OLC Leader - Naturalbornkiller

[Gekko]

Someone posted in another thread that an owner leading the $100,000 online championship has made some unbelievable acquisitions via FAAB. Here are his faab pickups so far (with runner up bids listed)...

player winning bid runnerup bid
Yu Darvish (SP) 160 1
Carlos Carrasco (SP) 90 27
Jonathan Lucroy (C) 70
Carlos Martinez (SP) 51 42
Chris Archer (SP) 50 7
Danny Valencia (3B) 40 12
Danny Duffy (MR) 31
Adam Duvall (LF) 30 6
Aledmys Diaz (SS) 30
Sam Dyson (MR) 30 12
Ryan Madson (MR) 30 20
Jonathan Villar (SS) 30 22
Joey Votto (1B) 25 11
Drew Pomeranz (SP) 20
Yu Darvish (SP) 20
Brian Dozier (2B) 20 11
Maikel Franco (3B) 20 11
Nick Hundley (C) 20
Marco Estrada (SP) 20 3
Kole Calhoun (RF) 18 7
Steven Wright (SP) 16
Alex Colome (MR) 15
Jimmy Nelson (SP) 15
Julio Teheran (SP) 15
Dustin Pedroia (2B) 10
Christian Vazquez (C) 8
Dellin Betances (MR) 6
Will Harris (MR) 6 3
Yan Gomes (C) 6
Brandon Drury (LF) 6 1
Marcus Stroman (SP) 4
Jerad Eickhoff (SP) 4
Cameron Rupp (C) 4
Jose Ramirez (LF) 3
Chris Herrmann (C) 3
Scott Kazmir (SP) 2
Jerad Eickhoff (SP) 2 1
Chase Anderson (SP) 2
Adam Conley (SP) 2
Jeremy Hazelbaker (CF) 2
Willson Contreras (C) 1
Lucas Giolito (SP) 1
Tyson Ross (SP) 1
Carlos Ruiz (C) 1

[Gekko]

The owner was able to pick up premium players for very little money. Maybe the most shocking of all was Lucroy for $70 without a runner up bid!!!! Let's take a look at how improbable his FAAB acquisitions actually were...

[Gekko]

According to the online championship data I have (please double check me), the following players were only available via FAAB in a SINGLE league throughout the course of this season...

Yu Darvish (SP)
Carlos Carrasco (SP)
Jonathan Lucroy (C)
Carlos Martinez (SP)
Joey Votto (1B)
Maikel Franco (3B)
Dustin Pedroia (2B)

Again, the players above were only available in a SINGLE OLC league. Wow! To further complicate matters, a SINGLE owner, Naturalbornkiller, was the successful bidder on every one of the above players. I'm thinking the odds of this happening are worse than winning the Powerball. Assuming my data is correct and coupling that with 4 people in that SINGLE league having the same last name and a couple other owners having a different same name, and I'm not sure how this could be explained away.

[Gekko]

Naturalbornkiller was also able to pick up Brian Dozier (2B). Dozier was only available in 2 OLC leagues this year.

Naturalbornkiller spent a mere $20 to acquire Dozier. Runner up bid was $11

The other owner in a different league spent $539 to acquire Dozier. Runnerup bid was $77

[Gekko]

Naturalbornkiller was also able to pick up Chris Archer (SP). Archer was only available in 2 OLC leagues this year.

Naturalbornkiller was also able to pick up Kole Calhoun (OF). Calhoun was only available in 3 OLC leagues this year.

[COZ]

I'm officially declaring collusion & demanding an inquiry. How did this escape KOQ's notice???

[Money]

Nice job putting this together. I think the impact would be greater if listed chronologically. Contreras for a buck two weeks ago when he was owned in every other league doesn't get its due stuck at the bottom of this list. That's the one that put me over the top. I'm glad everyone did a lot more research than I and ultimately exposed this FRAUD!

[Oaktown]

Solid work Gekko, it looked fishy and impossible on the FAAB Results page I looked at for a while today, but laid out like that with notes on players not available anywhere else even makes it more clear.

[Teufel Hunden]

Couple things I found odd about this league that have not been addressed:

1) There are two owners in the league that played more than one league this year:
A) Steve Shields, 3 leagues, has struggled in all.
B) Bryan Probst, 2 leagues, is doing well in this league and is #4 overall in other league.

Looking at the FAAB results for year it looks like Bryan spent most of his FAAB in first 5 weeks on high quality FA that were dropped.

2) Last year Bryan Probst played in 2 leagues as well, #9 and #234 overall. The league that Bryan Probst is #4 in this year contains three of the same owners that were in his #234 league last year. Those three owners played in 1-1-3 leagues total last year. This year they each played 1 league.

[Gekko]

When a group of owners can basically buy a large % of seats in a given league, unintended consequences are to be expected. Maybe something like this has happened in the past, but was never brought to light because it wasn't as successful

[Gekko]

No way around it, this will be a difficult decision for the NFBC considering what's at stake. I fully expect them to conduct their due diligence in investigating this situation and punishing (if warranted). Above all, the integrity of the contest need to be maintained. If the perception is that owners in a single league can collude to take down an overall contest, why would people sign up for that contest in subsequent years? Tough spot for NFBC

[Driver Love]

votto was picked up via FAAB in this league? How is that possible?

[Gekko]

votto was picked up via FAAB in this league? How is that possible?

For $25!!!!!!!!!!

[Gekko]

Couple things I found odd about this league that have not been addressed:

1) There are two owners in the league that played more than one league this year:
A) Steve Shields, 3 leagues, has struggled in all.
B) Bryan Probst, 2 leagues, is doing well in this league and is #4 overall in other league.

Looking at the FAAB results for year it looks like Bryan spent most of his FAAB in first 5 weeks on high quality FA that were dropped.

2) Last year Bryan Probst played in 2 leagues as well, #9 and #234 overall. The league that Bryan Probst is #4 in this year contains three of the same owners that were in his #234 league last year. Those three owners played in 1-1-3 leagues total last year. This year they each played 1 league.

What is Probst's team name and league number where he is currently #4 overall?

[Teufel Hunden]

Cool Guys II
League 4085

[Greg Ambrosius]

No way around it, this will be a difficult decision for the NFBC considering what's at stake. I fully expect them to conduct their due diligence in investigating this situation and punishing (if warranted). Above all, the integrity of the contest need to be maintained. If the perception is that owners in a single league can collude to take down an overall contest, why would people sign up for that contest in subsequent years? Tough spot for NFBC

Nothing is more important to a high-stakes contest than integrity. Folks have to trust that all of our contests are legit and that everyone is playing by the same rules. Any hint of collusion has to be taken seriously and looked into.

We are looking into this league right now and trying to figure out what happened here.

As you know, we are as transparent as possible in the NFBC, right from the signups to the weekly moves. We list every signup and I believe this league was updated on the signup page. It was March 28th when we were running live drafts, but it's not hard for folks who know each other to sign up for a similar Online Championship League and compete. We automate each league with the first 12 signups and trust all owners to compete to the finish.

Thanks to Joe for bringing this league to our attention. The cuts that were made through the season in this league weren't ones that drew our attention to pull players out of the pool. But looking at them in total they now add up to an unfair advantage and we are seeing who made the cuts and why. I'm in the process of calling the owners and matching up the names with the moves. I need to line up the facts before saying any more.

We did reverse this week's Duvall pickup for the league leader and the Villar pickup for the runner-up. Those were moves we could reverse at this point. We will look at the other moves and make the right call. Again, I am just starting to talk with everyone involved and getting all the facts that we need.

This isn't a tough call for the NFBC at all. NOTHING is more important than the integrity of our leagues and we won't compromise for anyone. I'm not saying anything was done here, but it's not hard to see that this league is different than the other 124 Online Championship leagues competing for the top prizes. Thanks for your help in bringing this to our attention and we'll have an update once the facts are known. Thanks.

[Driver Love]

No way around it, this will be a difficult decision for the NFBC considering what's at stake. I fully expect them to conduct their due diligence in investigating this situation and punishing (if warranted). Above all, the integrity of the contest need to be maintained. If the perception is that owners in a single league can collude to take down an overall contest, why would people sign up for that contest in subsequent years? Tough spot for NFBC

Nothing is more important to a high-stakes contest than integrity. Folks have to trust that all of our contests are legit and that everyone is playing by the same rules. Any hint of collusion has to be taken seriously and looked into.

We are looking into this league right now and trying to figure out what happened here.

As you know, we are as transparent as possible in the NFBC, right from the signups to the weekly moves. We list every signup and I believe this league was updated on the signup page. It was March 28th when we were running live drafts, but it's not hard for folks who know each other to sign up for a similar Online Championship League and compete. We automate each league with the first 12 signups and trust all owners to compete to the finish.

Thanks to Joe for bringing this league to our attention. The cuts that were made through the season in this league weren't ones that drew our attention to pull players out of the pool. But looking at them in total they now add up to an unfair advantage and we are seeing who made the cuts and why. I'm in the process of calling the owners and matching up the names with the moves. I need to line up the facts before saying any more.

We did reverse this week's Duvall pickup for the league leader and the Villar pickup for the runner-up. Those were moves we could reverse at this point. We will look at the other moves and make the right call. Again, I am just starting to talk with everyone involved and getting all the facts that we need.

This isn't a tough call for the NFBC at all. NOTHING is more important than the integrity of our leagues and we won't compromise for anyone. I'm not saying anything was done here, but it's not hard to see that this league is different than the other 124 Online Championship leagues competing for the top prizes. Thanks for your help in bringing this to our attention and we'll have an update once the facts are known. Thanks.

This is one of the 7 reasons I play the NFBC & NFFC. In my opinion, a great response/update.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Please let us continue to look into this. This is a league that had four brothers in it and one of them is in first place in the league and one is in second place. FAAB has helped the first place team considerably, while the second place team still has $572 left. In fact, five teams have between $572 and $896 in FAAB left in this league. Others have $9, $17, $38 and the first place team has $60 left. But this is not an active FAAB bidding league.

The top team has received only ONE player from any cuts from his brothers: Maikel Franco in late June. None of the other brothers have been helped by any of their other cuts. The questionable cuts have come from five different owners in this league who are from different parts of the country. I am trying to get to the bottom of all these cuts and to talk with all of these owners. But the pickups didn't come from a direct family member, that I can see. Chris claims he doesn't know anyone else in this league and I'll call to confirm that.

Please let us stay on the facts. We don't pull out every player that gets cut in 12-team leagues and individually we wouldn't with most of these players in this league. But on the whole, so many of these cuts in one league makes no sense, especially when you then have a majority of non-active bidders. Again, let us keep investigating and get all the facts. Thanks.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Couple things I found odd about this league that have not been addressed:

1) There are two owners in the league that played more than one league this year:
A) Steve Shields, 3 leagues, has struggled in all.
B) Bryan Probst, 2 leagues, is doing well in this league and is #4 overall in other league.

Looking at the FAAB results for year it looks like Bryan spent most of his FAAB in first 5 weeks on high quality FA that were dropped.

2) Last year Bryan Probst played in 2 leagues as well, #9 and #234 overall. The league that Bryan Probst is #4 in this year contains three of the same owners that were in his #234 league last year. Those three owners played in 1-1-3 leagues total last year. This year they each played 1 league.

Steve and Bryan have not made any questionable cuts in this league.

[Yah Mule]

Greg is is possible to check the IP addresses and see if some of these teams releasing quality players are actually being controlled by one or two computers from North Dakota?

If you could show that one individual accessed multiple accounts and altered rosters in the same league, you have a smoking gun.

[KJ Duke]

With 4 brothers in the same league, the lack of bidding on certain players makes collusion very easy to do and even harder to detect. That said, no competing bids for so many top players is evidence enough to suggest it.

For any overall contests, I'd like to see a specific rule addendum for next season that states family members and in-laws cannot compete against each other in the same league.

If people want to compete against their brothers/wives/etc, let them do it in standalone contests (or elsewhere).

[Money]

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[Greg Ambrosius]

Greg is is possible to check the IP addresses and see if some of these teams releasing quality players are actually being controlled by one or two computers from North Dakota?

If you could show that one individual accessed multiple accounts and altered rosters in the same league, you have a smoking gun.

That definitely would be a smoking gun. I will check.

[Greg Ambrosius]

With 4 brothers in the same league, the lack of bidding on certain players makes collusion very easy to do and even harder to detect. That said, no competing bids for so many top players is evidence enough to suggest it.

For any overall contests, I'd like to see a specific rule addendum for next season that states family members and in-laws cannot compete against each other in the same league.

If people want to compete against their brothers/wives/etc, let them do it in standalone contests (or elsewhere).

Agreed. The lack of bidding by others is as big a part of this as the cuts.

We will look into something like this. It's not as easy as it sounds, but obviously we'll have to add another layer of security even with leagues automating when we get 12 signups. This has forced us to look at an additional rule change.

[Greg Ambrosius]

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Don't worry Joe. I'm not discounting anything here. I'm trying my best to contact everyone.