35 replies to this topic

[Scott Atkins]

Good morning!  I am so excited to finally be able to publicly discuss with you our plans for 2013. Not in detail, but an outlined summary. 

 

Before we look forward, it's important to look back to see where we've been.

 

• Ian Ritchie, Mark Deming and Emil Kadlec join forces and put together a championship team, including Cindie Crain. 
• Together they launched the FFWC with a $200k grand prize.
• They launch the Mid Stakes Championship, Commander and a Free Roll tournament. 
• They partnered with the Mirage.
• They partnered with Cantor for a FREE Sunday viewing party.
• They acquired a brand new car to giveaway.
• They purchased FFToolbox.com
• They partnered with Rotobowl.
• I join the team October 1.  
• What a first year! 

Now let's look ahead: 

 

• Round the clock work continues here at the World Championship team. Our top priority is finalizing our software development plans this week. Ensuring that you the players have the best draft, live scoring and roster management experience is our number one concern. Fun is what you deserve and that's what you're going to get!
•  
• An announcement of epic proportion is coming with regards to the Fantasy Football World Championship Main Event. A FIRST for the Industry. We feel we proved our space last year and earned your business. Our players were paid (reportedly faster than any of the other contests) and we capped it off by flying our champion out to Vegas for the Championship Jersey and $200,000 check presentation and a weekend with our team. We take our champions seriously here at the FFWC and we want you to know that. We want to celebrate with them and their loved ones face to face. We wouldn't miss a moment like that. We just wouldn't have it any other way. 

• 2013 Surveys will be sent out to all contest participants who played last year. If you want to be included in this survey, and did not play here last year or during our playoff contest, please email me asap scott@fftoolbox.com to be a part of it. 
•  
• Satellite "qualifier" offerings are being finalized and part of this strategy will come from the survey results. 
•  
• Major work continues on FFToolbox.com. Our plans with FFToolbox.com are fundamentally at the heart of everything we do here with the FFWC. Last year, there just wasn't enough time to do everything we wanted to do, but this acuqisition fits squarely into our 2013 plans.
•  
• FFToolbox is getting a MAJOR facelift. Our redesign team is hard at work to bring this to life in 2013  A new look for the new ownership team (yours truly, our team here at Fulltime Fantasy). Content is going to be better arranged so that it's easy to find what you need to find quickly.
•  
• Premium content will be finally introduced on FFToolbox.com and you, our high stakes/mid stakes players will definitely benefit by this in a big way. 
•  
• This is also a huge opportunity for our players. We are taking letters of interest for anyone interested in being a part of the site, whether that's podcasting, writing, blogging, rankings, social media or breaking news, we want you to be a part of it. Our website is the #1 independent fantasy content site in the world. Yahoo and CBS are the competition we think about on a daily basis. If you want to be part of a site with major long term vision in the fantasy space, feel free to send me your information or you can wait for our official announcement and opportunity. 
•  
• We already have 20 or so writers that contribute for our site and we are finally going to open the door to others who are interested. Our inbox is hit every day with people in the industry who want to be involved, but we'd certainly take a second look at a high stakes player who wins on the regular. Did I mention these are PAID positions? 
•  
• Our sponsored contests and games will have a huge presence on the site. I can't let the cat out of the bag yet, but what you see, you're not going to believe. Let's just say our plan is for you and all of our 9 million unique visitors to Toolbox to be very very busy this offseason! 

• (Personal sidenote: I actually wrote my first News Article there yesterday as a test of the system!  It's up on the scrolling ticker, it's the Mike Vick article, lol...)

More to come...

[Scott Atkins]

By the way, some very interesting NFL stories with bigtime fantasy implications have been posted in the forum below this one. I'd like to get some opinions. 

 

Just in the last few days news: 

 

• McCoy/Brown to split backfield
• Titans will split backfield with CJ2K
• Harvin likely to be traded.. but where?
• Vick re-signed - Chip Kelly has his QB.
• Mike Wallace potentially to the Browns
• Ahmad Bradshaw rumors to the Jets

 

Let's talk about values here. My head is spinning!

 

http://www.fftoolbox...hp?showforum=71

[Scott Atkins]

Hey everyone! The 2013 player survey is hitting inboxes later today! Please send it back as quickly as possible so that we can announce our 2013 plans with rule changes. 

We are stoked to be able to make our announcements. 

 

I'm also excited to report that our News Reporter Brian Murphy has amped up his coverage of NFL news all year all the time!

 

Bookmark the page: 

 

http://www.fftoolbox...ll/nfl_news.cfm

 

or subscribe to the RSS feed: 

 

http://feeds.feedbur...ews_and_Rumors 

[Scott Atkins]

Are you guys reading the news wire today? Man, alot going on in the fantasy football world. Take note! http://www.fftoolbox...ll/nfl_news.cfm

[SyracuseSlappers]

[Scott Atkins]

Hey John, 

Our first off season has been busy that's for sure. Go big or go home right? Patience is a virtue. To be the man you've got to beat the man... 

 

Okay.. I'm running out of one liners here.

 

To hold you over, let me gather up the survey responses and we'll discuss them here. Some very interesting feedback that's for sure. 

[Scott Atkins]

Okay guys.. Over the next few days, I'll be sharing with you some of the changes, the new contest offerings and the LIVE EVENT details that are coming down the pipe. This will all be released as soon as humanly possible, I promise but it's important to get this right. Everything WILL come together into one cohesive package that you're going to really enjoy. 

 

What's been happening?

 

Emil has been heading up technology at FFToolbox.com. In addition to his FootballDiehards site, he's taken the reigns here at Toolbox. I have taken over Content Managment and working with the 17 writers we have on staff ensuring that all the content is going up when its supposed to. Right now, we're all mock drafts, scouting combine, dynasty rankings, pre-season baseball draft prep and weekly golf/nascar rankings. Yep, there's alot going on. 

 

Emil is also working every day on the 2013 Global Player Index, the Fantasy Football Player Rankings. Yes, YOUR rankings, where you find out where you stack against the very best of the best in the world across all the high stakes contests. 

 

As for the 2013 FFWC:

 

We are listening!! That's the message. We are listening to the players and the theme of what we heard was a resounding one. I have literally talked to dozens of fantasy players over the last few weeks (as has Ian, Emil and Cindie) and over and over again the message was the same. Even from the VERY BEST IN THE GAME. It's damn hard to turn a profit in the Main Event. I had to ask myself, didn't I already know this? Of course I did, but I guess I always just said, "Well, that's just the way it is..." But that's not the case is it? Don't we have the unique opportunity to change that. We don't have a thousand teams, we're new. We're only in year two. Why not make a move and try to change that? If the players want it, we should give it to them.

 

1. Expect bigger league payouts. I'm talking big, Bigger than anybody else in the game. In order to accopmlish that, something has to give. Are players open to reducing some of the weight of the Championship round to accomodate this request? The answer.... a resounding ABSOLUTELY. 

 

So now the question is this... EGO. Can we as a contest restructure things so that more money goes back to the "less flashy" league prizes? Let's face it. That's why the contests have the big prizes. That's why we had a big prize in year one. We thought the players wanted it, but apparently, it's not that big a deal, except for a select few. (ehem Matt Bayley... lol) Now as a player, every single year we voice the request, "Reduce the grand prize and put more money into the league" and year after year the big contests say, "we'll listen to everything... but that" and eventually, I think we just stopped asking. Don't get me wrong, we as players have seen league prizes increase somewhat. I mean back in the day weren't they like 5k and that was all that was possible? 

 

I think it's time to consider big league prizes while maintaining a very respectable large grand prize and championship round prizes.

 

How much are you winning now in your main event leagues when you win? We want to change that. 2013 will be the year that the FFWC sets a NEW standard in high stakes and we're going to do it by ensuring YOU win. 

 

2. More to come tonight.....

[Coltsfan]

Now you're talking Scott!  I'm in - I love larger league prizes!

 

 

Wayne

[Scott Atkins]

I will be providing more thought into this and reviewing survey results tonight on red vs blue. I'll provide the link in a bit.

[Cocktails and Dreams]

I don't recall this being a topic of discussion.  Bad idea for marketing and bad idea in general.  If people want large league payouts, then play a satellite where it all goes to the league.  There are thousands of those around.  This is a main event. 

[Scott Atkins]

Chad, we're not doing anything drastic. This will still appeal to the guys gunning for the big prize. Our payout % will be tops in the industry. We're real close to the finishing touches.

[RAMPO]

Scott all sounds great can't wait to here all the details keep up the great work.

[Scott Atkins]

Thanks to everyone for your questions and feedback regarding our 1st 2013 Announcement - "Expecting bigger league prizes". The feedback has been tremendously helpful and encouraging. 

 

We followed that up with our 2nd 2013 Announcement - "The Dynasty Football World Championship". Wow. We knew but we honestly didn't expect that much support that fast for the concept. The page views alone on that thread were stunning! The emails poured in asking for more details and they will be provided very soon. In the meantime, it's time for announcement #3. 

 

2012 marked an exciting year for Fulltime Fantasy Sports. We completed our inaugural season of the FFWC and conducted a successful sold-out playoff tournament. We acquired FFToolbox to expand our content offerings, and partnered with Rotobowl to provide our players with a well-respected, mid-stakes tournament option since 2004. 

Going forward, our game strategy is to offer our players the best and most exciting format, and standardize our game offerings around this format at several different price points. Because our integration with Rotobowl occurred very late in the year, we simply operated the tournament under the same prize structure and rules that it had always been in the past, which was quite different than the FFWC main event. Our partner Rotobowl tournament was very well received. In fact, many of our respected high stakes players who played both FFWC and Rotobowl this year said that the Rotobowl format, was their new favorite--due in large part to the addition of another flex player. We asked even more of our players in a post season survey and the answers were overwhelming. Which leads us to an exciting announcement.

#3 2013 Announcement: In 2013, the FFWC Main Event will be moving to 11-man starting lineup with dual flex!

 

That's right. In 2013 and moving forward, FFWC will be home to an 11 man lineup. We will add this additional player to our standard 10 man lineup for a total of 11 starting players each week. Starting lineup requirements will be - 

 

1 QB, 2 RBs, 3 WRs, 1 TE, 1 PK, 1 DST and 2 FLEX (RB, WR or TE)  

 

History: Starting 3 WRs has always been at the heart of the original high stakes rules and it's a big reason that propels the top drafters to the top year after year.

 

Without it, other formats seem to produce too much parity, rarely having the opportunity to distance themselves from the pack with a good draft. Teams are "bailed out" so to speak, even after making questionable draft-day decisions. For us, keeping the 3 WR minimum in the starting lineup was a no-brainer and key to this decision and we wouldn't have made the change to 11-man lineup with dual-flex without it. In essence, the 3-WR requirement keeps the TEAM CONSTRUCTION strategy at the forefront of our high stakes players draft-day-strategy.

 

The addition of the 11th man with dual flex rewards the skilled drafters, those that understand how to put a team together. Rewarding players who draft well because quality depth on your bench will not be wasted as much as in years past. A typical bench carries an extra QB, PK (maybe) and DST (maybe) for 3 spots, still leaving most players on average with 6-8 bench spots at the RB, WR and TE position to use on handcuffs, bye weeks or injury hold overs. 

 

The survey question that suggested adding an extra round to the draft and moving to a 21 man roster, did not however get much support. We feel this was due to a reduced free agent pool. Taking an additional 12 players (1 extra per team) essentially out of the free agency pool would affect player's ability to find quality starting options on the waiver wire. Negating the fun of the waiver wire was something surveyed players did not want to do. 

 

Summary: The 11-man lineup can be summed up this way:  More players, more points, more fun! We are listening to the players on this one and are excited to be introducing this fun, skilled-player-friendly format to the industry. 

 

Satellite season is right around the corner and should be very interesting this year. More to come...

[SyracuseSlappers]

Thanks to everyone for your questions and feedback regarding our 1st 2013 Announcement - "Expecting bigger league prizes". The feedback has been tremendously helpful and encouraging. 

 

We followed that up with our 2nd 2013 Announcement - "The Dynasty Football World Championship". Wow. We knew but we honestly didn't expect that much support that fast for the concept. The page views alone on that thread were stunning! The emails poured in asking for more details and they will be provided very soon. In the meantime, it's time for announcement #3. 

 

2012 marked an exciting year for Fulltime Fantasy Sports. We completed our inaugural season of the FFWC and conducted a successful sold-out playoff tournament. We acquired FFToolbox to expand our content offerings, and partnered with Rotobowl to provide our players with a well-respected, mid-stakes tournament option since 2004. 

Going forward, our game strategy is to offer our players the best and most exciting format, and standardize our game offerings around this format at several different price points. Because our integration with Rotobowl occurred very late in the year, we simply operated the tournament under the same prize structure and rules that it had always been in the past, which was quite different than the FFWC main event. Our partner Rotobowl tournament was very well received. In fact, many of our respected high stakes players who played both FFWC and Rotobowl this year said that the Rotobowl format, was their new favorite--due in large part to the addition of another flex player. We asked even more of our players in a post season survey and the answers were overwhelming. Which leads us to an exciting announcement.

#3 2013 Announcement: In 2013, the FFWC Main Event will be moving to 11-man starting lineup with dual flex!

 

That's right. In 2013 and moving forward, FFWC will be home to an 11 man lineup. We will add this additional player to our standard 10 man lineup for a total of 11 starting players each week. Starting lineup requirements will be - 

 

1 QB, 2 RBs, 3 WRs, 1 TE, 1 PK, 1 DST and 2 FLEX (RB, WR or TE)  

 

History: Starting 3 WRs has always been at the heart of the original high stakes rules and it's a big reason that propels the top drafters to the top year after year.

 

Without it, other formats seem to produce too much parity, rarely having the opportunity to distance themselves from the pack with a good draft. Teams are "bailed out" so to speak, even after making questionable draft-day decisions. For us, keeping the 3 WR minimum in the starting lineup was a no-brainer and key to this decision and we wouldn't have made the change to 11-man lineup with dual-flex without it. In essence, the 3-WR requirement keeps the TEAM CONSTRUCTION strategy at the forefront of our high stakes players draft-day-strategy.

 

The addition of the 11th man with dual flex rewards the skilled drafters, those that understand how to put a team together. Rewarding players who draft well because quality depth on your bench will not be wasted as much as in years past. A typical bench carries an extra QB, PK (maybe) and DST (maybe) for 3 spots, still leaving most players on average with 6-8 bench spots at the RB, WR and TE position to use on handcuffs, bye weeks or injury hold overs. 

 

The survey question that suggested adding an extra round to the draft and moving to a 21 man roster, did not however get much support. We feel this was due to a reduced free agent pool. Taking an additional 12 players (1 extra per team) essentially out of the free agency pool would affect player's ability to find quality starting options on the waiver wire. Negating the fun of the waiver wire was something surveyed players did not want to do. 

 

Summary: 

The 11-man lineup can be summed up this way:  More players, more points, more fun! We are listening to the players on this one and are excited to be introducing this fun, skilled-player-friendly format to the industry. 

 

Satellite season is right around the corner and should be very interesting this year. More to come...

 

I think I'm digging this. This has some potential to open up the draft to some crazy options.  The satellite season should prove to be very interesting!

[Cocktails and Dreams]

Love it.  To some extent it makes the lineup calls easier, and the deeper teams better.   Absolutely love the rotobowl style format.  I also agree with leaving it at 20 players like rotobowl.  The winner of your contest will most certainly be a deserving one with the 11 players.  Very nice.  Now, you need to figure out the prize pool:)

[hhammer]

Wow. Big news! I must say I always considered the NFFC 14 teamer the most challenging high-stakes format because of the additional teams... now this change moves FFWC right up there in terms of difficulty while maintaining the 12 team format. Love what you guys are doing so far this year!

[FantasyQBonTwitter]

Good call! This will lead to great draft strategies analysis.

[Foursport]

Interesting - have always loved the dual flex and this makes it easier for me to consider bringing some of my business here for sure --- the fact that there will be 11 starters really REALLY mixes things up and I love it!

 

Always excited to be talking football - this is a strange time of year for sure with a big void to fill.  THANKS for bringing a small ray of sunshine to a snowy forecast here in Maryland!

[greenblooded]

Hey Guys-

 

I like the idea of 11 starters.  With the add'l starter, I think the bench should stay the same size (therefore 21 on the roster).  Bye weeks will become more challenging if we don't.  I don't believe the questionaire addressed specifically if we would like an expanded roster if the starters increased.  I'd rather over value the draft vs having add'l players in the free agent pool.

 

Scott

[hitters]

I definitely love the dual flex option this year! I also like the 11 man roster and this will eliminate some of the guess work or flipping a coin on Sunday to determine who to start. Just kidding about flipping the coin! Generally, I poll my closest fantasy football friends to see who to sit and it never fails that I generally start the wrong WR. Love the format and looking forward to another exciting fantasy season with the FFWC!

[Scott Atkins]

Thanks for the feedback and good vibes gang! These are so valuable to our momentum!

_________________-This post is a CASE STUDY of 10 random ROTOBOWL LEAGUES which utilize THE 11-MAN STARTING LINEUP 

 

Here is the roster from the Rotobowl Champion Jason George: 

 

Drew Brees - Starter 1

Andrew Luck

 

Chris Johnson - Starter 2

Reggie Bush - Starter 3

CJ Spiller - Starter 4

Bernard Pierce

Daniel Thomas

Baron Batch

Rashad Jennings

 

Andre Johnson - Starter 5

Demaryius Thomas - Starter 6

Brandon LaFell - Starter 7

Brandon Gibson - Starter 8

Dexter McCluster

Randy Moss

 

Jason Witten - Starter 9

Brent Celek

 

Ryan Succop - Starter 10

 

Chicago Bears - Starter 11

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

 

So he started 3 RBs, 4 WRs and 1 TE to win it all. 

 

Interestingly, he didn't win his league, that crown went to Frank Loughry. (below)

 

Matt Ryan - Starter 1

Josh Freeman

 

Arian Foster - Starter 2

BJGE - Starter 3

Joique Bell - Starter 4

Jackie Battle

Cedric Benson

Ben Tate

 

AJ Green - Starter 5

Mike Wallace - Starter 6

Emmanuel Sanders - Starter 7

Malcom Floyd - Starter 8

Davonne Bess

Mario Manningham

 

Brandon Myers - Starter 9

Rob Gronkowski 

 

Adam Vinatieri - Starter 10

Shaun Suisham

 

Patriots DST - Starter 11

Ravens DST

 

He started 3 RB, 4 WR and 1 TE as well, however with a healthy Gronk, I bet he may have replaced Bell that week with a dual TE strategy. 

 

As a case study, I will go over the previous league champions lineup decisions and draft summaries to give you an idea of how these players managed to win. 

League Championship Game - Starting Lineup

 

Rotobowl League 1 - Team Spidey       (3 RBs, 4 WRs and 1 TE) ---

Rotobowl League 2 - Kevin Lacy           (2 RBs, 4 WRs and 2 TEs) ---

Rotobowl League 3 - T Bag XPress      (3 RBs, 3 WRs and 2 TEs) --- 1 time

Rotobowl League 4 - Dan Santos          (4 RBs, 3 WRs and 1 TE) --- 

Rotobowl League 5 - Mutually A.D.        (3 RBs, 4 WRs and 1 TE) --- 2 times

Rotobowl League 6 - The Bi Polars       (4 RBs, 3 WRs, and 1 TE) ---

Rotobowl League 7 - Shake N Bake      (2 RBs, 4 WRs, and 2 TEs) ---

Rotobowl League 8 - LotPurpleRealm   (2 RBs, 5 WRs, and 1 TE) --- 1 time

Rotobowl League 9 - Massacre on MD  (2 RBs, 4 WRs, and 2 TEs) --- 3 times

Rotobowl League 10 - Mean Machine    (4 RBs, 3 WRs, and 1 TE) --- 3 times

 

So going through the 10 league champions, there were 5 different approaches to winning it all. 

 

3 leagues  - (2 RBs, 4 WRs, and 2 TEs)

3 leagues  - (4 RBs, 3 WRs, and 1 TE)

2 leagues - (3 RBs, 4 WRs and 1 TE)

1 league  - (3 RBs, 3 WRs and 2 TEs)

1 league -  (2 RBs, 5 WRs, and 1 TE)

It appears there are plenty of ways to win with this draft strategy! After I take a break and shovel my driveway (lol) I will break down these 10 champions draft strategy and compare them to the FFWC average draft summary to get your wheels turning. 

[Glenneration X]

Since I voted for this option in the survey, I obviously like the idea of this more challenging format.  I'm looking forward to testing myself in it.

 

What I like even better however is that you guys aren't afraid to try something new and innovative in an attempt to improve your game for both your contest and those who play in it.  Nicely done and keep up the great work.

[BillyWaz]

I too love the fact that you guys are willing to add this wrinkle into your game.   I voted for the 11 man flex, and think it will make things quite interesting in the FFWC.  I feel this contest needed something to make it "unique" (last year's format was pretty standard), and the 11 man flex and more importantly IMO, the switch to bigger league prizes makes the FFWC very desirable in 2013!

 

Fantastic job, gentlemen!!

[The Champs]

I'm also a fan of the bigger starting lineup while maintaining the 3 starting WR's.  It puts more importance building a deeper roster.  I also think the roster size should be expanding by 1 spot.  I don't think the extra 12 players thins pool too much.  Keep up the good work guys!

[Pass The Patron]

Exciting to see the new plans for the 2013 FFWC season.

 

Love the addition of an 11th roster spot!

 

Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help from Canada.

 

Cheers!

 

Roy Larking

 

Team Pass The Patron

 

[INVICTUS]

Love to see the dual and 11. Make for the better owner to work his skills and not be limited!

[Cocktails and Dreams]

The extra roster spot is 50-50 for me after further review.  I was thiking of the 14 team leagues and how much more thin the pool was.  This would be in between.  I think either way is equally good.  Perhaps Rozek is correct though.  When bye weeks set in, one may have to drop a decent player just to field a team if you have an injury or two.  Tough call and I don't think there is a right or wrong answer.   If 20, perhaps a team kicker could be considered. 

[Mike - Red vs Blue]

I think there's plenty to go around.

I absolutely love the Dual Flex and 11 man lineup!!!  This is opening up a lot of doors.  I'm really excited you guys took the plunge!!

 

Way to go!!!!

[Deal No Deal]

Lets face it we are supposed to be the best in the world so it makes perfect sense that we play as many of the people we draft as possible...even with injuries if you are not at least contemplating your lineup choices every week then your team isn't very deep...this just allows you to play one more of the brilliant draft picks you made...or smart free agent pick ups...it may mean you can't hold onto that handcuff player who will only be relevant if you have an injury....I love it and I am in! 

[bockman]

Played the rotobowl this year with this format and loved it. Great move adding this to your other events. I did like the extra roster spot but mostly because at the end of every draft their is always a player or 2 I would like to have drafted. I would want this in any league but ithis is strictly personell and the move to 11 players is fantastic.