No NFBC Cutline Championship In 2014

[Greg Ambrosius]

We apologize for the big buildup and then the letdown, but we have to announce today that we won't be offering the proposed NFBC Cutline Championship in 2014. Sorry all.

However, we are definitely going to offer the NFBC Cutline Championship in 2015 and will take the time to build this game correctly and test it during 2014. We had hopes of completing this for 2014, but if we do this contest as a points-style game it will require new pages for every aspect of the contest. It definitely can be done and we will keep this as a points-style game so that we can have an optimal scoring format in the future, but it's a massive project that shouldn't be rushed through. Plus the unique FAAB setup which allows rosters to expand by 5 spots three different times is a new setup that will require a lot of work.

We want to get this contest right and not have any first year issues, so the plan is to debut this in 2015. We have high hopes for this contest and we believe it will be the type of contest that brings in new users to our game, but we need to test it through and get this right. It's much more complicated than what we added in football.

Sorry about this and sorry about the late news about this. We calculated what still needs to be done for all of our 2014 products and wanted to make sure we could finish everything we have planned for the current season first. We have a whole new online draft room ready to be launched and getting everything done while trying to create this new game would have been tough. Let's do it right in 2015.

Thanks for your help in creating this new game. We'll definitely unveil it early in 2015 and have an aggressive prize pool for its debut. Thanks all.

[DOUGHBOYS]

Sorry that this couldn't be pulled off, Greg. I know you had high hopes.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Sorry that this couldn't be pulled off, Greg. I know you had high hopes.

The one thing I loved about our NFFC Cutline Championship is that it brought hundreds of new players into our high-stakes fantasy football community. In fact, 8 of our 12 finalists in the NFFC Cutline Championship were first time players with us and the winner of the $50,000 grand prize had just one team, turning a $125 entry into $50,000. Many of those Cutline players are now signing up for our NFFC Post-Season contest and hopefully they will expand their participation in NFFC contests in 2014 and beyond.

We kind of have that opportunity here with the NFBC Draft Champions Leagues, but I fully believe that nothing would bring in new users to the NFBC community like a $125 entry 10-team entry-level league. And once we get those folks competing here, we'll see an uptick in our other contests, too. We won't give up on this idea and in fact will perfect it over the next year.

The last thing we want to do is roll this out haphazardly and come out of the blocks stumbling. This is not simply another NFBC Roto contest; it's points-based, optimal-scoring lineup, expanding rosters through FAAB, etc. I agree with the idea of testing it during the season and building it after we get everything else rolled out here. It's disappointing, but the last thing we need is a rushed rollout.

We're going to do this in 2015 and bring in a bunch of new customers with this product. That's what I'm excited about. We'll make it happen.

[Deadheadz]

Does testing it over the upcoming season mean you'll be looking for Beta testers?

[Gekko]

thanks for letting us know. looking forward to it next year!

[Steel Lugnuts]

I brought up this baseball cutline idea last year using total points as no other fantasy baseball league site does it, and although you had mentioned you were already thinking about it, no plans were in the works. I was glad to see you guys looking into this, but obviously a good idea to wait until everything is ironed out.

And like DH mentioned earlier, if you will be doing any beta testing throughout the year, I'd take part if need be.