The Mid-Season Drafts Are Up and Running

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 11:04 am

Good luck everyone and have fun.

Walla Walla · Post by **Walla Walla** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 2:22 pm

Tom, I wouldn't call it up and running. How about crash and burn? For 250 more we got a hell of alot more in the live draft in Las Vegas. This Sucked! If this is the best you can do get the hell out of the internet draft game!

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 2:34 pm

John (and everyone else who has called), I've been monitoring the drafts so I'm aware of the problems. The drafts seemed to start off and get going without a hitch but then a number of problems began to arise. I did not instruct STATS to shut down any of the drafts because I did not want to make that decision until we had a chance to see what exactly was going on and what the problems were. But Greg and I will talk with STATS first thing tomorrow morning to see what happened.

Gordon Gekko · Post by **Gordon Gekko** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 3:13 pm

oh-o. first the wcof sat leagues have problems, now the nffc mid-season leagues have problems. begs the question of whether these sites were fully tested prior to giving the go-ahead. not exactly a vote of confidence.

i hope the problems don't carry through to the auction site. i intend on spending about 4 hours on wednesday and taking the day off on thursday to get my #'s in order and testing out the website. please tell me my time won't be spent in vain.

[ July 11, 2005, 09:14 PM: Message edited by: Gordon Gekko ]

sandckaye · Post by **sandckaye** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 3:20 pm

Gregg

You know I am very easy to get along with but I am very upset I hope you will see fit to redraft or I would like to get my money back. If neither happens then I will drop out of the other 3 leagues and just take my lumps in this one. I have confidence you will do the right thing

Stan

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 3:20 pm

Gordon, we're going to talk with STATS first thing in the morning to figure out what happened tonight. We'll keep everyone updated as we know more.

Bags · Post by **Bags** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 3:24 pm

What a shock, STATS screwed something up during the first run through of something!?!?!

They are by far the worst thing (only thing, actually) that is negative about the NFBC.

LB Big Richards · Post by **LB Big Richards** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 3:26 pm

Curious to know what specific problems occurred with the drafts?

hughes · Post by **hughes** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 3:39 pm

Sucks re some struggling with it, I had on two computers just in case, but obviously redrafts not possible option.

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 3:44 pm

One of the things we need to find out is how many people were having problems. I was monitoring the drafts and it appeared there were more problems in the first $1,000 league than in the other two. The third one is still going on and I haven't seen any comments about any problems in quite some time so the users in that league don't seem to be running into as many issues or at least they don't appear to be as prevalent.

Sack · Post by **Sack** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 5:16 pm

I took part in the $100 MS draft and the site was not acceptable. I spent alot of the day preparing and all I got was aggravated. The pages took 1 minute each time I tried to move page to page. When the "computer" used my second round pick for Morgan Ensberg I'd already had enough. I battled till about the 9th round and actually got 4 guys I wanted. I feel bad for anybody that put up $1000. YAHOO draft software worked better than this garbage. Sorry guys, had to vent.

Sack · Post by **Sack** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 5:24 pm

I found that UNLESS you had the exact player you wanted in the Q two spots PRIOR to your turn chances were that I woundn't have a say in the player I really wanted. It took that long to go page to page. Trying to be specific to help those drafting in future days. I'd never take part in another one of these drafts.

newkidintown · Post by **newkidintown** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 5:37 pm

I agree completely with sack. It was embarassing. It was as if we had a 20 second time limit to make our selection. I had about 4 of my first 15 players auto selected for me until I was able to at least get it kind of worked out. I could have given my hundred to the red cross if I had known how it was going to be. At least it would have been deductible.

Balticsquids · Post by **Balticsquids** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 6:05 pm

The NFBC took on more then they can chew. If all you guys didnt kiss there butts every 5 seconds they would have stuck to running a great league , but u filled there heads with so much praise that out came this stupid idea and another way to make easy money,other then to repair what is broken in there real leagues.........SHAM on any of you owners or suckers that spent 1,000 to draft a midseason online team

Dyv · Post by **Dyv** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 6:53 pm

Originally posted by Balticsquids:

The NFBC took on more then they can chew. If all you guys didnt kiss there butts every 5 seconds they would have stuck to running a great league , but u filled there heads with so much praise that out came this stupid idea and another way to make easy money,other then to repair what is broken in there real leagues.........SHAM on any of you owners or suckers that spent 1,000 to draft a midseason online team What if I spent $1,000 and liked my team? Oh, I had a few issues as well - got Chris Shelton at one point when I clicked on Preston Wilson 3 times... but all in all I like my team. DO you still feel sorry for me or do you only feel sorry for me assuming I'm not happy? Just clarifying - I really don't want your sorrow nor your assumption that everyone had a miserable experience.

I'm not kissing anyone's ass - I'm just telling the truth.

I will emphasize that the draft engine was subpar - I had to reboot my computer 7 times during the draft. The first 2 were unprepared but I eventually started rebooting every 4th pick or so in order to make sure I didn't get my draft system fouled up. If I had the same problems several others did I would be incredibly upset and from the roughly 30 f-bombs I heard in the draft chat I'm convinced Greg and Tom are going to hear more about it

Dyv

JohnZ · Post by **JohnZ** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 6:57 pm

Originally posted by Tom Kessenich:

One of the things we need to find out is how many people were having problems. I was monitoring the drafts and it appeared there were more problems in the first $1,000 league than in the other two. The third one is still going on and I haven't seen any comments about any problems in quite some time so the users in that league don't seem to be running into as many issues or at least they don't appear to be as prevalent. There were five, maybe six that reported problems in my league. Wonder how many others didn't speak up in the chat room.

Since 1984, I've been in about 1000 drafts as a player and commish. That was without a doubt, by far, the worst draft ever.

Never again will I do that. Couldn't pay me $1000 to do that again.

I prepared big time for this. It looked like a great league, with great owners.

In about Rd 18, I clicked on Capuano's name FIVE times. Nothing happend. After five tries, I figured he was gone and the software had yet another bug. But no, someone else took him 3 picks later.

I couldn't tell if he was gone, because the damn software froze about 30 times on me after Rd 9. I had nothing else open,had rebooted twice, and everytime I came back, freeze city. I know the problems of online drafts because I've seen so many, but this one wins the prize. Nothing I tried that's worked before in other online drafts worked here.

The software prevented me from taking the player I wanted in Rd 3,4,5, 9,10, 11. In other rounds, I had to adjust for all these bogus picks.

All that prep down the drain.

I had the first 5-7 rounds predrafted, but after that my experience has told me not to waste that time because by round 8, you start adjusting for THAT draft. My list at that time was being filled with guys I wanted round 15 or later so I would not forget them. Instead, I get froze out 30 times and get Shields, Timlin, and Hillenbrand five rounds before I want them. Gotta love filling the DH spot with Hillenbrand in round 10.

I should have done what Crane did, and just left and watched the HR Derby.

And the problems hit different owners at different parts of the draft.

Here are some chat room posts in reverse order:

Team Cushard I can't see the logos at the top so I have no clue if it skipped someone or not - it didn't skip him?

Team Keikoan my pick was passed

Team Cushard I CAN NOT SEE ANYTHING AFTER 4 RELOADS

Team Cushard ADMIN: ARE YOU PRESENT? I NEED A FULL REBOOT

Zefurs too much activity on the pull-down menus overloads it every time

(several of us could not use the P pull down menu w/o it disappearing)

Team Cushard Johan Santana just appeared in my draft Queue. I tried to take him

SMELLY SOX David Ortiz was in mine until rd 9

Team Kanfer i have been on and off the entire draft - total joke

Zefurs I am now crashing intermittently now

Team Cushard If you gave him half the winnings that's like $12.50 for each F bomb he dropped

(After patiently trying for 30 minutes to fix my problems, I started dropping a few bombs. For $1K, I should have dropped a few more)

I called Tom K twice like it said on the board to do, but no call back. Stats guy did call back after I had to use html chat client to leave phone number. He was nice and helpful.

Zefurs this is the hardest to track interface Ive used online

Semolina Pilchard maybe we should get refund or do it again eight years from next thursday

Semolina Pilchard my 22nd & 23rd pick were not selected by me. the screen froze and i was given Rudy Seanez and Brandon Lyon. Is this stuff happening to everyone else?

SMELLY SOX first one ive clicked on and worked in some time

Walla Walla Was watching the homerun derby the last half hour. So refreashing.

Team Kanfer on 54 MBPS wireless connection - totally the software's fault

Semolina Pilchard what is happening.....I am trying to make a pick and it won't register.

eam Cushard I'm getting a long delay when I click 'pick' and then it takes my player - something I didn't have in the first 11 rounds

KJ Duke · Post by **KJ Duke** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 8:45 pm

Well, UFS clearly had the worst of it ... I had several players que'd up at all times, so the issues didnt affect my draft at all, howerver, I would encourage anyone drafting to have at least 4-5 players que'd at all times.

As UFS quoted from my in-draft comments - it was a poorly thought out draft interface, and it clearly had technical problems which I assume was based on individual browser or java releases. Hopefully it gets fixed or replaced with a more proven platform that works regardless of user software.

rmurph3 · Post by **rmurph3** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 11:04 pm

Even though I was spared from the technical difficulties with the java applet, the interface itself is simply poorly designed. It is simply too hard to find a player in the multiple lists provided. At any point where you lost a player from your queue at the last minute and needed to re-search the lists while "on the clock", you have virtually no chance of grabbing that player within the one-minute time frame.

Oh, and the idea of having a 15-team draft when only 12 teams can be viewed on the "draft board" at a time is a clear indicator that this was a case of Stats trying to jam a square peg in a round hole.

I've done a lot of online drafting with other sites thru the years, and Stats' live draft applet compares poorly with the cheap mass-produced sites like ESPN and Yahoo. Even NFBC partner MockDraftCentral has a superior product that would have been a better tool for this job.

I'm rather pleased with my results from the $100 league, but from the comments here I was simply lucky to avoid many technical problems. I would be absolutely horrified if I had to use this glitch-filled product in a more expensive league.

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 1:59 am

Originally posted by UFS:

There were five, maybe six that reported problems in my league. Wonder how many others didn't speak up in the chat room.

And that's why I wasn't going to shut down the draft as a couple of people were requesting. Without knowing how widespread the problem was I was not going to shut down an ongoing draft. That was my call and I stand behind it. I was monitoring all three drafts and it appeared to me (and after talking to some people in the other drafts last night) that the first $1,000 league was having the most difficulties. At least that's what I could determine based on the comments I saw being posted.

One person I spoke with last night said the problems appeared to be confined to a short period of time. The first several rounds of their draft went fine, but there was a problem in a short period in the middle and then the last several rounds went without a glitch. I don't know if that was what the majority of people were experiencing or not.

In any event, as I said last night we are going to be talking with STATS this morning to see what went wrong and what can be done to fix the situation going forward. Greg and I will keep everyone updated.

[ July 12, 2005, 08:00 AM: Message edited by: Tom Kessenich ]

Don Mathis · Post by **Don Mathis** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 2:32 am

How long did the drafts take?

Dyv · Post by **Dyv** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 3:19 am

Originally posted by Don Mathis:

How long did the drafts take? Midseason 1 was about 4 hours 15 minutes

D

rmurph3 · Post by **rmurph3** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 3:21 am

Yeah, 4:15 or so for the 'B' league as well.

[ July 12, 2005, 09:22 AM: Message edited by: rmurph3 ]

Walla Walla · Post by **Walla Walla** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 3:26 am

OK I have another draft tonight. I don't have time to set up my draft list like yesterdays draft. Not that it helps much after two rounds.

The big question is will tonight work right or be a repeat. I really like the live drafts NFBC and NFFC provide. They are the best. But last night was terrible! The difference is Greg and Tom are involved with those drafts. This internet draft thing is being run by stats and they really hosed it! So I may or may not show up tonight for the draft. But I will show up for future live drafts as they are always first class. I will never do another one of these though. Turns out I was right when I said Mid season drafts suck.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 3:28 am

Okay, guys, let's figure this out and be done with this. Obviously, I don't want anyone to have a bad experience, whether it's with the live draft or this online draft. STATS uses this same draft software to run thousands of leagues for sites like SI.com, but I still had concerns and it appears my worst fears came true. There were enough guys who had problems to make me reach out and certainly refund anyone's money who was unsatisfied with last night's experience.

E-mail me today at [email protected] or call me at 715-445-4612, ext. 284. If enough people drop out, we'll cancel these leagues and refund everyone's money. I'd rather do that than have unhappy participants. The goal was to extend this season of fun, not make life more miserable for you guys. If we have 2 or 3 guys who want to drop out and the other 12 to 13 want to play this out, we'll come up with a fair prize pool and play it out. I'll get in touch with everyone today and have a decision by the end of the day.

I apologize if the draft software was less than satisfactory. The idea of mid-season leagues still makes a lot of sense and online draft software has been used effectively for years, so I'm disappointed that last night didn't go well. We will work with STATS to solve the problem for tonight's draft and tomorrow's draft and if those don't go well, then obviously we'll find a new method to get online drafts done in the future.

Walla Walla · Post by **Walla Walla** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 3:42 am

I sent my e-mail. I'm out of the 1000 and 500 leagues.