I've been playing fantasy football for seven of the last eight years with Disney/MSN/ESPN/Starwave's FFL system, which has obviously gone through a lot of owners. This is my last year playing in it, though.
Because most of us have kids now, our original group of participants has dwindled down to five people. Disney/MSN/ESPN/Starwave (hereafter referred to as just "ESPN") forces leagues to be 10 people, so we had five randomly assigned to us, killing any dynamics: there's very little opportunity for trash talk when you don't know who you're dealing with.
The quality of the gameplay has suffered, too. ESPN installed all sorts of annoying scripting to make the participants log in before checking game results. This might not be so bad if they didn't bombard us with upsells to premium information, tie-ins to their other games, and ad banners (for a service I'm paying for). Having the premium services makes it a bit difficult for people who are just armchair-armchair managers. I just dig the numbers and the stats.
And finally... my team sucked, going (4 - 9) in the regular season -- the worst I've done since starting FFL in 1995. The booby prize was I was undefeated in the "consolation round."
The biggest problem was drafted poorly. For example, I ended up getting Michael Vick, three days after he was injured in preseason. I forget what it was, except that it was serious enough that he was effectively a no-op for the "regular" FFL season. Worse, he was one of the "undroppable" players in the league from all the hyperbole last year. (The powers that run FFL designate certain players as "undroppable" to prevent people from accidentally deleting them or trying to game the system.) When they made Vick droppable in late October, he was outta my roster. In the meantime, my flexilbity of prowling the waiver wire was reduced.
Another drafting mistake was Jimmy Smith, who was serving a suspension for drug infractions. The guy has historically been a solid player, but he wasn't available for four weeks. With Brunell struggling, I should have dropped him right then, but I wasted another valuable reserve spot hoping things would improve.
Not a draft mistake, but just bad timing... Marshall Faulk, running back for the St. Louis Rams, who was out seven weeks with a knee injury. Paired with a confident and uninjured QB, he's a machine, able to catch and run. His coming back saved me from being shut out.
Because most of us have kids now, our original group of participants has dwindled down to five people. Disney/MSN/ESPN/Starwave (hereafter referred to as just "ESPN") forces leagues to be 10 people, so we had five randomly assigned to us, killing any dynamics: there's very little opportunity for trash talk when you don't know who you're dealing with.
The quality of the gameplay has suffered, too. ESPN installed all sorts of annoying scripting to make the participants log in before checking game results. This might not be so bad if they didn't bombard us with upsells to premium information, tie-ins to their other games, and ad banners (for a service I'm paying for). Having the premium services makes it a bit difficult for people who are just armchair-armchair managers. I just dig the numbers and the stats.
And finally... my team sucked, going (4 - 9) in the regular season -- the worst I've done since starting FFL in 1995. The booby prize was I was undefeated in the "consolation round."
The biggest problem was drafted poorly. For example, I ended up getting Michael Vick, three days after he was injured in preseason. I forget what it was, except that it was serious enough that he was effectively a no-op for the "regular" FFL season. Worse, he was one of the "undroppable" players in the league from all the hyperbole last year. (The powers that run FFL designate certain players as "undroppable" to prevent people from accidentally deleting them or trying to game the system.) When they made Vick droppable in late October, he was outta my roster. In the meantime, my flexilbity of prowling the waiver wire was reduced.
Another drafting mistake was Jimmy Smith, who was serving a suspension for drug infractions. The guy has historically been a solid player, but he wasn't available for four weeks. With Brunell struggling, I should have dropped him right then, but I wasted another valuable reserve spot hoping things would improve.
Not a draft mistake, but just bad timing... Marshall Faulk, running back for the St. Louis Rams, who was out seven weeks with a knee injury. Paired with a confident and uninjured QB, he's a machine, able to catch and run. His coming back saved me from being shut out.
.
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