE , on INJURED RESERVE or OUT etc. for a game at least one day prior to the actual game-day of said player a strike will be issued. Also a strike will be given for a player who you start that has been CUT as he can not play in a game while he is not with any team and this again is find out-able before game-day. To check any of your players status’s just click on their name when on your team page and it brings up information about them - if you click the arrows to go back and forth it gives you previous updates and at the top of each update there is a date when that information was published. I use these same updates myself when checking on players that appear not to have played in owners starting line ups and this is how I make a judgement on whether or not a strike is justified. Lastly strikes will also be awarded for each empty spot in your starting line up to - so be careful when picking up free agents off the waiver wire as they don’t automatically slot in to your starting line up even if that was the player you cuts spot.
Also strikes will be awarded for not starting your minimum required Real Team Allegiance players on any weeks other than your real teams Bye week. These Strikes are awarded regardless of whether you win your match or not and is the only way you can pick up strikes when winning your match up (as it’s a fundamental part of this custom league). You will pick up 1 strike per minimum RTA player not started (1 offensive & 1 defensive).
New from this season (2020) strikes will also be issued for not being seen to vote in an official poll posted within the league on NFL.com. It’s been the hardest thing for me as a commissioner to get people to engage with me on rules and proposals to do with the league like having a trade deadline, expansion etc., so now it’s mandatory to partake in polls and to be seen to have voted.
I am not sure how you do this on the phone app but to do this via the standard internet using a browser - which can also be done on a smart phone - you scroll down the leagues home page to the message board and to the right of this you will see the latest poll. To the bottom right of this poll box you will see a link that says ‘More Polls >’ click this and it will open the poll with its message board below it. Here (you may need to scroll down) you sometimes will find more information about the poll and is also the place you type “Voted” to show you have voted after you have done so in that particular poll. To the top right of the poll you will see an arrow < and that will let you navigate back to see older polls and where you should check you have voted in each one and posted below each one to say you have Voted as if you have not voted or forgotten to post you have and not everyone has voted then anyone I can’t be sure did vote will pick up a Strike after 28 days of the Poll being posted. I hate having to do this but for seven seasons people have just not been engaging enough to help me shape the league by voting in polls so felt I had to do this so I can weed out and replace non committed GM’s with ones who buy into the ethos behind this dynasty league.
Also I recognise everyone can make a mistake or have PC issues etc., so that is why it takes 3 Strikes to lose your spot for following season and 6+ Strikes to be struck out immediately. Strikes also carry over to the following season but with each season one strike is deducted if you weren’t banned so if you only earned 1 or 2 strikes in a season and came back the next season your strike tally would be back to 1 (if you had 2) or none (if you had 1). So just like points on a driving license if you have not triggered a ban you can get them slowly removed for good behaviour (or in this case not messing up in starting a valid team each week and voting in official polls).
Later on in a separate post within this thread will be a list of any Struck Out GM’s if that happens as a reminder to me who is no longer welcome in this RTA league and why they were struck out of the RTA (# of strikes picked up - 6+ to be permanently banned).
SURPLUS DRAFT BUDGET RULE (introduced in 2018)
Any unspent live draft funds will be converted to WAB points and added to your seasons WAB budget total.
UNSPENT WAB POINTS (introduced in 2018)
Any unspent WAB points at the end of each season will be carried over and added to a teams Auction Draft budget amount the following season. So the first time this change will be felt will be in the 2019 draft. This change will allow teams to accumulate a bigger salary cap to increase either their live drafting power or mean they can afford to keep every single player on their roster should they wish to do so.
So from the start of the 2019 season each teams income is a fresh $200m salary cap draft budget + whatever WAB they carried over from the previous season.
SETTINGS HISTORY - In this leagues inaugural season some rules I had the original GM’s vote on and so due to the polls results (below) this league is an IDP and fractional scoring league.
- Would you prefer this league to have IDP’s (Individual Defensive Players) or a block team Defence?
Poll result: A Block team DEFENCE - 33% / IDP’s - 67% (9/10 voted)
- Should we use fractional points scoring or rounding up/down to whole number scores?
Poll result: Fractional points - 100% / Rounded up/down - 0% (8/10 voted)
From 2017 an adjustment to the IDP scoring settings was made to factor in the real life rule the NFL introduced back in 2015 that the defence could score off a turnover on a PAT or two-point conversion by returning it the other way for a touchdown - worth two points. - So I added this scenario into the RTA’s scoring settings also.
DRAFT ORDER
From the 2018 season onward, I decided to change the Draft Order from a Random Linear draft to a Custom Linear draft - based on a reverse of where teams finished the previous season. So in effect the last placed team will nominate first and the current champion will nominate last each round. I don’t think it makes that big of a difference in an auction draft league compared to a standard draft league but we will see.
From the 2018 season onward, this league became a PPR scoring league with Receptions earning 0.5 points. (So half a point per reception).
Poll result: Stay as Standard - 40% / Switch to PPR - 60% (10/10 voted)
I ran a second poll during the 2019 season to consider awarding 0.5 points for a completed pass to go along with the PPR switch to boost QB’s scoring but the result of the poll was negative (majority not in favour - so have shelved the idea - at least for the time being).
Poll result: 0.5 points a completion YES - 22% / NO - 78% (9/10 voted)
Extra Special Rules just for 2020 (Season 8)
Due to Covid-19 and RTA League Expansion.
1. In line with what NFL.com has done to its standard leagues for this season I have expanded the Reserve slots from 2 to 3. This is temporary for the 2020 season only and plan is to revert back to 2 reserve slots in 2021.
2. The Expansion Poll is complete and the majority went for an expansion to 12 teams so that is what the RTA will now become.
Poll Result
Only the 10 current GM’s should have voted but before I screen grabbed it one of the 2 new GM’s voted in the poll also. However it was clear before this 12 teams had won out. Think I was the lone voter for 14 teams. So from 2020 the RTA is a 12 team custom dynasty league.
3. Expansion rules - I have thought long and hard about this and no matter what I do some people are gonna be upset. If everyone was thrown back in the draft this year that would be fairest for the new franchises but go against what a dynasty league is all about and penalise the great teams. However an expansion is a good time for a reset as some shocking early owners that did not buy into or understand the poaching rules allowed some teams to pull away and grow strong while those other teams sunk and then those GM’s left or got struck out so there does need to be a re-balancing - if your that good why fear such, it’s no fun having the same few teams win or challenge every year - unless your one of those teams.
So this is what’s gonna happen - existing teams can keep 1 player for each position type on there roster:
QB x1
RB x1
WR x1
TE x1
K x1
DL x1
LB x1
DB x1Plus on top of that as many RTA players as they own - they wont count against the above position limits (so there is reward to having your own teams players).
All players will cost the usual prices so $10 off ya draft budget and half price $5 for RTA players. You don’t have to keep that many it’s purely choice - keep no one if you so desire but for this expansion year only you are limited as per above rules. If you don’t understand them contact me hopefully we can do a voice chat and I can go through it.
After that is said and done all teams get a fresh $200 draft budget for this year minus what they pay for keepers and last years unused WAB carried over into extra draft capital this season.
Here is last years final table where you can see how much WAB each team had left:
To help the new franchises as they have no keepers this first year nor carried over WAB they are being given an extra $300 draft capital (A fictitious 100 WAB carried over from last season and a doubled starting salary cap $400 as opposed to $200 rest of us get. This should put them in a position to bid more than the rest of us for the premier players still available to help them offset not having any keepers unlike the rest of us could have.
That is it next year it will be the same for all teams and back to keeping as many players as you wish to.
IN SEASON RULE CHANGES (Applies from NFL Week 7, 2020)
Due to Covid-19 and the changing of teams Bye weeks due to game postponements at short notice a poll was run to see about increasing the number of bench spots. The vote was in favour (see below) but some GM’s were dead set against this and they made valid points about stockpiling talent. Due to this and the unique nature of the RTA regarding acquiring and using your own represented real teams players I decide to go ahead wit the extra bench spots but with this caveat:
The 8th and 9th bench spot must only ever be used for players/teams on a BYE. Random checks will be carried out at least once a week (but can also be whenever noticed bye me or brought to my attention) during the season and if any teams bench is found to have more than 7 players not on BYE’s then immediately the teams lowest season total scoring player on their bench will be cut into free agency by me using the commissioners tools.
Clarification - Should you have more than 7 bench players but empty starting roster slots (unfilled slots) those will be taken off your bench numbers when assessing if you are rule compliant or not. For instance you have 9 players on your bench but 1 empty starting roster slot - I will deduct the number of unfilled starting roster slots of your bench numbers - so in this instance I would assess your bench as being 8 players - thus only 1 must be on a Bye.
RTA 2020 Final Draft banks
Each teams remaining $'s will be converted to WAB points and added to your 100 WAB points each team gets per new season.
WEEKLY STRIKE COUNT 2020
WK1 - 1 strike (Detroit Lions / Noel Symonds)
WK2 - no strikes issued
WK3 - no strikes issued
WK4 - 1 strike (Arizona Cardinals / Carl Fisher)
WK5 - no strikes issued
WK6 - 1 strike (Green Bay Packers / Jesse Schober)
WK7 - no strikes issued
WK8 - no strikes issued
WK9 - no strikes issued
WK10 - no strikes issued
WK11 - no strikes issued
WK12 - 1 strike (Los Angeles Chargers / Tony Hamm)
WK13 - 1 strike (Seattle Seahawks / Christian Wilkin )
WK14 - 2 strikes (Tennessee Titans / Chris Poyner & New England Patriots - Brad Mallett)
WK15 - 2 strikes (Detroit Lions / Noel Symonds & Miami Dolphins - Ray Burton)
WK16 - no strikes issued
WK17 - 1 strike (Green Bay Packers / Jesse Schober)
Link to previous years table:WEEKLY STRIKE COUNT 2019
Additional Strikes (for not voting in polls):
(Aug 14th) Zero Stats Poach poll - 1 strike (Tennessee Titans / Chris Poyner)
Keeper Deadline Reached
Team Keepers & Costs to come off their respective draft budgets (Keepers $10 / RTA’s 50% discount):
Detroit Lions - $35
Arizona Cardinals - $60
Tennessee Titans - $65
Pittsburgh Steelers - $45
Green Bay Packers - $80
Denver Broncos - $85
Seattle Seahawks - $25
Miami Dolphins - $50
Los Angeles Chargers & Chicago Bears - $0 (neglected to select any keepers)
#NFL.com sucks BIG TIME!
These cunts yet again have ruined my season draft room froze so I closed it and for last 20 mins tried everything get back in including rebooting my PC and trying a different browser all to no avail all I ever get is this. It’s a fucking Dynasty re-set auction draft I had patiently hardly bought anyone for 2 hours to use the money at the end and this. Well fuck you NFL.com that’s it next year I either don’t do fantasy or switch all my leagues to a rival.
NFL Fantasy people your CUNTS - for years you can’t put the bucks in it seems make a client work as it’s meant to!!!
Week 1 Strikes (x1)
Noel Symonds - Detroit Lions x1 for:
x1 --RTA OFF– - Didn’t start an RTA player on Offence.
As per new Poll Voting rules (from 2020) after 28 days of a poll being up it can be archived and result confirmed plus anyone who has not proved they have voted in it by then picks up a strike
This is the first such poll:
11/12 voted.
So from this moment forward - NFL Week 2 2020 season no longer can a player that registers zero stats in a match be sent back in a poach request. A zero stat player in a starting line up can still be poached but a zero stats player can not be sent back. Scoring 0 or a minus score is fine as long as the player took part in a game. But 0 with no stats whatsoever is now forbidden. Any such requests will be denied.
Those who voted:
Missing Team - 1 strike (Tennessee Titans / Chris Poyner)
Week 4 Strikes (x1)
Sad to report the following strike is awarded for NFL Week 4:
Carl Fisher - Arizona Cardinals x1 for:
x1 DL --empty– - did not start anyone.
Week 6 Strikes (x1)
Green Bay Packers (Jesse Schober) picks up 1 strike this week for not starting an RTA player on Defence.
X Didn’t start an RTA player on Defence.
Poll Result
Everyone voted in the above poll so no strikes need to be issued which is great. I have listened to the various view points and though the poll was in favour of 2 extra bench slots Carl makes very valid points so have decided to make the two extra slots for BYE week players/teams only.
So this is the rule and is applicable for NFL Week 7, 2020:
The 8th and 9th bench spot must only ever be used for players/teams on a BYE. Random checks will be carried out at least once a week (but can also be whenever noticed by me or brought to my attention) during the season and if any teams bench is found to have more than 7 players not on BYE’s then immediately the teams lowest season total scoring player on their bench will be cut into free agency by me using the commissioners tools.
Poll Result
Everyone voted in the above poll so no strikes need to be issued which is great.
So this is the rule and is applicable from NFL Week 12, 2020 onward:
RTA Players in starting line ups can no longer earn you strikes. You may leave them in even on their Bye week and win, lose or tie they will not earn you a strike. This means you can leave RTA’s in that are a doubt without fear of picking up a strike if you don’t win. This will also allow you to tactically take a risk of playing less players especially on your RTA players bye week rather than having to cut players you don’t want to, just to field a full team to avoid the possibility of picking up strikes.
Week 12 Strikes (x1)
Tony Hamm - Los Angeles Chargers x1 for:
x1 --RTA IDP– - Didn’t start an RTA player on Defence.
Week 13 Strikes (x1)
Sad to report the following strike is awarded for NFL Week 13:
Christian Wilkin - Seattle Seahawks x1 for:
x1 for starting DB - Johnathan Abram - (OAK) who was ruled out before his teams actual game day game day.
Published: Fri, Dec 4 at 3:32pm by Rotowire.com
Unavailable Week 13
Abram (knee) has been ruled out for Sunday’s game against the Jets, Paul Gutierrez of ESPN.com reports.
Analysis: The 24-year-old will be sidelined for at least one game after suffering the knee injury. Lamarcus Joyner is the likely candidate to start at strong safety in Abram’s absence.
Week 14 Strikes (x2)
Sad to report the following strikes are awarded for NFL Week 14:
Chris Poyner - Tennessee Titans x1 for:
x1 --RTA IDP– - Didn’t start an RTA player on Defence.
Brad Mallett - New England Patriots x1 for:
x1 --RTA IDP– - Didn’t start an RTA player on Offence.
Week 15 Strikes (x2)
Sad to report the following strikes are awarded for NFL Week 15:
Noel Symonds - Detroit Lions x1 for:
x1 for starting LB - Eric Kendricks - (MIN) who was ruled out before his teams actual game day game day.
Published: Fri, Dec 18 at 2:30pm by Rotowire.com
Missing another contest
Kendricks (calf) is ruled out for Sunday’s game against the Bears.
Analysis: Kendricks still has yet to resume practicing since suffering a calf injury during pregame warmups Week 13. Todd Davis stands to draw another start in the veteran linebacker’s stead, but the impact of Kendricks’ loss can’t be understated for Minnesota’s defense.
Ray Burton - Miami Dolphins x1 for:
x1 WR --empty– - did not start anyone.
Week 17 Strikes (x1)
Sad to report the following strike is awarded for NFL Week 17:
Jesse Schober - Green Bay Packers x1 for:
x1 for starting DL - Fletcher Cox - (PHI) who was ruled out before his teams actual game day game day.
Published: Fri, Jan 1 at 2:21pm by Rotowire.com
To miss 2020 finale
Cox (neck) has been ruled out for Sunday night’s game against Washington after being listed as a non-participant for Friday’s practice.
Analysis: The six-time Pro Bowler had to exit Philadelphia’s Week 16 loss with a stinger after fielding just seven defensive snaps. Cox was subsequently listed as a non-participant throughout the entire practice week before being deemed out for the Eagles’ 2020 finale. He’s proven to be incredibly durable with just four absences over nine pro campaigns, but there isn’t much to gain in pushing the 30-year-old back into action. Philadelphia was eliminated from playoff contention with its loss to Dallas last Sunday.