Front Office Weekday League -- check it out

[QuikSand]

TOP TEN reasons why the F.O.W.L. should become your **second** multiplayer FOF league…

(You will note that I overcome my lack of formal training in the mystical marketing arts by using CAPITAL LETTERS and other typographic emphasis to draw your attention to my most important points… you, kind reader, are all but putty in my hands if you have read even this far)

Reason The Tenth: It’s FAST

Seriously, if you’re not familiar with the FOWL, the bottom line is that it’s designed to be a fast-developing thing. We run each season in less than two weeks of real time. Whole regular season in one sim, the playoffs in the next. If what you like about FOF is building – no place lets you do that as rapidly as this league. That itself is a major selling point.

Reason the Ninth: It’s DIFFERENT

This is sort of a recurring theme, but the owners of the FOWL have been pretty consistent in saying that we’re not looking for this league to just be more of the same. So, you’ll find the setup to be different – including the league rule to exclude highly-rated QB and WR from each rookie draft. This, over time, is going to help the league push more and more toward a genuine breadth of successful offensive styles – not just each team trying to use the best gameplan that they use in every other league. Lots of teams, even successful ones, in the FOWL are starting quarterbacks rated 50 or lower. Does the idea of actually having to build your team philosophy around your key player’s limited skill set appeal to you? This league could be a fit – you get more of that here than anywhere else I know.

Reason The Eighth: It’s ALL YOURS

The team, that is. The league moves fast, you got that part. Think about it, though – in this setup, you can easily add 20 or more new players in a single offseason. You can build the entire team the way you want it in no time… in two seasons, pretty much every player you have will be there because you deliberately want him there. Two seasons, gang… that’s less than a month of real time. That’s only four days TO A DOG!!!

Reason The Seventh: It’s DIFFERENT

More about the different stuff… we don’t do a rookie draft. Instead, we send all the non-scrub rookies right into late free agency, where teams can bid on them in an open market. So, no advantages by tanking a season, and no handouts to the bad teams just for being bad. Ever play fantasy baseball? If so, you know that some leagues do a draft, and some do an auction. If you have ever played with an auction, you know that it’s not necessarily better or worse… but it’s definitely different. There’s a certain attraction to at least having a shot at getting any player you want for your team… and not being subject to the vagaries of who holds what draft pick. Same deal here – if you see a guy who’s a perfect fit for what you want to do, at a need position for your team – you have every chance to get him. No trading up, no haggling over slots, no hoping he will fall – just SHOW HIM THE MONEY.

Reason The Sixth: It’s INTERESTING

So, now that you know that the rookies are all just thrown out for auction…. what else does that mean? It means that cap space has some real value in this league. More than in any other league I have played in, by leaps and bounds. When you have that veteran right tackle who has been playing well but wants a fat extension… it’s not hypothetical whether he’s “worth it” to you. That $10 million a year has a very real consequence to your team – it’s the difference between being able to land a stud rookie next season, or not. If you are not feeling me here, let me try with bigger letters. MAKING INTERESTING DECISIONS THAT MEANINGFULLY AFFECT OUR TEAM IS WHAT WE WANT OUT OF GAMES LIKE THIS. Got me?

Reason The Fifth: It’s FOCUSED

Since we have no injuries, and so far stages in the offseason – it’s absolutely possible to really control your team very actively without immersing yourself in tons and tons of detail. Depth is less important, there’s no need for detailed gameplanning week to week, no need to follow stage after stage of free agency, and no need to keep up with your draft slots. If you have trouble keeping up with the rigors of a MP FOF league, but still like the competition – this could be the best fit out there for you anywhere. All we spend time on in this league is stuff that is essential. FOCUS.

Reason The Fourth: It’s DIFFERENT

We have a major rule governing free agency in FOWL, which is brilliant in its simplicity and effectiveness. All free agent offers must be for at least three years. It’s great – since we are all doing battle over a wide range of players all the time, you really see the gamut of offers, from the minimum salary deal to a roster-filler, all the way up to serious cap-straining battles for impact players. And yes, we do have serious impact players in free agency in this league. In part because the cap really matters, and lots of quality starters and excellent role players are routinely available in unrestricted free agency – enough to constitute a pretty credible starting lineup in any given year, and that’s no exaggeration.

Reason The Third: It’s ALL ON YOU

So, when you can go after any rookie you want, and you control every contract in detail, and you decide who stays and who goes… there’s honestly a liberation from rules that is life-affirming. YOU decide what sort of team you’re going to run. YOU control where to put your focus. YOU can make your priorities. And YOU get to change course over the next few seasons, which only take a couple of weeks anyhow. It’s nearly instant feedback – not from outwitting some too-predictable game AI, not from being the only team who noticed in the third round that one rookie running back ran the dash in 4.28 seconds, not from being the only team who values cohesion or chemistry… but it’s YOU against US.

Reason The Second: It’s EXPERIMENTAL

By experimental, I don’t mean that it’s going to make you grow a third nipple or anything, just that this setting makes for a pretty cool sandbox. If you like to fiddle with gameplanning, for instance, why not use this league as a sandbox for your ideas? We run quickly, we turn off injuries, and we run the whole season at once no nobody gets to gameplan specifically for you – that’s like a license to try something out, and see how it works.

Reason The First: YOU WILL MAKE THE LEAGUE BETTER

Seriously – right now, the FOWL is pretty damned cool, for the reasons I have been shouting and italicizing so far. But we’ve been running for a while with a number of AI-controlled teams. Seriously, the more people join, the more fun it will be for everyone who’s in. Addition by addition, that’s what we bigshots call this principle. You are the missing ingredient. The FOWL needs YOU.



SOLD YET???

To look in more detail at our very short list of rules and more information about the league setup, go here: FOWL HQ Thread

To say Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, YES, Y E S to all of the above… post that you are interested in this thread, and one of the league honchos will reach you shortly to work out an orderly transfer of power of an available franchise. You will like it… and if not, what have you lost, a little of your time for a couple of weeks? Spare me.

In the immortal words of Fat Bastard… GET IN MAH BELLY. Or something like that, you know, the multiplayer text sim equivalent.

[larrymcg421]

This setup sounds awesome and something that could definitely get me back into MP. I'm definitely up for it.

[rjolley]

If I had the time, I'd definitely join. The setup sounds intriguing.

Plus, they need me. How can I resist that?

[RPI-Fan]

I'm interested.

[chinaski]

two big thumbs up for FOWL, really love the setup. It awesome seeing your guys develop quickly, being able to quickly recover from a rebuild, managing your longterm payroll etc, etc..... fun stuff.

[Alan T]

You can completely destroy your team by burying yourself in salary cap hell and you only have to wait 2 weeks to recover!

[Tasan]

Alan, we should try to get some more of our FOOLers into this.

[gstelmack]

Fine, suck me back in. I'll give it a whirl again.

[Tasan]

Who do you want, Greg? You other guys who chimed in, did Quik help you out with a team, or do you still need info for one? I've got the master list and passwords if anyone needs anything.

[QuikSand]

Tasan, I don't have any management authority, I'm just a hired gun lobbyist. You can set everyone up with their franchises and so forth, if you would be so kind.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Fine, suck me back in. I'll give it a whirl again.

[Poli]

Hello, I'm Troy McClure. You may remember me from such movies as "Cry Yuma" and "Here Comes the Coast Guard!"

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Tasan

Who do you want, Greg? You other guys who chimed in, did Quik help you out with a team, or do you still need info for one? I've got the master list and passwords if anyone needs anything.

Is there a list of who is available? My preferences in order are:

New England
Carolina
Tampa Bay
Anybody but the Jets, Dolphins, Eagles, and Cowboys

[Ben E Lou]

Text Sports Network

Check the teams highlighted in yellow.I would consider any team whose last export was earlier than June 15th to be available.

[larrymcg421]

Miami
Tampa
Cleveland

[gstelmack]

Carolina it is then for me!

[RPI-Fan]

Tennessee

[Young Drachma]

Fast-sim is the only way to fly.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

Fast-sim is the only way to fly.

I am very fast coming around to this conclusion. I may never play a slow-sim league again.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

I am very fast coming around to this conclusion. I may never play a slow-sim league again.

I try to fit in one Slow-sim league for each game I play. The problem I run into is by the time a month goes by in those leagues, I've already done two seasons in others.. and I half the time completely forget what my strategy was going to be at that point in slow-sim leagues.

Fast-sim leagues just seem to help me have a better stream of consciousness. I can keep up with who my players are better, what my needs are, what I am trying to do and if I swing for the fences and miss, I just try again the next week.

In a slow-sim league, if you take a gamble on someone and it doesn't work out, might as well just mail the next 4 months of time in because it will be that long before you actually get the ability to undo your mistakes.


I also find the fast-sim leagues to be more challenging and more entertaining as on average the people who play in them tend to be more passionate and more involved, that leads to them paying closer attention to their team and helping raise the level of competition. Some slow-sim leagues (not all), you can almost sleepwalk through and still compete ok.. because everyone is sleepwalking with you!

[Tasan]

The following teams are still open:

Buffalo
Chicago
Cleveland
Dallas
Detroit
Green Bay
Kansas City
Minnesota
New Jersey Jets
Oakland
San Diego
Seattle

Just PM me if you want one!

[Tasan]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

Fast-sim is the only way to fly.

You know you want a team DC! Come on, pick one.

[chinaski]

just wanted to bump it.... were down to only a hand full of open teams. Great time to grab one, FA is coming up in 2 days.

[Subby]

Having a league where tanking is pointless is so great.

[flere-imsaho]

Great recruiting post, QuikSand. Although perhaps not as scatalogically-focused as Subby's recruiting posts, it had other (perhaps greater) merits.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Tasan

You know you want a team DC! Come on, pick one.

I'm neglecting far too many online leagues as it is.

Of course only one of them is a fast-sim league.

[Subby]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

I'm neglecting far too many online leagues as it is.

Of course only one of them is a fast-sim league.

Well I don't think you are in FOFL anymore, so there's some room!

[Ben E Lou]

Season ended today. New seasons starts on Monday. Holla at Tasan if you want to join for the 2030 season.

[QuikSand]

We got a pretty nice influx of league owners with this thread in its first go-round... thought it might be worth a bump. We just ended a season, and the next offseason starts Monday, and gets really rolling by the end of this week.

While the league works (and works well) with 15 or so active owners, every AI team we replace with a new active owner is a great plus for everyone... more competition for the many many free agent players, and more teams to watch out for in the battles for, and through, the postseason.

Drop by, give it a look.

[cubboyroy1826]

Okay i took a look at the open teams thru the site and noticed that one of the teams, the Jets had a -$275 million profit. How the heck is this possible? Are there other teams besides the Broncos, Jets, Vikings and Rams open?

[Kodos]

"We think you'll find the experience quite FOWL!"