Despite my willingness to go, it would also be difficult for me due to all of the other traveling (and corresponding expenses) that I'll be doing this year (including an 11 night trip to northern Wisconsin this summer).
Let's bring our Draft Weekend focus back to our normal routines for 2024....
I'm assuming that there will be a high desire this year to go back to a lakehouse. Speaking for myself, I value a large venue more than having a lake nearby, especially if the large venue is off the beaten path and is a good value. That being said, a lakehouse is certainly A-OK in my book.
It's already April and we really do need to try to dial this in as soon as we can, because venues are already starting to get booked.
What are everyone's thoughts about a general area to target for Draft Weekend 2024?
It's been a really long journey for me, and I feel like I'm on the final road to my ultimate destination.
Years ago, I started with revisiting the topic of ghosts (as a footnote, I lived in an real haunted house - just ask my agnostic dad). Ghosts are an obvious reality and there is a mountain of evidence supporting this, despite what some Arrogant Mother Fuckers may believe to the contrary.
About 15 years ago, out of curiosity I started diving into the alien topic and the more that I did so, the more weird things started happening. The ramping up of coincidences was so alarming that when my son was being born I had to stop because there was clearly something happening that was more than meets the eye. That was really the first time that I started genuinely wondering about the connection between aliens and tricksters that seemed paranormal or even demonic. Alien experiencers would describe how they had time anomalies, mind speak, and more, and that when they would invoke the name of Jesus their abductions would immediately stop. That fact that so many people would describe that really shocked me. But I digress.
The more I looked into this topic of aliens, the more synchronicity would happen in my daily life. Because it was so overwhelming and because I didn't want this strangeness to get closer to my family, I stopped looking into the aliens. It was a decision based on caution.
So then many years passed, and when the pandemic started I wanted to look for something to entertain me and give me some laughs. I looked at Bigfoot and now four years have passed, and I am finding SO many connections between the topic of bigfoot and the topic of aliens. Connections that I would have never expected. Mind speak, sulfur smells, rules about engagement and granting permission, time dilations, and more. Including the invocation of Jesus and its impact on stopping the experiences. The crazy concept of bigfoots being Nephilim, or at least products of Nephilim, was showing to be relevant.
Next week, a solar eclipse will be happening. And not just any solar eclipse. The eclipse will be passing through seven towns named Nineveh. There is a red calf. The U.S. government is deploying troops and NASA is conducting strange experiments. The CERN collider will be doing even stranger occult experiments. Everything is coming to a head and my eyes are wide open. Unlike the recent popular movie name, I'm definitely looking "up."
Everything is coming together. And after retrospecting upon my middling success of the past couple of football seasons, I'm compelled to change my team to reflect my spiritual journey and my ultimate destination.
I am hereby changing my team name from the Interdimensional Bigfoots to now and forever be the Nineveh Born Agains. May we all meet in Heaven.
Let's go to Vegas! Doing a cursory look, flights are about 300 bucks and there are amazing AirBnB's with swimming pools for about $30/night per person.
It is hereby proposed that we expand the free agent rookie eligibility from 4 weeks to 8 weeks. This would allow rookies picked up in free agency from Weeks 1-8 to be eligible to be rookie keepers in the following year. The 11-slot protection for free agency rookies would remain the same.
With our roster size being so large, however, I don't think it's that much of a burden to have to decide how to utilize a lone IR slot. If I was in a position where I had a stud franchise player and a worth rookie keeper, I'd just put one of them at the end of my 20-man roster and rub my hands together with glee while thinking about the next season.
That Superbowl Props pool was a lot of fun and I want to do it again this year. Last year, I put up a 1/2 ounce of silver as the prize (and then won it *cough*), but do we want to still have a free entry or do we want to spice it up a bit and put some skin in the game? I'm actually fine either way, and am just taking the temperature of the room.
Payouts are allocated on LeagueSafe and will be dispersed after a majority vote by everyone.
Here is how it broke down:
(weekly) (team name) (postseason) (total) $100 Robot Sea Monsters + $35 = $135 $60 Bigfoot Barleywine + $15 = $75 (then dues subtracted, for a net payout of $25) $40 Northern Exposure + $10 = $50 (then dues subtracted, for a net payout of $0) $40 A-Train + $0 = $40 $20 Killing Me Smalls! + $20 = $40 $20 Go To Helen Waite + $5 = $25 $20 Ludicrous Speed + $5 = $25 (then dues subtracted, will directly send me the remaining owed $25) $0 Show Me The Money + $10 = $10
Payouts are allocated via LeagueSafe, pending a majority vote by everyone. The 1st Place prize is being paid out to Josh, and he'll be passing the prize to his brother who won the league (Jake doesn't have a LeagueSafe account).
Payouts are allocated via LeagueSafe, pending a majority vote by everyone. The 4th Place prize of $25 to Just One More Thing was not dispersed because they were the one team that hadn't paid their dues in August, but the 4th Place prize is the same as their buy-in so it was a wash.
Billy missed his dues this year for the first time, and he'll be directly paying $75 to Alex when he sees him on Sunday. Eric missed his dues for the 11th year in a row and didn't set up his owner account for Ragnarok in LeagueSafe, so David will get the $15 that is owed to Eric and will just pass it along to Eric the next time they see each other.
That being said, I'm supremely confident that Eric will actually break his 11 year streak and pay his dues on time in 2024.
Despite taking a CeeDee Lamb 33.5 point punch to the face on Thursday night, followed by a 35 point haymaker by Lamar Jackson, the Robot Sea Monsters put up solid scores across their entire roster and won the 2023 Drafthouse Championship.
Thanks for a really smooth season, boys! We really had our best year yet for our Wednesday night drafts. We were always on time and fairly quick, and the weekly payouts were nicely spread out. The season went way too quickly!
The rules are VP, W-L, then YTD points. I had that mixed up when I set up the seedings. The reason you got the #2 seed instead of the #1 seed is because of the role of Victory Points, which reflect that Show Me Your TDs scored 200 more points than your team.
What are everyone's thoughts concerning our old school approach to the Free Agency deadline? As it stands right now, our last free agency bid sessions are tomorrow, which are during the first week of the playoffs. Do we want to extend it one more week, into the second round of the playoffs, and then make this the rule going forward?
I'd like to give a little background about why the rules have been set up the way they were. We have a fairly large roster as compared to many other leagues, and so a restrictive free agency deadline was set up in order to reward teams that plan ahead for the three week gauntlet that has to be run in order to win a Championship. We don't want teams winning the league just because they picked up a backup player that because of injuries is thrust into a starting role during the playoff run itself. If someone had such player(s) on their roster and then opportunity rang, they deserve it. But I'm of the opinion (just my opinion) that it would be a bummer to see someone pickup a free agent in Week 17 and have that be the deciding factor after we've all played a full season's campaign.
That being said, I'm open to extending it to be after the second week of the playoffs but am very reluctant to have it be available in the Championship week.
Since this would be a rules change during a season, we really need to have consensus in order to be fair. There may be teams that blew out their Free Agency budget at the end of the year because they were observing the upcoming deadline. If so, we should be respectful of those decisions made under the current rules structure.
Even if we don't make the change in 2023, we should decide if we want to make this change for 2024 and beyond.
What does everyone think that we should do for 2023?
ok, ok, I know it's a hot topic of late but I have to say that I think the discussion is warranted. I haven't had a chance to watch a ton of football this year, but whenever I have watched games it's mind boggling how many flags are being thrown.
I get it: A penalty is a penalty is a penalty. But the reality is that every game that I have watched, without exception, is marred by flags. Whether it is bad flags being thrown or no flags being thrown, SOOOO many scoring plays are directly impacted by this. I'll see a score, remark to myself about the impact on the game, and 80% of the time it feels like there is a flag that gets thrown late. Even 10+ seconds after the play is over.
With the inconsistent penalties that are having a direct effect on the outcome of games, and all of the other TV timeouts and commercial breaks, it seems that it has become more challenging to simply sit down and enjoy a football game.
Maybe I'm just mis-remembering the way I used to watch football, but this seems jarring. I hope that the officiating can get smoothed out and our fan experience and confidence in the system can be improved.
I've also set up the Week 14 Aurora Bowla temporary schedule. After the week's scores are in, I'll rearrange the matchups in order to give the appropriate W-L records.
Next weeks the playoffs begin! Trading is closed but free agency will continue for one more week.
... we should do whatever we think is fair for the immediate moment.
Going forward, though, it should be a definitive thing that is not open to interpretation. In the past, we've always deferred to NFL.com as the official list of players and their positions. Unfortunately, I don't think that is in the Rules Book but it definitely should be written going forward.
As the great philosopher Aristotle once remarked, "Sometimes a QB is simply a QB." Because the NFL officially made him a QB, he's a QB and can no longer be started as a TE.
The Mao's free agent bids from 12/6 had a glitch, probably due to the roster having an IR spot. Mao bid 4MB for the Saints defense and won it (and bid 5MB for Flacco but lost that bid). The Saints are now on the Mao roster and the Gamblers have the Buccaneers put back on their team and has been refunded their 3MB.
Congrats to Northern Exposure and the Robot Sea Monsters for the past two weeks' wins. Northern Exposure has quietly risen to the top of the W-L standings, too.
Since we are having a game in Germany today at 9:30am Eastern time, we'll be moving our FA session from 10am to 9am.
In addition, I've permanently moved our Sunday 12pm FA sessions to 12:30pm. This is to help teams juggle those last minute active/inactive adjustments and have more than just a few minutes to react.
If Black Surt wins this week, they'll get the Arrogant Mother Fucker badge! And with deer hunting season not starting until next week, he'll have a chance.
I'm going to gamble that one year someone else will win the Rumble
That being said, I do LOVE the Week 14 approach regardless of stupid NFL by week scheduling. As long as we all know while we are in our summertime bunkers when the Ragnarok Rumble will happen and we are mock drafting accordingly, F the bye weeks and let's go with the final regular season week of the year. That week is the best for reflecting long-game ownership strategies, too. Roschon Johnson, do you hear that?
For the 2024 season, do we want to move the Ragnarok Rumble schedule to be a week other than the last week of the regular fantasy season? We do have the option of putting this in any regular season week where there are no bye weeks. It could be in the first few weeks (such as Week 1) or it could be in a situation like in 2023 where there are no bye weeks in the middle of the regular season (such as in Week 8).
Even though 2022 has two teams on a bye week in Week 14, I think it is too late for us to move it in 2023. There may have been some owners who drafted their 2023 teams based on the knowledge of the schedule. That being said, if all 12 of us wanted to shift the Ragnarok Rumble to happen this week instead of Week 14, I am open to that. But it would have to be unanimous.
It's a 32-team tournament against the best players in the world.
Our match starts at 8pm Eastern time on Twitch. I'm the player "Dadsquatcher" and my teammate is "Alabamer Hammer". We're going against two heavyweights to see who goes to the Final Four.
The level of competition is really off the chain. That guy Fugo Hallarin had just finished playing in a worldwide tournament match of 100's of players and he got 2nd place overall. He came straight from that tournament right into our matchup. Fugo was also the #1 player last week on the main Discord server that I play on.
Since not everyone has two hours to sit back and watch some high level mini golf, here are some timestamps of my personal highlights in this insanely intense match (I'm Dadsquatcher):
It's a 32-team tournament against the best players in the world.
Our match starts at 8pm Eastern time on Twitch. I'm the player "Dadsquatcher" and my teammate is "Alabamer Hammer". We're going against two heavyweights to see who goes to the Final Four.
The level of competition is really off the chain. That guy Fugo Hallarin had just finished playing in a worldwide tournament match of 100's of players and he got 2nd place overall. He came straight from that tournament right into our matchup. Fugo was also the #1 player last week on the main Discord server that I play on.
Since not everyone has two hours to sit back and watch some high level mini golf, here are some timestamps of my personal highlights in this insanely intense match (I'm Dadsquatcher):
Match starts at 8pm Eastern time on Twitch. I'm the player "Dadsquatcher" and my teammate is "Alabamer Hammer". We're going against two heavyweights to see who goes to the Final Four.
It's a 32-team tournament against the best players in the world and if we win tonight then we'll make it to the Final Four. I think it will be live streamed on Twitch.
I'll have to set up the draft room early tonight, so Pick Yer Draft Slot will end at 5:00pm Eastern time today. I'll also be setting up my own custom worksheet to draft in my place. Lastly, I'll set up my laptop next to my VR playing area so that I can try to at least make sure that the room is up and running.
The level of competition is really off the chain. That guy Fugo Hallarin had just finished playing in a worldwide tournament match of 100's of players and he got 2nd place overall. He came straight from that tournament right into our matchup. Fugo was also the #1 player last week on the main Discord server that I play on.
Since not everyone has two hours to sit back and watch some high level mini golf, here are some timestamps of my personal highlights in this insanely intense match (I'm Dadsquatcher):
Probably going to be live streamed again on Wednesday night
Am playing to make it to the Final Four in the big tournament. I'm nervous as fuck but normally I get nervous in advance. And then once the balls are flying I toss all of those distractions out the window. I hope that I can get in the zone for the biggest match of my life tomorrow night. If we are going to be streamed, I'll post the Twitch link.
The level of competition is really off the chain. That guy Fugo Hallarin had just finished playing in a worldwide tournament match of 100's of players and he got 2nd place overall. He came straight from that tournament right into our matchup. Fugo was also the #1 player last week on the main Discord server that I play on.
Since not everyone has two hours to sit back and watch some high level mini golf, here are some timestamps of my personal highlights in this insanely intense match (I'm Dadsquatcher):
... and we are now in the Elite Eight, out of 32 starting teams. It was an epic and incredibly intense match and it can be viewed on that Twitch channel anytime (after the live broadcast the matches are also archived and are viewable). I hit some super clutch and killer shots to save the day. Definitely the highest moment so far in my mini golf journey.
I'm in a team-based tournament in Walkabout Mini Golf with the 64 best players in the world and my partner and I are in the second round. As an aside, my partner Alabamer Hammer has actually seen a bigfoot and that's why our team name is Squatch Watchers.
LeagueSafe won't accept league payments after 9/7/2023 (ugh - they used to allow later payments). It was so crazy leading up to the first draft that being more strict about this was an oversight on my behalf. For Cory, Eric, and Matt, keep your eye out for emailed information to directly send a check, silver, or livestock to me.
Sorry about the delay, I've been slammed the past few days. I'm actually working on fixing my export tool that automatically transfers the rosters with just a button click, instead of manually inputting 64 players each week. If anyone has any injury and free agency concerns before I get this done within the next hour, please feel free to reach out to me in order to make any roster adjustments. Thanks for your patience!
I won't be able to make it to the draft tonight but will try to check in briefly to make sure that it is running. I've set up my personal rankings to draft in my place.
Deadline will be 7pm Eastern for pick your draft slot
I have an 8pm tournament game in VR Walkabout Mini Golf and it will run about two hours. I'll need to set up the draft room before my tee time. I'm also going to set up my own rankings worksheet before the draft, and will have that pick for me (vs simply having the computer pick for me).
Since stats and standings were not able to be resolved until Wednesday morning, that is really too late to expect everyone to be able to select their preferred draft slot (some folks are working up until it is time to draft).
Therefore, for this week it will be once again randomly picked. Some owners prefer to pick later rather than earlier, and some prefer earlier rather than later, so the only real neutral way to do this is to just randomize it like we did for our first week.
Starting in Week 3, we will go back to picking our own draft slots and that online form will be available starting on Tuesday mornings.
I'll be posting a new link to our Week 3 draft room later today. We'll have proper Week 2 0.5 PPR rankings in the room, as well as the NFL opposing team next to each player.
Rules Proposal 26.7: Franchise Declaration After the Deadline
I think Stu brought up this idea, but it is now officially proposed that we have a path of appeals for changing our Franchise Declaration to accommodate very unusual events that take place after the Week 2 preseason games. While risks in this window are fairly low, they do exist and we need to keep this in mind because our primary Mission Statement is for all of us to field the most competitive teams evar.
The path for appeals needs to have a high threshold, however. This should be a rare event. And it needs to have a high bar for the appeal to be granted, such as 8 out of the 11 other owners. This should never be a mechanism that owners would flippantly use.
We also need to establish a deadline for such an appeal process, because we also need to allow for everyone to have enough time to plan for the live draft. Another cornerstone of Ragnarok is that we want everyone to have ample time and opportunity to come into the draft room being the most prepared as possible.
This process is more for handling cases like Jonathan Taylor's than it is for Travis Kelce's practice injury 3 days before the opening Week 1 game. I could be mistaken, but I think the Kelce situation might fall under the Jamaal Lewis Rule (not sure on the official injury requirements for the application of that rule).
For the situation at hand, this applies to the Bruins and Jonathan Taylor. There is a reasonable chance that Taylor may not play the entire season, and that is something that no one wishes upon the Bruins. I don't fault the Bruins for keeping Taylor, but I also want to see a competitive Bruins team. I'm for the court of appeals that has a very high bar for the appeal to win, but it's really up to everyone if we do this.
Banks need deposits, most free agents aren't in the free agent pool, etc.
I'll get these things ironed out and then in order to be fair to everyone on this holiday weekend, we'll just have our first FA session on Wednesday night.
We all have 100PH in our banks, and the winning bid automatically ends up paying +1PH over the second highest bid (or just 1PH if no one else bids on that player).
Since this is essentially for Bijan, who should smash this year and be a lock for a rookie keeper and be a solid candidate for a franchise player, it will take a good offer in order to pry him from my hands. I'm asking for extra picks in the early and mid rounds, and am willing to not include a 1st round pick as part of the package. Which means if you trade for the #1 overall, you'd have that pick plus your existing 1st round pick. But then give up extra picks starting in round #2 and later.
If anyone wants to make me a legitimate offer, let's try to figure it out by end of day on Monday. As of Tuesday, I may be locked down in the war room.
With 31 "people nights" at the house, it comes down to $62/night. Payments can be made using cash, check, silver bullion, $2 bills, or ammo (.22 or 12 gauge 00/slugs). Seriously.
I'm also bringing 2 dozen sausages for the grill and a lot of hummus. And cowboy candy jalapenos. Add that to the pulled pork, coleslaw, homemade NC hot vinegar sauce, homegrown red onions, and 2-3 dozen eggs. After picking up the Minnesota boys at the airport, we'll stop at a grocery store on the way to the draft house and I'll be getting buns for the pork sandwiches and sausages.
For Thursday night, maybe that's the night to set up the pulled pork sandwiches because it won't require any time in the kitchen. In addition to whatever anyone else wants to do, of course.
Boys, just like Santa Clause I'm making my list and checking it twice. I'm going to do all of my shopping this week so that I don't have to leave the house next week (and therefore minimize the chance of me being sick, regardless of whether its Covid or anything else).
With that being said, I'm making a trip to the liquor store... what should I pick up and/or what don't I need to pick up because someone else is bringing it? Is Billy the Bartender making his world famous tropical drinks, and if so then should I pick up something to contribute to the well?
Now that we're a mere 10 days away from watching the Lions beat the Chiefs and speculating as to how fucking stuffed that fucking lockbox is, let's do a quick roll call for everyone's itineraries?
I'll be there four nights. Am aiming to arrive 2 hours after picking up the Minnesota boys at the Greensboro airport (mid-afternoon Thursday).
It may seem early to talk about this stuff, but time is flying. I'm going to smoke about 20lb of Boston Butt and bring some real pulled pork to the draft weekend. Along with some homemade coleslaw. I'm also going to bring at least 3 dozen organic free range eggs from my chickens.
... um, did y'all not get the memo? The auction started yesterday and you two did not nominate anyone. I hope that your "rivalry" isn't seeing how many nomination days can be missed. 😛
We're less than 3 days from the start of the auction
We can't start it, though, until everyone is locked in and paid. The Cook brothers reached out and will be paying on Friday and are solid as a rock, but that still leaves three other owners that need to go to LeagueSafe and pay the dues. I hate to be a stickler, but the last thing we want to have happen is to start the auction and find out that some owners are not committed to the league for 2023. That would be disastrous. Let's lock and load, and then we can start auctioning on Tuesday night after midnight Eastern time. Thanks!
... do we want to allow a team to avoid that commitment by taking that player earlier than the lockbox declaration?
Like, let's say that I put a lockbox selection in for pick 9.1 and then that player craps the bed. Can I simply take that player at 8.12 (which is just one pick earlier) and thus avoid the goose egg in my Week 1 starting lineup? That gives me an unfair advantage because of my draft position and my picks being concurrent.
The more I thought about this, the murkier it became.
Rules Proposal 26.6: The Fucking Lockbox and sniping
Ok boys, there is one more nuanced scenario that we should address and codify in the Rules Book: If a team puts a player in The Fucking Lockbox, are they allowed to snipe their own round selection during the draft?
As we all know, the following is true:
1. If you put a player in the F'n box and specify the certain pick/round, you MUST draft that player when that pick arrives AND you then must have that player in your starting lineup in Week 1 AND you get the fantasy points.
2. If anyone picks that player before your specified pick/round, they get that player like a normal draft selection and they are not able to start that player in Week 1.
So the question remains: Can the one who put the player in The Fucking Lockbox snipe themselves and pick that player earlier?
Here is where it gets murky.... Let's say that player had a monstrous week and scored 3 TDs but they were specified as a Round 8 selection in the lockbox. Can the declaring team pick that player in Round 3, for example, so that they ensure those points will be in their starting lineup and another team won't be starry-eyed and pick them far earlier than their general ADP?
Conversely, let's say that the player in question had a terrible week and laid a goose egg. Can that declaring team pick them in Round 7 so that their lockbox selection doesn't get executed and therefore they can avoid putting that player in the starting lineup?
After thinking and talking about this for a couple of days, my take on it is:
A. Teams cannot snipe themselves. B. Teams must take the fantasy result if their lockbox pick is executed.
I am definitely open to everyone's thoughts and interpretations on these nuanced scenarios. Regardless of our ultimate decision, we definitely want to get this codified in the near future.
Kudos to Eric, of course, for trying to find the exploit! 🤣
Rules Proposal 26.5: The Fucking Lockbox and injuries
We all know that The Fucking Lockbox fucking rules, but with the amazing Thursday opening game on the slate we will be seeing all kinds of action and mayhem. We may need to get a bigger box!
In an effort to codify certain scenarios and nuances into the Rules Book and therefore avoid future controversies, let's start with this one:
"If a player is in the lockbox and then that player suffers an injury in the Thursday game, the team with the lockbox submission must still draft that player at the declared pick. The reasoning behind this is that it is the same scenario as us drafting a different player on Friday, starting that player on Sunday, and then that player suffers an injury in that Sunday game."
If anyone would like to make the case that players injured in Thursday games should have their lockbox selections be voided, now would be the time to do that.
Looking in the current Rules Book, one scenario is not identified and it would be good to add some clarification. With the current Rookie Rule, if a team has a rookie and keeps it on their roster all season and then declares to keep it in a certain round, that now-sophomore player is protected in the 23 previous picks. Any team can come in and snipe that player if they do it 2+ rounds earlier.
There is nothing in the rules that prohibits the owning team from also overpaying and sniping themselves. Nor should there be. A team with the rookie declaration should not lose either its earned privilege nor its basic human team right of being able to draft an eligible player in an eligible location. In my opinion, there really isn't any justification for making this illegal except greedy sour grapes.
If someone declares that they are keeping a rookie in Round 7 and anyone in the league is legally allowed to draft that player in Round 5 or earlier, so should the declaring team have that same right.
I'd like to simply codify this and add this clarification in the Rules Book in order to prevent any future controversies. If someone has a strong objection to this and can justify taking away that team's right to draft that player earlier than their declaration, now would be the time to present your case.
I'm officially proposing that we move our Franchise Declaration date back by one week. I've been thinking about this for a couple of weeks and wish that I had brought it up sooner.
The reason for this proposal is because the NFL has reduced their preseason schedule to essentially just three games instead of four. In the distant past, we would have already gotten a couple of preseason weeks behind us before declaring our players. Now, we'll just have the first preseason game and then have to make our decisions.
Our prime directive for all rules construction is to provide a structure where we can have the most competitive league possible. That's why we have a Franchise Declaration date to begin with, as opposed to declaring it right before the draft. That's why we moved our original date from July to August. That's why we created the Jamaal Lewis Rule. That's why we have a 15 minute clock during the draft (with available clock extensions).
But with the NFL reducing the preseason and so many possible holdouts and injury situations in play, we really should have a clearer view of the real landscape before making these incredibly important and binding decisions.
Even though we are all incredibly excited for the big declaration day, I don't think waiting until August 22nd will have any downside whatsoever and it will really contribute towards us fielding the most competitive teams. It will also significantly reduce the possible application of the dreaded Jamaal Lewis rule, which is something that none of us want to see happen. And we'll all still have over two weeks to prepare for our draft with definitive knowledge.
Please feel free to share your thoughts in the forum. If anyone is against this idea, please offer reasoned counter-arguments that go beyond "just because" or "I want Christmas to come early." Thanks!
Here are some preliminary ideas about how to determine the winner... I'm just tossing this out there as a starting point for discussion and refinement.
5 points: correctly picking franchise player 5 points: correctly picking rookie IN THE EXACT ROUND 2 points: correctly picking rookie but not in the exact round
Thanks a ton for your excellent feedback, Smalls. It seems that there are some weeks when we are punctual and/or fast moving and done pretty quickly, and there are other weeks where we get a late start and/or it ends up taking much, much longer to complete.
I'm not sure on the best remedy, either. One thing we could look at as a group would be to see if there is a better time to schedule it. For example, we could do it on a Tuesday night. Personally, I'm also flexible in terms of the time of evening on either Tuesday or Wednesday.
Regarding autopicking, I think that sometimes Life may deal this hand to people and I wouldn't want capital punishment to be the penalty. It is a good point that W-L records aren't as critical in this league due to most of the prize money going towards weekly high scorers. However, W-L records are key to see which teams make the playoffs and vie for the glory of the Drafthouse Trophy. At the very least, any purely autopicked team should not qualify for the $20 weekly prize.
I do agree that we should have a strict start time. It sucks if you pick first and can't make it on time, but that's just the way the cookie crumbles. It's really not fair to make the other seven owners wait 5, 10, or more minutes just to start the draft. I think everyone would prefer to pick their first pick rather than have the computer do it, so that's a fair price to pay for not being there in the first round.
Thanks to everyone who has already stated their intention of staying in our illustrious league. I think the only unconfirmed owner at this point is Jeffrey?
Unfortunately, Eric has decided to reduce his fantasy football footprint and dedicate himself to focusing on his main league. Rumor has it that David will be taking his place, but that will need to be confirmed.
After further discussion, how about this for the rule (modifications in bold):
"It is hereby proposed that if any team does not have their franchise declarations made on their team page by August 15 at 12:00am (the night of August 14), they shall be penalized as follows:
One BEER COUPON will be given to each other team that properly did submit their franchise declarations on time. This is a limited coupon that can only be redeemed by the owner of the coupon, to have the dink retrieve a drink for the owner of the coupon and no one else. When delivering the drink, a sincere verbal apology must also be given. That drink must be retrieved in good faith and cannot be sabotaged in any manner. These Beer Coupons never expire and can be redeemed at any venue where both owners are present.
In addition, a penalty of 5MB2MB will be deducted from their 100MB deposit that takes place at the start of the regular season. This amount increases by another 5MB2MB for each offense in following years. For example, if Team A doesn't put in their franchise player on time in 2023 they will incur a 2MB penalty. If the same Team A doesn't put in their franchise player on time in 2025, they will incur a 4MB penalty. There will be a four year expiration for calculating penalties (current year included): If Team B misses 2023 and 2025 and 2027, they will only have a 4MB penalty because the 2023 season will have dropped off (2027, 2026, 2025, and 2024 are the only considered seasons).
Everyone can confirm ahead of time that their selections are made on their team homepage. For redundancy, anyone is also welcome to email the commish with their selections ahead of time. If so, please put "TOP SECRET FRANCHISE DECLARATIONS" in the subject line in order to ensure that this email is only opened if needed and would be done once the deadline has passed."
Hope everyone is doing well.... The 2023 NFL season is upon us. Let's do a roll call and see who wants to re-up for the 2023 campaign! We're just a month away from the start of the slow auction, so it's time to get everything dialed in.
Please post in the forum whether or not you are planning on being in 2023 Aurora. Thanks!
"It is hereby proposed that if any team does not have their franchise declarations made on their team page by August 15 at 12:00am (the night of August 14), they shall be penalized as follows:
One BEER COUPON will be given to each other team that properly did submit their franchise declarations on time. This is a limited coupon that can only be redeemed by the owner of the coupon, to have the dink retrieve a drink for the owner of the coupon and no one else. That drink must be retrieved in good faith and cannot be sabotaged in any manner. These Beer Coupons never expire and can be redeemed at any venue where both owners are present.
In addition, a penalty of 5MB will be deducted from their 100MB deposit that takes place at the start of the regular season. This amount increases by another 5MB for each offense in following years. For example, if Team A doesn't put in their franchise player on time in 2023 they will incur a 5MB penalty. If the same Team A doesn't put in their franchise player on time in 2025, they will incur a 10MB penalty. There will be a four year expiration for calculating penalties (current year included): If Team B misses 2023 and 2025 and 2027, they will only have a 10MB penalty because the 2023 season will have dropped off (2027, 2026, 2025, and 2024 are the only considered seasons).
Everyone can confirm ahead of time that their selections are made on their team homepage. For redundancy, anyone is also welcome to email the commish with their selections ahead of time. If so, please put "TOP SECRET FRANCHISE DECLARATIONS" in the subject line in order to ensure that this email is only opened if needed and would be done once the deadline has passed."
I'm guessing this was jokey in nature because we don't want to seriously undermine competitive balance for what is a near misdemeanor offense. That being said, I do think a little more consequence may be appropriate because there are draft weekends where not everyone is present. How can Gustafson be sanctioned for his favorite offense if no one can redeem their Beer Coupons from him on draft weekend?
Therefore, I'm also proposing that there is also a 5MB fine for not putting in your franchise player selections on time. Beer Coupons and 5% of your FAAB budget has enough bite for owners to take it seriously, but won't harm our competitive balance. Bottom line: Put your franchise picks in on time!
Rules Proposal 26.2: Franchise Declaration Day and Beer Coupons
Our big declaration days are racing towards us and will be here before we know it. Football is here!
Every August 15th, it seems that there are teams which have not properly declared their franchise players on time. Last year, there were three (3) teams that fell into this category.
While this may appear to be a trivial thing because said teams do get their franchise declarations in at some point, this undermines the idea that declarations need to be simultaneous and without any prior knowledge of what other teams have chosen for their keepers. Knowing the official landscape has the possibility of offering an unfair advantage to the teams which do not abide by the rules.
In addition, this lack of participation on what is really the biggest Ragnarok day of the summer is baffling. It's anticlimactic for everyone who did participate and it's also a pain in the butt to have to nag people and manually follow up whenever said teams feel like getting around to participating.
It is hereby proposed that if any team does not have their franchise declarations made on their team page by August 15 at 12:00am (the night of August 14), they shall be penalized as follows:
One BEER COUPON will be given to each other team that properly did submit their franchise declarations on time. This is a limited coupon that can only be redeemed by the owner of the coupon, to have the dink retrieve a drink for the owner of the coupon and no one else. That drink must be retrieved in good faith and cannot be sabotaged in any manner.
Note that this is different than the ability of the Ragnarok Champion to request beer runs from the Ragnarok Loser at any time, for any person.
For example, if Gustafson once again fails to post his franchise declarations on time and everyone else abided by the rules, then all other 11 owners will have one Beer Coupon for their own redemption at any time. That means that he would be doing 11 beer runs throughout the weekend.
Hopefully these beer runs of shame will solve the issue of missing franchise declarations when our deadline is reached.
It is hereby proposed that the seeding of the loser playoffs be done in a way that does not incentivize teams to sandbag at the end of the season in order to obtain a bye in the first week of the loser playoffs. Seeding in the loser bracket should be normal and not inverted, so that the best two teams get the bye and the worst four teams all play in the first week.
All have a covered porch and a gas grill, unless noted. I also excluded the two properties (Pinehurst golf/pinball house and Roanoke Rapids Lake: The Waterfront Retreat with the 5' pool) which explicitly defined a maximum of 10 people, but we can always ask if there is a consensus to inquire.
All prices are before tax and are based on 32 "people nights." I did a "+" and a "-" for each:
1. Piney Creek: Beautiful Log Cabin ($1682 = $53/night) + 13 beds, mountain views, private pond with deck, fire pit, great main area for draft, large dinner table, pool table, foosball, ping pong, 1.5 fridges, cornhole boards fit on deck
2. Lake Gaston: Lakefront Home! ($2219 = $70/night) + pool table, foosball, 9 beds, good main draft room, fire pit, croquet - boat deck is not covered
3. Roanoke Rapids Lake: The Lake Place ($1977 = $62/night) + covered boat dock with bar seating, croquet, pool table, foosball, shufflepuck, large dinner table, nice main draft area, cornhole boards fit on deck - 8 beds, not a big house
4. Lake Tillery: Amazing Sunsets ($2104 = $66/night) + pool table, foosball, air hockey, large dinner table, covered boat dock, 10 beds - smallish overall, lots of small rooms that we won't be using much
5. Roanoke Rapids Lake: Lake front ranch ($1456 = $46/night) + 11 beds, foosball, croquet, hammocks, large dinner tables, fire pit, cheapest by far - looks small overall, main area is smallest of the bunch, boat dock is not covered
6. Pinehurst: Lake House Retreat ($2231 = $70/night) + pool table, 10 beds, screened porch has gas fire pit, poker table, croquet, 1.5 fridges - boat dock is not covered, house layout is a little cramped outside of main room
7. Lake Gaston: 5-bedroom home on SWQuad ($2304 = $72/night) + pool table, foosball, covered porch, 10 beds, large dinner table, fire pit, covered boat dock - small main draft room, not an open architecture, no gas grill
8. Lake Tillery: Modern Lakehouse ($2273 = $71/night) + pool table, cornhole boards fit on the deck, spacious design, great main draft room, large dinner table, fire pit, croquet - less privacy, no foosball for Alex, no dock on the lake, covered deck is only in the front of house
9. Lake Tillery: Lake Front home with panoramic views ($1768 = $56/night) + low price, good main draft room, large dinner table, 13 beds, covered porch with gas fire pit, tv in smoking room, covered boat dock - less privacy, not really a big place, no games
Billy's links aren't working in a browser but instead seem to be app-specific links. If they were in the previously posted lists, would you be able to cite them by name instead?
I think we're reaching the point where a decision must be made and some folks still haven't chimed in. If you want a say in the venue, we are now in the Blast Zone and it's time to get involved or accept whatever the vocal owners have decided.
On another note, who is going to make the reservation this year? I'm happy to step up and do so.
The links were working this morning and then not working at lunchtime and are now working again? I see that one location has already been booked, yikes.
I know that some folks are really attracted to the idea of a lake, but that shouldn't be the primary driver because there are other folks who don't really care about having a lake. We've been doing lakes for years and it's ok to think about other options.
Big thanks to Billy for pointing out Lake Tillery and also the Pinehurst area. I went through our text message thread and pulled in the few properties mentioned in March and April, and also added a few more for both of those areas.
I gotta say, some of these Pinehurst properties are fucking amazing. They check all the boxes and one of them even has 5 pinball machines.
When offering comments, PLEASE BE SPECIFIC ABOUT WHICH PROPERTY YOU ARE COMMENTING UPON. Thanks!
I know that all you youngins love to use your smarty phones, but it may be nice to put all of our housing candidates in one thread that is also easier to view on larger viewscreens. I put together a little "Trip Board" on VRBO with some options and I'll try to go through our text message history and post any other options here on this thread.
My core requirements are: * 5+ bedrooms is ideal (but not a deal breaker) * 3000+ square feet (it's really nice to spread out) * a big room that is large enough to hang out and do the draft in * a COVERED outside porch where we can hang out and y'all can chain smoke even if it is raining * max $2500ish total payout
My bonus points go to: * pool table * fire pit * big community table
I think the owner sold it to someone, which would be good considering how long it took for the original owner to pay back the deposit to Stu. If that house is available, let's do it! It was HUGE and had all the amenities we could hope for.
After a middling 2022 fantasy season (I'm looking at you, Russell Wilson), the Interdimensional Bigfoots have decided to interdimensionalize and rename their team in order to usher in a new era of dominance and championships. Starting in 2023, the new team name will be the Efland Anti-Vaxxers. Bifrost, make way for the new divisional champion and the 2023 Ragnarok Champion!
After an initial scoring of everyone's answers, here are the results. Everyone is welcome to audit the results, as this was just a first pass and I'm definitely feeling the effects of a lot of Superbowl beer followed by an irresponsibly late night of miniature golf.
WINNINGS - NAME 2000 Keith 1800 Eric 1550 Alex 1300 Joe 1200 Billy 1200 Dave 1175 Kent 1100 Zach 1050 Sean 1000 Jacqueline 900 Stu 800 Dat 800 Jeremy
... is, "You gotta be careful what you wish for because it just might come true."
As everyone here knows, duh, Bigfoot is not an undiscovered wood ape but is instead a paranormal creature capable of interdimensional travel and cloaking and more. One of the concerning things that can rarely happen is that if you seek it out then you have a chance of being "tagged" and essentially followed home (even hundreds of miles). Because I have a family, that is the *one* reason why I haven't already gone Bigfoot hunting in the Smoky Mountains and/or Uwharrie forest in NC.
Please check your email and vote to approve (assuming it looks correct). Rio's $25 dues had a payment problem and didn't go through, so I am deducting his dues from my prize and he will be sending me the $25. Thanks, all!
I'm amazed at how quickly time has passed and that we are already looking ahead to this summer's auction. Yow!
Payouts will be dispensed today, so everyone please keep an eye out on your emails because they will need to be approved by majority vote. Thanks again, everyone!
I was getting ready to do the LeagueSafe payouts for all of the leagues but first did a quick audit of the stats in the playoffs ("stats are stats are stats") because once the payouts are made everything is finalized. And I discovered a couple of errors but one was a pretty big one in Week 16 that affected the outcome of a game. And I hate to say it, but the Blast actually lost in Week 16 because Miami's defense was credited with 4 turnovers when they only had 1.
At the end of the regular season, the payouts were as follows: $100 Robot Sea Monsters $60 Bigfoot Barleywine $40 Big Katz $40 A-Train $20 Show Me the Money $20 Go To Helen Waite $20 Killing Me Smalls
After the playoffs and the Barleywine/Sea Monsters side bet, the final payouts are: $135 Robot Sea Monsters $60 A-Train $55 Show Me the Money $50 Bigfoot Barleywine $50 Big Katz $25 Go To Helen Waite $25 Killing Me Smalls
We'll let the dust settle and give everyone a couple of days to make sure that these numbers are correct before I allocate the payouts on LeagueSafe.
Thankfully, both the Bills and the Bengals have something to play for this week and their starters will be gung-ho. Not really the shootout we were hoping those players would do in Week 17, but I think there's really no other choice than to take those player's Week 18 stats and insert them into Week 17. Does anyone have an objection to this approach?
Posted - 1/7/2023 10:11:40 AM
It looks like Week 18 is the remedy
Thankfully, both the Bills and the Bengals have something to play for this week and their starters will be gung-ho. Not really the shootout we were hoping those players would do in Week 17, but I think there's really no other choice than to take those player's Week 18 stats and insert them into Week 17. Does anyone have an objection to this approach?
Posted - 1/5/2023 7:17:23 PM
Aurora and the playoffs
In most leagues, missing the Week 17 Bills/Bengals game is turning out to be a complete mess. In Aurora, however, it seems that we'll be avoiding most controversy because most of our Week 17 games are already finalized. The only real game that may be still up in the air is the Aurora Championship between Tiny Pink Bunny and Puma Punku Early Men, but the Bunnies are down by double digits and only have Isiah McKenzie while the Early Men have Joe Mixon and the Bills defense.
For the last games, we can wait and see what the NFL decides to do with that unfinished game. If they do not play the game, I think using the Week 18 stats for Bengals and Bills players will be fine. Not really sure if there is a better option. For now, though, we can still have a holding pattern and see what the NFL does.
Crazy stuff but I think Drafthouse sidestepped the mess
In most leagues, missing the Week 17 Bills/Bengals game is turning out to be a complete mess. In Drafthouse, however, it seems that we'll be avoiding most controversy because two of our Week 17 games are already finalized. In the two games that are still undecided, it's a coin toss in one (down by 9 with Burrow playing) and in the other game the winning team is up by 16 points and has both Josh Allen and Tee Higgins while the losing team only has Joe Mixon who sucks.
And so I think it is pretty simple when it comes to two of the four games. Congrats to SHOW ME THE MONEY on winning the 2023 Drafthouse Championship!
For the last games, we can wait and see what the NFL decides to do with that unfinished game. If they do not play the game, I think using the Week 18 stats for Bengals and Bills players will be fine. For now, though, we can still have a holding pattern and see what the NFL does.
In most leagues, missing the Week 17 Bills/Bengals game is turning out to be a complete mess. In Midgard, however, it seems that we'll be avoiding most controversy because all of our Week 17 games are blowouts. Even Joss Allen cannot overcome a 70 point deficit.
If anyone would like to offer their thoughts or think that we should NOT just call the overall results as they stand now, please feel free to share your assessment and what should be done instead. Only after we are on the same page will we make any final season determinations. Thanks, everyone!
I think that these are the main branches to investigate:
1. The NFL squeezes the game into the schedule sometime between now and the first round of the playoffs. In this scenario, we'd just enter the final stats for Bills and Bengals players and put them in Week 17.
a) We may need to think about allowing a change of starters for Bills and Bengals players if they have nothing to play for and will not be starting in real life.
2. The NFL declares the Bengals get the Win, the game to be a Tie, or does not play the game at all. For the partial stats, do we count, disregard, or replace them? Options include:
a) Game is over and Stu wins, even though Joe had FOUR players in this game.
b) Replace existing Bills and Bengals Week 17 stats with their season average (only counting games they played in).
c) Replace existing Bills and Bengals Week 17 stats with a random week's performance from Week 1 to Week 16 (only counting games they played in).
d) Do a Head to Head live draft for Week 18, where only Joe and Stu enter the draft room and draft an entirely new roster to play in Week 18.
e) Let Joe and Stu determine how they want to decide who gets the 2023 Ragnarok Championship (there can be only one).
Seems that most folks are pretty busy, and to be honest it will be kind of nice to keep things simple over the next couple of days before going back to the regular grind. Sean, we'll have to find another excuse to hand back your Oculus. Plus, I'm really rooting for the Lions this weekend.
Maybe we can do an NFL playoffs get-together and enjoy some savage non-fantasy football instead? Stay tuned!
This BOBOVR M2 Plus Head Strap Twin Battery Combo is the best accessory for the Oculus for a number of reasons. You don't have to wrestle with cloth and velcro straps. This is amazingly practical even if you aren't sharing the headset, and it is especially useful if you have multiple users. The battery pack is magnetically held on the rear, which gives a nice counterweight to the headset which is in the front. Perhaps most importantly, you can simply hot swap battery packs between the headset and the charging station and you'll never worry about running out of power again. And lastly, this system completely bypasses the built in battery, which will result in extending the lifespan of the Oculus. 10 out of 10, a real game changer!
I just noticed that both Justin Fields and Gardner "Uncle Rico" Minshew are not in the default rankings. Apologies for that inconvenience, but I want to be sure that everyone is on a level playing field and knows about this. Thanks for your patience!
Here is the discord server for Mighty Coconut. I was going to text it but this is much easier. Then scroll down to the "# find-a-game" section. Every 30 minutes the Mighty Cocobot will announce a course and a tee time (tee times are at the top and bottom of each hour). In addition, people will routinely announce their own rooms and courses and invite anyone to join them (see example image). The people that use discord to find games are always cheerful and helpful (and really good).
It was so freakin' cool to play a round with both Stu and Zach yesterday. We'll just keep "RAGNAROK" as our standard room name to play together, and I hope to see Dat there sometime as well as Sean. Maybe Santa will make some late deliveries and even more Ragnarok owners will join us!
Player scores are not being totaled. I'll look into it by morning and make sure HAL hasn't gone sentient. In the meantime, us humans will need to use math.
$100 Robot Sea Monsters $60 Bigfoot Barleywine $40 Big Katz $40 A-Train $20 Show Me the Money $20 Go To Helen Waite $20 Killing Me Smalls
We will continue to draft our teams as we move on to a traditional playoff brackets, and EVERY MATCHUP has a cash incentive to win. We have a playoffs payout ladder for all teams except whoever gets 8th place.
I finally had a chance to check out the World Cup finals on YouTube. I think I got halfway through the 5 minute summary video before falling asleep from boredom.
Sorry for the stats issues this past week. I just spent 10 days out of state with my dad in the hospital, only to return home to find that the stats miner had to be completely rebuilt (the stats source changed their format). I've spent about 15 hours working on it this week, despite needing to catch up with real world work at my job as well as family and homestead responsibilities. In the meantime, until that new stats miner comes online, I have to manually enter every single stat. It's been a tough week.
This website is really a labor of love. It was totally built by one person (me) and maintained by one person (me). That being said, this is also why the website is much cooler than the big boys' websites (imho).
Anyways, I just wanted to offer a little insight into what's going on. Thanks for your patience, everyone, and I guarantee that the new stats miner will be in place for this Thursday's game. It's SOOOO close, and it'll be a better, more comprehensive and accurate version as well. We can all look forward to that!
I think that next year we should move that 12pm (eastern time) to 12:45pm.
Or do y'all think that it needs to be a 1:00pm FA instead? The window gets tight because the games are marked as 1pm and so I'd either have to start the roster lockdowns at 1:05pm or just leave it as is and do the free agency at 12:45.
In any case, since you posted it before 1pm on Sunday I was willing to make it so but alas Mr. Sherfield didn't get any stats.
I'm officially proposing that we have a Ragnarok Football Social on the afternoon of Sunday, January 1st. I'm happy to host it but am also open to going to another owner's house (am not really into the bar scenario). This is the Week 17 championship matchup and it's the last Sunday slate for our illustrious league. Should be a ton of fun to get together and watch the fireworks!
Instead of 2-11, he went 3-32. Which means that the final score was Interdimensional Bigfoots 73, Black Surt 73. Tiebreaker goes to the Bigfoots! Unfortunately for the defending champion Bruins and for the Hockaloogies, they are eliminated as a result.
Been a hectic week, as I am out of state helping out with my dad in the hospital. Just got back to his place and I'll be setting things up before our draft start, don't worry! Check back soon!
Ok everyone, it's time to admit that Eric is a very skilled individual. Not only can he offer the most ridiculous physics-defying trade offers, but he is the master of rules creativity and nuance.
Eric is proposing that in the Week 14 Ragnarok Royal Rumble, if the #6 and #7 team tie in their game, then they get an official regular season Tie as well.
I second that motion. Tis better to discover this possibility before the Rumble than after the Rumble. Well done, sir.
Let's go to Vegas! Doing a cursory look, flights are about 300 bucks and there are amazing AirBnB's with swimming pools for about $30/night per person.
It's a 32-team tournament against the best players in the world.
I had to kick the jukebox yesterday
This 
In addition, people will routinely announce their own rooms and courses and invite anyone to join them (see example image). The people that use discord to find games are always cheerful and helpful (and really good).
The Ragnarok Royal Rumble is here!
