AITA: Fantasy Football Edition

LacertineForest · Wed Sep 14, 2022 3:38 pm

Last year, some people at my office (small company, around 10 employees) started a fantasy football league. I signed on, but it was really weird because they set it up as an autodraft where you couldn't even rank players to affect your outcome - it was just straight autodraft with ESPN's default rankings. I had a bad team and ended up in one of the last places.

This year, they did it with a real, in-person draft. However, the people who decided on it didn't take any input on when the draft would be (at least, I wasn't part of that discussion), and they picked a day when I was out of the country (it was an in-person, offline draft, so I couldn't participate remotely). I think they actually did a pretty good job drafting for me and I have a decent team with a real chance at being a playoff contender.

Yesterday, I was talking with someone about a waiver claim I made and they said, "Oh, you have to pay a dollar for each waiver claim." I thought they were talking about a bid system in the league, and I was fine with that, but they meant I had to pay real cash. There is no buy-in for this league, but apparently the winner gets all the money made from waiver claims. This rule was not explained to me previously, so I basically said, "yeah, I'm not doing that," changed my team name to "Team Tightwad," and cancelled my existing waiver claims. I tend to place a lot of waiver transactions in FF, and I wouldn't be surprised if I owed $50 by the end of the year if I was to pay. I can afford it, but I feel like this is a league set up buy a few people who haven't asked for input from anyone else, and I didn't even get to choose my team, so I'm not interested in paying for shit.

Am I the asshole here? Or should I stop being a bitch and just pay for waiver claims.

Atkins&Rebel · Thu Sep 15, 2022 6:36 am

I was in a league with 3 IDP and a 18 person roster. You were only allowed to make 16 total moves all year. Trades or claims. I too am a guy who can churn the bottom of my roster every week, steam QB's and Defenses, so I simply said I'm not staying in the league. The rule wasn't discussed or voted on, just simply instituted because the owner didn't have a lot of time to devote to fantasy so he wanted to limit what everyone else did to give himself a chance.

To answer your question, when money is involved, everyone should have a say and a vote before the draft, and you should know what you're getting into before handing over money.

LacertineForest · Thu Sep 15, 2022 11:27 am

Atkins&Rebel wrote: ↑Thu Sep 15, 2022 6:36 am I was in a league with 3 IDP and a 18 person roster. You were only allowed to make 16 total moves all year. Trades or claims. I too am a guy who can churn the bottom of my roster every week, steam QB's and Defenses, so I simply said I'm not staying in the league. The rule wasn't discussed or voted on, just simply instituted because the owner didn't have a lot of time to devote to fantasy so he wanted to limit what everyone else did to give himself a chance.

To answer your question, when money is involved, everyone should have a say and a vote before the draft, and you should know what you're getting into before handing over money.

How can you even field a full team by the end of the season when you can only make 16 moves? People get injured all the time - I guess if you've got an 18-person roster it can work, but 3 IDP is a lot! I hate leagues where it's so heavily dependent on your drafting - mostly because I tend to be mediocre at drafting, but pick up a lot of guys at the right time.

Anyway, thanks for your perspective - hate feeling like I'm sucking the fun out of things, but it's an office league where half the teams don't even follow football anyway.

BearsFanInMN · Thu Sep 15, 2022 12:54 pm

That sounds like a league that was done for fun and turned into BS. I'd have done the same thing.

Thu Sep 15, 2022 2:20 pm

You're definitely NTA.

I don't think the people running the league are necessarily assholes either, but definitely bad communicators.

IE · Thu Sep 15, 2022 6:10 pm

They're definitely assholes if they think that a league with dumb rules is good. The waiver claim thing is particular bogus. Don't play if you don't have time to make changes. Actually the autodraft and punishing people for making changes is sort of like a risk-free one in ten (or whatever) shot at free money for people hoping to get the luck of the draw and then do nothing. It isn't really fantasy football.

Arkansasbear · Mon Sep 19, 2022 11:29 am

A long time ago (like 1996) I was in a league that you had to pay for each waiver you did, but it was all before ESPN handled everything and you had to manually calculate scores and input the changes. So I didn’t think it was that big a deal as it was to make the managers life easier.

I think it’s a dumb to rule to have now days. It seems to favor guys that don’t spend as much time doing it so that it discourages other from trying to find hidden gems.

Your fine they’re fine just different fees on it.

Atkins&Rebel · Mon Sep 19, 2022 6:48 pm

Arkansasbear wrote: ↑Mon Sep 19, 2022 11:29 am A long time ago (like 1996) I was in a league that you had to pay for each waiver you did, but it was all before ESPN handled everything and you had to manually calculate scores and input the changes. So I didn’t think it was that big a deal as it was to make the managers life easier.

I think it’s a dumb to rule to have now days. It seems to favor guys that don’t spend as much time doing it so that it discourages other from trying to find hidden gems.

Your fine they’re fine just different fees on it.

My big money 16 team league has 7 pages of rules. We have a $250 auction salary cap of real money, $50 league fees (pays for auction pizza dinner and a BBQ event we have in oct every year), FAAB is 200 of real money, each claim and trade costs $5, every IR and taxi squad move costs $10. (Taxi is the for bye week players to get added for 1 week if you so choose to pick up a sub for that week).

All the buy in money goes towards the weekly payouts and playoff winners. All the transaction money goes into a pool for the 6 highest breakdown winners (your H2H record vs the rest of the league every week through week 16 of the NFL season). I won both the chip and came in 2nd in breakdown in my 1st year, and now in year 5 I'm still almost $1000 ahead even though I've only cashed 1 other year. I inherited a decent team and a couple trades netted me a super team to compete with but lost everyone on their 5th year of keeper eligibility. Rebuilt and now am 1-1 and 2nd in breakdown so far.

Arkansasbear · Mon Sep 19, 2022 10:31 pm

IE wrote: ↑Thu Sep 15, 2022 6:10 pm They're definitely assholes if they think that a league with dumb rules is good. The waiver claim thing is particular bogus. Don't play if you don't have time to make changes. Actually the autodraft and punishing people for making changes is sort of like a risk-free one in ten (or whatever) shot at free money for people hoping to get the luck of the draw and then do nothing. It isn't really fantasy football.

I think the auto draft is a good thing for a group of friends who are too busy in life to get devote a ton of time to it but want to have fun with their friends. A group of my friends did when we all had kids in sports and crazy work schedules and none of us wanted to give it much time but we still wanted to have something to talk trash over. We had something like a $50 buy in fee that all went to the winner (who then had to spend it all hosting a post season party at their house - again just an excuse on us having to get together) and we had a trophy that the winner kept for a year and a plate was added each listing the winner. That thing was freaking massive. It made the Stanley cup look like a paper weight. The years I had it I was banned from bringing it home it so big and gawdy.

LacertineForest · Tue Sep 20, 2022 10:38 am

Arkansasbear wrote: ↑Mon Sep 19, 2022 10:31 pm
IE wrote: ↑Thu Sep 15, 2022 6:10 pm They're definitely assholes if they think that a league with dumb rules is good. The waiver claim thing is particular bogus. Don't play if you don't have time to make changes. Actually the autodraft and punishing people for making changes is sort of like a risk-free one in ten (or whatever) shot at free money for people hoping to get the luck of the draw and then do nothing. It isn't really fantasy football.
I think the auto draft is a good thing for a group of friends who are too busy in life to get devote a ton of time to it but want to have fun with their friends. A group of my friends did when we all had kids in sports and crazy work schedules and none of us wanted to give it much time but we still wanted to have something to talk trash over. We had something like a $50 buy in fee that all went to the winner (who then had to spend it all hosting a post season party at their house - again just an excuse on us having to get together) and we had a trophy that the winner kept for a year and a plate was added each listing the winner. That thing was freaking massive. It made the Stanley cup look like a paper weight. The years I had it I was banned from bringing it home it so big and gawdy.

I love when leagues get big, gaudy trophies. I'm in another league with a bunch of friends where we do play for money (although it's a lot less involved than Atkins&Rebel's 16-team league - sounds fun, though!), and we have a traveling trophy. One year, one of the other players moved to Australia, so I was very happy when I beat them in the championship (thanks to a stat correction, no less!) and didn't have to figure out how to ship it to them.

But yeah, the consensus here has me feeling a bit better - it seems like they're trying to have it both ways - a fun, work league, but also a way to get some money involved.

IE · Tue Sep 20, 2022 10:46 am

Arkansasbear wrote: ↑Mon Sep 19, 2022 10:31 pm
IE wrote: ↑Thu Sep 15, 2022 6:10 pm They're definitely assholes if they think that a league with dumb rules is good. The waiver claim thing is particular bogus. Don't play if you don't have time to make changes. Actually the autodraft and punishing people for making changes is sort of like a risk-free one in ten (or whatever) shot at free money for people hoping to get the luck of the draw and then do nothing. It isn't really fantasy football.
I think the auto draft is a good thing for a group of friends who are too busy in life to get devote a ton of time to it but want to have fun with their friends. A group of my friends did when we all had kids in sports and crazy work schedules and none of us wanted to give it much time but we still wanted to have something to talk trash over. We had something like a $50 buy in fee that all went to the winner (who then had to spend it all hosting a post season party at their house - again just an excuse on us having to get together) and we had a trophy that the winner kept for a year and a plate was added each listing the winner. That thing was freaking massive. It made the Stanley cup look like a paper weight. The years I had it I was banned from bringing it home it so big and gawdy.

Just a point of clarification - it isn't the autodraft that is a problem... it is a valuable tool for busy people and/or less serious leagues. In this case what I was criticizing is the mandatory autodrafting for the league he was describing.

LacertineForest · Fri Jan 20, 2023 5:48 pm

Well, this whole thing got really weird.

I found out in October that there was also a buy-in I wasn't aware of and complained via email to basically everyone in the league about the lack of communication and clarity with things. The commissioner and I sent some back-and-forth messages, none of which were particularly nasty, but they didn't exactly leave a good taste in your mouth. I wasn't even necessarily trying to call him out, just voicing my displeasure at the general lack of communication.

I hardly worked with the commissioner, and as such I basically haven't talked to him since. This morning, I found out he had a brain bleed last night and he died today. I feel awful for him and his family, and also a bit guilty that my last real interaction with him was me pissing and moaning about what basically amounts to a nice lunch (well, it was the principal more than the amount of money, but whatever).

IE · Tue Feb 14, 2023 10:38 am

LacertineForest wrote: ↑Fri Jan 20, 2023 5:48 pm Well, this whole thing got really weird.

I found out in October that there was also a buy-in I wasn't aware of and complained via email to basically everyone in the league about the lack of communication and clarity with things. The commissioner and I sent some back-and-forth messages, none of which were particularly nasty, but they didn't exactly leave a good taste in your mouth. I wasn't even necessarily trying to call him out, just voicing my displeasure at the general lack of communication.

I hardly worked with the commissioner, and as such I basically haven't talked to him since. This morning, I found out he had a brain bleed last night and he died today. I feel awful for him and his family, and also a bit guilty that my last real interaction with him was me pissing and moaning about what basically amounts to a nice lunch (well, it was the principal more than the amount of money, but whatever).

Wow that's too bad. There's a saying that we should treat all of our interactions with people like they may be our last (leave a pleasant impression). I need to get better at that.