Keith is the acting Commissioner and Administrator, and due to having all of the responsibility and work (both in-season and off-season), he is also the holder of benevolent power. All rules are laid forth on paper by the end of June, and any issues that may arise during the season will either be handled by the scepter or be resolved by the In Season Competition and Trade Committee, composed of Keith, Billy, Jeremy, Zach, Eric, Sean, David, Kent, Stu, Joe, Scott, and Dat.

June 30: Pick Your Draft Slot
August 15: Declare your Franchise Player and Pay league dues (normally this would be June, but we are all Awesome)

For both the picking of the draft slot and declaration of any keeper(s), those are handled via website forms and then automatically processed at midnight on those dates. One can still publicly declare their intentions on the board prior to those deadlines, but nothing becomes official or binding until the deadline passes.

Each team is composed of 20 total players. Each team can keep one player from their last year's roster as their Franchise Player (they designate this no later than July 31). All other players are put back into the pool, and we have a Draft Day the day before the regular season begins.

The roster parameters are set ahead of time (see below), and everyone takes turns picking players. At the end of the draft, each team's rosters must conform to the guidelines set forth. After the draft is completed, each owner may change the construction of their team as they see fit (dropping a QB, adding a WR, etc.), as long as they don't have more than 20 active players at kickoff time of that week's games.

The positional ratios defined on Draft Day are only applicable for the original configuration. After the Draft and throughout the entire season owners can have 15 QB's and 5 TE's if they want to! Of course, they still can only start 1 QB, 2 RB's, 3 WR's, 1 TE, 1 K, 1 DF/ST, and 1 Coach.

If a team passes out drunk or has some other worthy reason for not making selections in the last Round or few, they must wait until the following morning's first Free Agency session in order to pay for filling those empty roster slots.

We base the draft order on a combination of last season's final results and also a "Pick Your Draft Slot" system. The final standings from the previous year are based on the playoff results and not the regular season. Using this ordered list, the #1 team gets their pick of whatever draft slot they wish. The #2 team in the order gets their pick of whatever draft slot remains. This continues onward until the #12 team gets the last slot remaining.

What this means is that the current Ragnarok Champion is usually awarded with the first overall pick in the following year's draft. At first, this may seem counter-intuitive, but consider that only 1 player is kept from year to year. Therefore, teams do not have a nucleus of players to build from each year, and the Champion should have some reward going into the next season.

Once the draft begins, the order of the draft reverses in serpentine fashion.

There is a 15 minute clock for each pick. This helps to ensure that everyone is making their best pick possible, which in turn makes the league stronger. The contrast between our league and other mainstream leagues shows in terms of quality drafting as well as the overall fun we all experience.

That being said, each team has three 5 minute extensions they can use at any time during the draft. If your clock runs out, the only penalty you incur is that everyone can relentlessly hassle you until you make your pick (we won't ever do something as stupid as autodrafting). Good luck thinking clearly when that's the case!

Teams are allowed and encouraged to wheel-n-deal with their draft picks on or before draft day, i.e. trading a 2nd round pick for both a 4th and 5th round pick from another team, etc. If a team does trade away more picks than it receives, it can fill out the remaining roster spots after the draft is completed.

Drafting Already Drafted Players
If someone tries to draft a player which is on someone else's team, they become the Beer Wench for the next 12 picks. Anyone can order them to fetch a beer for themselves. If someone else makes the same mistake before the Beer Wench expires, they become the new Beer Wench for the next 12 picks and the first wench is off the hook.

Each week, your team faces one other team (determined by the season schedule posted before the season starts), and every owner submits their starting rosters (the positions defined below) prior to kickoff in that week's first game (usually Sundays, but sometimes Thursdays or Saturdays). The 9 starters each week are always in the same positional ratio: 1 QB, 2 RB's, 1 TE, 3 WR's, 1 K, 1 DF/ST, 1 Coach.

These players earn points for their fantasy team through actual real-life scoring and yardage bonuses. The total points earned by those players is that fantasy team's final score, and the winning team is determined by highest score between the two teams which faced each other.

Teams accrue win-loss records through the first 13 weeks of the regular season, and the top 6 teams face each other in the playoffs, which take place in weeks 14-16 of the NFL regular season.

In the regular season, the first level of tie-breaker will be Head Coach and there are no other tie-breakers. For the playoffs, if there is still a tie after the Head Coaches are considered, the tiebreaker goes to the higher seed.

Defenses are not responsible for scores which happen when they are off of the field. This applies to fumbles and interceptions for touchdowns, as well as safeties. For TD's, we subtract 7 or 8 points from the total Points Held value. For safeties, we subtract 2 points from the Points Held total.

For example, let's say the final score of a game is Patriots 30, Bills 27. In that game, QB Tom Brady throws an interception which is returned for a touchdown by the Bills defense (followed by a PAT kick). In this situation, the Patriots defense would have a Points Held value of 23.

During the regular season (covering the first 13 weeks of the NFL's 17 weeks), each team faces each divisional opponent twice, and every other team in the league once.

One rule shall rule them all: stats.

All fantasy results are subject to audit and correction up until kickoff of the final week of the regular season. It is essential to defer to the official statistics, even if the NFL changes their official stats at a later time.

Once the final regular season game kicks off, all previous games in the regular season are considered locked and cannot be audited. That way, every team knows *exactly* where they are going into the playoff hunt at the last week of the regular season.

The final game of the regular season can be audited and corrected up until midnight of Wednesday of that week.

The winners of each division, determined by the overall records within the division (and not merely the division record), get the first 4 seeds in the Ragnarok playoffs, which take place in weeks 14-16 of the NFL's regular season. This means that Team A with a 5-1 divisional record, 7-6 overall, would not beat Team B that had a 10-3 overall record but who's divisional record was 4-2 (the way it was prior to 2000). Team B would be the divisional champion because they had a better overall record.

Of the 8 teams remaining, the teams with the best 2 overall records reach the playoffs. The worst 6 teams in the league play in their separate tournament which determines their draft position for the following season (see below).

In case of a tie for determining which teams will make the playoffs, the total points scored throughout the season will be used as the first tiebreaker (starters' points for each week, totaled). The second tie-breaker for this situation will be divisional record. The third tie-breaker will be the teams' head-to-head record. The fourth tie-breaker will be a vicious game of Rock-Paper-Scissors, 3 out of 5.

As in the NFL, every team enters the playoffs with a clean slate. In case of a tie in the playoffs, the tiebreaker order is: 1) Coach, 2) Homefield. For the Championship game, which has no homefield advantage, the tiebreaker order is: 1) Coach, 2) DF, 3) Bench Points, 4) Highest Seed.

Loser Playoffs
The six teams that missed the playoffs will face each other in the Loser Playoffs, otherwise known as the Blast Bowl, which will determine their draft position for the following season. Just as the top 6 teams in the league are playing for their draft position, so shall the losers. This will take place over Weeks 14-16. Teams will be seeded according to their overall records (YTD being the tiebreaker), with the best team facing the worst in the first round.

2017 Draft Inversion
The winner of the Loser Playoffs will get the #1 pick in the next year's draft (technically, the right to be the first to pick their drafts slot). We no longer grant the top overall pick to the league champion.

2018 Addendum
The seeding of the Loser Playoffs will have the worst regular season team get the #1 seed and a Bye in the first round of the playoffs. The best team to make the Loser Playoffs will be granted the #6 seed.

Each team has the option of declaring a hometown. While in the past there has been a home-and-away regular season schedule, with the move to a 13 week regular season schedule this is not longer symmetrical and therefore homefield advantage will not exist in the regular season.

For the playoffs, the home team gets 2 bonus points to start the game with, reflecting their home-field advantage. There is no homefield advantage in the Championship game, however.

If any declared Franchise or Rookie player suffers a serious injury in the preseason, that team may choose to change their Franchise or Rookie player designation to any player from their previous season's roster. They may also choose to change their designation from a player to "no player."

Starting with the 2010 Rookie class, any single rookie drafted in the Ragnarok draft becomes eligible for the new 2010 Rookie Rule. The Rookie Rule designation is transferable in the case of trades, but if that player ever gets waived from a team and is placed into the free agent pool then they lose their rookie eligibility.

In the following year after being drafted, a Rookie can be declared in addition to a team's Frachise Player. When declaring a Rookie is being kept, the team also states which Round of the draft that the Rookie will be kept. That team is then obligated to keep the Rookie by using that Round's draft pick, but other teams have an opportunity to come in and steal that Rookie if the designating team doesn't apply fair market value.

The way it works is that whatever keeper designation was applied, that Rookie is then protected from that pick through the previous overall 23 draft picks.

For example, let's say that Bob Dobbs is a Rookie that is declared kept in the 5th Round by the Maulers, who have the #8 slot in the draft order. The Maulers' 5th Round pick is the 56th overall, and they are obligated to draft Bob Dobbs when it gets to this pick in the draft. However, any other team can come in and draft Bob Dobbs as long as it is done prior to Pick #33 overall (#56 minus 23 picks = #33).

And so the successful way to use the Rookie Rule is to determine a player's fair market value (keeping in mind Ragnarok biases, of course), and if properly selected then a second year Rookie can offer a great value in that season's draft. It also effectively opens up the Rookie consideration to all positions including Elite Kickers.

Note that with the new Rookie Rule, there is no 2-year contract like with the original construct. It's a one year determination only, and then if a team wants to keep that player the following year they would have to Franchise them.

2018 Rookie Rule Expansion
Free Agent Rookies are now granted a version of rookie protection with the following caveats:
* Free Agent Rookies must be on a roster before Week 4 Sunday kickoff
* Free Agent Rookies must stay on the roster for the entire season
* Free Agent Rookies cannot have their rookie contracts traded (unlike Drafted Rookies)
* Free Agent Rookies have a protection level of 12 slots (vs 24 slots for Drafted Rookies)

Once the season begins, one extra slot becomes available for each team: Injured Reserve.

In order for a player to qualify for IR, they must be in Doubtful or worst status in the official injury report. NOTE: It is a one-way street, where any player placed on IR cannot be reactivated without cutting them first and trying to reacquire them through Free Agency.

This results in owners having to carefully consider placing a player on IR. If one player is on IR, and another player becomes injured and the owner would prefer to keep him instead, then the second player can take the place of the first, and the first IR player would be a Free Agent.

IR players can also be arbitrarily cut, and placed into Free Agency.

After the first game of the regular season, there will be a free agent list posted every week and all owners can look it over and bid on any player on the list, keeping in mind that the roster size is limited to 20 players and one IR spot.

All bids have to be submitted on the website by 8 p.m. on Wednesdays, and all bids are resolved simultaneously.

Each week, teams will receive 10 Megabucks for each defeat suffered by their team, or 5 Megabucks for a tie. This allow weaker teams to have a slight advantage in order to be competitive in Free Agency bids, where with good general manager skills they can convert that into competitiveness on the field.

Teams cannot start a player and waive a player in the same week. If a team starts a player on a Thursday or Saturday game, those players are stuck on that team for that week's games.

LEGACY RULE: On other important rule to stress is that all team rosters will be locked down one hour before the free agency processing. At 7 p.m. every Wednesday, trading will be prohibited until the 8 p.m. free agency is resolved. UPDATED 10/27/2013: This is no longer the case. Welcome to the Wild West.

At the beginning of the season, each owner will have 100 Megabucks. When an owner sees a free agent which they wish to acquire, they will submit a secret bid for that player, complete with how many Megabucks they are willing to spend in order to get that player. The highest bidder gets the player and pays the exact value of their bid.

In case of a tie, the order of tiebreakers:
1) Worse W-L-T record wins the bid
2) Lower YTD points holder wins the bid
3) Team that submitted their bid first will get the player.

Megabucks can be traded amongst teams.

Owners can bid on as many players as they would like, but keep in mind the following important considerations:

The total number of Megabucks that can be bid cannot exceed the total amount of Megabucks held. One cannot bid "20 Megabucks on Alfred Pupunu, only if my $40M on Mathew Hatchette is unsuccessful."
For every player that is bid upon, a player has to be designated as being the one that is being cut (this can be done either a 1-to-1 correspondence, or by using an ordered cut list).

All trades are pretty much legal but are subject to a Fairness Committee vote if one is called for. Teams are not allowed to "loan" or "trade for a day" players to other teams. Trading can begin August 1 (even though at that time teams only have 1 player, their Franchise Player.

Teams are also be able to include Megabucks as part of a trade.

No future season's draft picks can be traded.

With a tip of the hat to Bill Simmons

The duties of an owner are simple: Don't bring your girlfriend/wife/boyfriend/husband to the draft; don't draft someone that was already drafted; don't draft an injured guy (leading your buddies to be thrust into an awkward position of either screwing you or giving you a do-over); try to field a competitive team; create an offensive team name; start a lineup of healthy players every week; return e-mails or phone calls within 24 hours unless you're trapped under something; and, when all else fails, at least come up with an occasional funny e-mail or message-board post.

But what about owners who bring nothing to the table and do a terrible job with their team? For whatever reason, it's less awkward for guys to dump a girlfriend than to discard a deadbeat fantasy owner. There's always some crazy reason to keep him around, like "It would be awkward for the commissioner to run into him at work" or "Let's cut him some slack, he's going through a divorce." Ridiculous. We already have to deal with too much dead weight in real life, we don't need it in our fantasy lives.

SOLUTION: The "three strikes and you're out" rule.

Here's how it works: During the draft, if you don't make any jokes and sit there looking like Mike Holmgren watching the Super Bowl XL video, that's a strike. If you repeatedly tell other owners they are taking too long to make picks, that's a strike. If more than twice you draft someone who was already drafted, because you aren't paying attention, that's a strike. If you draft an injured guy (leading to the aforementioned "should we or shouldn't we give him a do-over" intervention), that's a strike. If you spend the entire draft whispering on your cell phone to some unseen partner and ignoring everyone in the room, that's a strike. If you're too cheap to buy your own magazines and ask to borrow someone else's, that's a strike. If you forgot to bring money to the draft, that's a strike.

But wait, there's more. After the draft, if you don't return an e-mail or a phone call within 72 hours and can't come up with a valid excuse, that's a strike. If you go more than a month without sending a group e-mail or making a message-board post that belittles the credentials of someone else in the league, that's a strike. If you belatedly respond to someone's e-mail or phone call with a snarky comment like "Sorry I took so long to respond -- some of us actually have jobs" or "Just in case you forgot, there are more important things in life than fantasy football," that's a strike. If you started someone who's out for the season, or if you didn't use the waiver wire to try to replace that person, that's a strike. If you make a horrendously shady trade, even, if it gets overturned, that's still a strike. Three strikes and you're out. Simple as that.

$75 is due each year and handled via LeagueSafe. Prizes will be immediately paid based on the following final results:

1st place: $325
2nd place: $175
3rd place: $125
4th place: $110
5th place: $90
6th place: $75
12th place: Beer Wench for the entirety of the following season's Draft Weekend. Must deliver a drink (to whoever) whenever the Champion orders him to. Is not allowed to alter or sabotage any drinks.

1st place: $325
2nd place: $175
3rd place: $125
4th place: $110
5th place: $90
6th place: $75

Every season, all teams will be ranked according to their performances over the previous two seasons. The teams in each of the four divisions will be determined by their overall rank over those two years:

Asgard: 1, 2, 3
Bifrost: 4, 5, 6
Midgard: 7, 8, 9
Hel: 10, 11, 12

The rankings will be determined by using a formula:

Final Score = (Total Regular Season YTD Points for two seasons) + (Number of Wins * 40) + (Number of Ties * 20)