The premiere event of the NFBC is the Main Event and the premiere time to draft in the Main Event is in Las Vegas on Saturday, March 22nd at 11 am PT. We have room for eight leagues that day in an assortment of ballrooms at the Park MGM and we'll introduce all of our past Hall of Famers and 2024 national champions on our Stage of Champions. Heck, we'll even induct new NFBC Hall of Famer and reigning Main Event champion Clark Olson that day on the Stage of Champions.
So it's a GREAT day with a lot of great players. Not only will we have 120 teams present to draft that day, but we'll have almost 200 people together for those drafts and it's just a special, special day. And with so many Online Main Event drafts before and after that day, and with the East Coast now limited to one Main Event draft at a time, this could be the only day where we have multiple drafts at once. We've filled multiple Thursday Main Event leagues each of the last three years, but I'm not sure we get two there this year.
So this date with eight drafts at once deserves special attention and we're planning on doing that this year. The plans are still in motion, but I think it's going to work out.
What some people have requested for this day is a live broadcast of the league selections. As you all know, right now we put all names into a randomizer within our computer and it spits out League 1 1-15 names, League 2 16-30 names, League 3 31-45 names, etc, etc. Nothing fancy about it. A randomizer that doesn't know Joe Smith from Joe Blow and then we form that league and KDS runs on our site later that day.
Those leagues are announced on Monday, March 17th at 11 am PT, along with the draft spots. Actually we form the leagues a little earlier and then the KDS runs at that time. But this year we're going to try to bring some excitement to these league announcements.
I will be in New Jersey that weekend and likely hung over on Sunday morning, March 16th after the MTM party!!!
The plan right now is to go to the MTM castle with at least 90 poker chips and to broadcast the league selection show for those Main Event leagues. Marc Winokur has volunteered to help me purchase these poker chips with individual names on each chip and we'll select them one by one and display League 1 first, League 2, League 3, etc. We will pick out one chip at a time, let MTM comment on the player chosen and continue until each league is full. With any luck, we'll have someone providing the graphics and posting the names on the screen for everyone to see. As I said, Mike The Mouth will provide the commentary and the history lessons for each league!!! We're going to try to have some fun with this and livestream this on our High Stakes Fantasy Network YouTube channel. We still need to get the chips, we still need to work on the graphics, the livestream still needs to work, but that's the plan.
Now here's where the plan kind of breaks down. Not everyone will be signed up and committed to Las Vegas in time to be placed in these full leagues. We need the exact number of chips for each league to make it work. Right now we have 87 teams signed up for the Saturday Las Vegas Main Event and 90 teams would make 6 full leagues. We need a cutoff of around Feb. 15th or so to get the poker chips made and shipped to New Jersey. So if we have 90 or 105 signups by then, we'll randomly create those 6 or 7 leagues. Anyone who signs up after that will be randomly placed in the last two (or 1) league(s). Make sense?
I'll bring the chips to Las Vegas with me and everyone can keep them as a remembrance. It will be the most transparent way to pick these special Main Event leagues and if you're not in early you take your chances that we don't fill the last league or two. Last year we did need three online teams to fill out eight leagues, so sign up early or sign up late depending on your preference. But I think it will be a ton of fun to be part of these livestream leagues.
We have a lot of work to do to make this happen, but I thought I'd throw this out there for everyone who is planning to make it to Las Vegas. The Saturday Main Events are extremely special and I know we'll fill all eight leagues, but to do it this way we need a little lead-up time to get our props created. The poker chips won't lie and I think they will add a nice touch to the livestream.
At this point, my plan is to just have this be the league creation. The order you are picked won't have anything to do with your draft spot. We will be picking the leagues a day before KDS is due and if we don't let the computer run KDS you won't have the data of your KDS preference and other info on that page. Plus, the only other way to do it would to go on everyone's KDS page be by hand or by having everyone live on the livestream, and we know that's not possible. We will continue to kick this part around and we'll take suggestions, but that's the plan for now.
Again, provide feedback if you'd like and who knows, maybe this all just blows up!! But that's the plan for now and we'd probably livestream this mid-day on Sunday, March 16th. Could be fun. Will be transparent. Could even be entertaining. It's a starting point to build on and keep everyone (well, forget that)...most people happy. What do you think?
