[Hal]

So far we have the following managers looking to play an MLS draft fantasy soccer league:

Hal (Hal)
DoctorJones24 (Jay) (Prefers MLS Fantasy Soccer)
kopiteinkc (Mark) (In for any format)
Darr (Jason) (Prefers MLS Fantasy Soccer)
JG_Revs (Justin) (In for any format)

We might try out two or even three of the formats with having a different draft order for each game.

For example, subbuteo's game would be easiest to do. No worries about transfer fees, daily valuations, and only 4 transfers for first half of season. Then 4 more transfers after the mid-point. Plus you can have any combination of a goalie and 10 field players, so there is a lot of flexibility with line-ups based on the draft.

MFLS, would require getting permission for having a second team. Which I think is doable by asking Mark Wheeler. We'd just have our own private division of 6-8 teams. A draft MFLS league would have to be limited to a max of 8 teams since each team has to draft 18 players and the coach. I do like the MFLS game the best.

MLS Fantasy Soccer only has 11 players and then the daily valuation changes. This would work for a larger group 8-12 teams if there was enough interest. A big question would be whether we should have any agreement on whether we can avail ourselves of the option to buy additional transfers. I prefer not, but what does everyone else think? My concern with this league is that after the draft, player valuations go crazy due to those active trading managers and it will limit our options as the season progresses. It actually allows you to field one team for Saturday games, then reshuffle your team for the Sunday games or the mid-week games. I just don't want to get into a situation where we all have to fork out big bucks to stay competitive.

What are the opinions of the other interested managers? One format or multiple formats? With or without buying extra transfers in the MLS Fantasy Soccer game?

My vision is a draft starting on a Fri night through Saturday where, depending on the number of different formats we draft, we have 1-3 simultaneous drafts. Should keep everyone involved and interested. Dead time during one draft may be your time on the clock for another draft?

Both Mark and I have run the internal competitions. My vision is that we have different managers run the competitions for the different game formats that we play.

[subbuteo]

I'm interested.
I prefer either 3F or MFLS. I don't like the idea of having to pay for transfers in the MLS/TSN game, and I agree that the way it's set up with player valuations fluctuating could get a bit complicated.

[DoctorJones24]

Couple thoughts:

1) I haven't actually ever played the TSN/MLSnet game; I just suggested that one because it only requires 11 players, so we could get away with an 8 team league. IMO, if we do MFLS, we should probably stick with a 6 squad league. And even with that, we'll each have a few non-players on our benches. Bottom line: there are only 110 actual starting spots in the MLS. And of those, I'd guess only slightly over half are consistent starters--the rest would be platooned positions that would be of little help to us in fantasy world. That'll leave us all struggling just to grab 66 consistent starters to fill out our rosters each week. With 8 or more managers, it would be annoying and pointless.

2) With that said, maybe it would be better to just stick with the 6 managers we already have and go with a special MFLS league. Otherwise, we could wait for 2 more guys and try TSN, but we at least know that this core group sticks with the game, having played together before.

3) I wasn't sure what Hal meant about simultaneous drafts, but I'll only be doing one drafted league, whichever is picked.

[subbuteo]

Good points about number of quality players and number of managers.

I'd be willing to adjust my game to accomodate a much shorter roster (like a 10-13 player roster or such) so that everybody could nearly trot out a 'meaningful' team each week.

[JG_Revs]

I'll play anything, but I'd prefer MFLS if we could swing the second team (couldn't we just use secondary email addresses?).

[Hal]

I have permission to run a draft division in MFLS as a beta experiment. Mark Wheeler may even consider adding that feature next season. He just asks that we don't broadcast it with lots of posts in BigSoccer.com cause he is not prepared to handle similar requests this year.

What I need is everyone to PM me a current email address which you have also used for your primary MFLS team, and what your team names will be. I'll then pass that on to Mark and he'll allow the registration of the second team.

We have 6 managers now, which I think is a good number when we have to pick a coach and 18 players for each team.

Once I get everyone's email addy and team name, I'll delete this thread.

I'm open to suggestions as to where we hold the draft. If we use BigSoccer, we'll need to disguise it somewhat, hold it in an obscure thread and then delete it afterwards. Using MFLS forums would be too public. Perhaps, if we create a private division, we can have a private forum and can hold our draft there?

In keeping with tradition, shall we call our division, "Very Small Rocks"?

[Hal]

Very Small Rocks Division:

Teams (BigSoccer.com nickname):

Naval Aviators (Hal)
Scouser Tommies FC (kopiteinkc)
Tobbaco Roma (subbuteo)

Got the email addys for the above teams.

Still need you to send me a PM with the email addy used for your other MFLS team and team name you want for this Very Small Rocks Division for the following:

DoctorJones24
Darr
JG_Revs

[kopiteinkc]

Originally posted by Hal
In keeping with tradition, shall we call our division, "Very Small Rocks"?

Excellent idea.

[Darr]

Hal your pm box is full atm so I'll post my info here...

I'll probably go with the same team name I'm using for EPL league...

Nocturnal United

Email addy I'll use is darr@hotmail!com with a period where the ! is...

Do I need to go register there before hand? Or is Wheeler going to set it all up since we're different then the prize leagues...

[Darr]

When we set up the draft, can we set the date like 2 days before we do it?... I know with the EPL some people NAMELY MYSELF were on a Big Soccer rehab vacation for a day or two, and held up everyone else... Just want a FYI so I can plan accordinally...