Hi folks !
Draft day is 1 month today… fingers crossed there isn’t a new COVID variant in the next few weeks…
I need three pieces of information from you, so please read to the end!
The draft will take place in the “Hampshire Room” on the ground floor of the Hotel Ibis Southampton Centre – address is West Quay Road, Southampton, SO15 1RA.
We have the room from 11:00 to 19:00. I will be there from 11:00 to make sure everything is set up for us. I would like managers to arrive for 12:00 if at all possible please – we have a few bits of admin to run through to get us ready for the draft to start at 1:00. Southampton traffic is notoriously bad, so if you are driving please leave enough time!
The room has plenty of space. There is free tea, coffee, and water. Several plug sockets for chargers. Free wifi. There is a small bar on the ground floor. There is also a McDonalds less than 5 minutes away, which saw a lot of business from us during last year’s draft!
There is free parking for us at the hotel. For those of you driving, I will collect your registration numbers on the day and pass them to the hotel so they know which cars are ours.
The plan for 12 till 1 is:
• Introductions – although there are plenty of old friends (and rivals) I know that not everyone has met each other, so I’m hoping everyone is here in time to meet and greet all their opponents for the season
• Grab a seat – work out who you want to sit and chat with for the day (or who you want to avoid !)
• Grab a drink too – drafting is thirsty work!
• Quick recap of last season’s results
• Draft position – here’s the set up, I will explain it again on the day in case this doesn’t make sense. All managers have a budget of 200 points to use during the season for picking up players from the waiver wire. But these points can also be used on draft day to bid for draft position. Every manager will submit a secret bid of anywhere from 0 to 200 points. Whatever bid each manager makes will be deducted from their season’s budget of points. I’ll then check all the bids – whoever made the highest bid will have first choice of which spot they want to draft from. Second highest bid will have their pick from whatever is left, and so on. If two or managers make the same bid, we will draw lots for who gets priority. Essentially you can aim for your perfect draft slot, but reduce your chance of grabbing players off waivers during the season – or you can keep hold of your bidding budget, but at the cost of having last choice of where you draft from.
(just for info, whoever makes the highest bid and therefore has first choice of draft spot, will be last in waiver priority - however this setting is only relevant if two or more people make exactly the same WAB bid for the same player in the same week)
The plan from 1:00 till about 5:30 is:
• 15 rounds of drafting !
• We’ll be doing 3 rounds of draft picks, followed by a short break (for fresh air, grabbing food or drink, or to panic about how bad your picks look…). Then 3 more rounds, then a break, and so on
• There are four breaks (at the end of rounds 3, 6, 9 and 12). At the start of each break, I will ask you an NFL trivia question. The closest answer will win a prize (I have got some random themed prizes for you to choose between).
• To start with, everyone will have 90 seconds maximum to make their pick. Based on past experience, this should see us finish between 5:00 and 5:30. If we are falling behind schedule, I have the option to reduce the time per pick – hopefully won’t come to that!
• In case you are struggling to work out who you want (or the manager before you stole the guys you wanted…), you have one time out. If you use it you get an additional 90 seconds breathing time.
• If your 90 seconds expires, and you have already used your time out, then the manager after you can come up and make their pick (and the one after, and the one after…). This normally doesn’t happen, but 2017 saw a particularly notorious panic pick…!
The plan from about 5:30 onwards is:
• At the hotel, we’ll have the inevitable initial post mortem on how the draft went, and will also say cheerio to anyone who is leaving us then
• We’ll clear out the function room, and wander into the city centre for a beer or two. Then a meal, and then maybe another beer or two. None of this will be too far from either the Ibis or from the central railway station, in case anyone needs to leave part way through the evening. Nobody is obliged to come to any of this, but we usually get over half the league turning up and it is a fun evening !
• On Sunday, I will upload the draft results into the NFL Fantasy site. We will update each manager’s waiver budget to take account of what we all bid for draft position. And we will hit the big red button to randomise the schedule of match ups for the season! Then we are good to go…
Obviously, after the league is underway, all you have to do is win the damn thing!
We have a 13 week regular season, at the end of which positions 9-16 are set. The top 8 teams will reach the playoffs (teams are ranked on number of wins - where two or more teams are level, total points scored is the tiebreaker).
For week 14, the number 1 seed will choose their opponent from the other 7 playoff qualifiers. Then the other six playoff qualifiers will be paired off automatically (highest remaining seed plays lowest remaining seed, second highest plays second lowest etc)
For week 15, the highest seed still in the competition will choose their opponent from the other 3 remaining teams. Then the other two remaining teams will be paired.
Prizes are as follows:
Winner - £1,000
Runner Up - £400
Losing Semifinalists - £125 X two people
Highest weekly score in weeks 1 to 13 - £1 per point scored (so if the best weekly score is 135.55 points, that manager wins £135.55)
I need some information from you … Can you message me with your answers rather than adding to this thread?
A – first things first, are you still coming? If you need to drop out for any health / safety reasons, please let me know as soon as you can, to give me a chance to find a replacement
B – Are you going to be around on the Friday night – normally at least a couple of people choose to travel early, if so I will come into town to meet you for a drink.
C - Will you be joining us for the meal after the draft (at about 7:00) – venue TBC
If you have any other questions at all, please give me a yell !
