RT Masters: Rules

[Loqutis]

Rules - Introduction

The popularity of fantasy games has grown tremendously in the last decade. The ability of the Web to deliver immediate sports statistics takes interaction with the sporting world to a whole new level, increasing the enjoyment of fantasy games by providing a more personal experience for sports fans of all ages and intensities. In every facet of the game -- engineering, design, technical support, price, content, customer interaction, and overall enjoyment

What are Fantasy Games?
Fantasy games are a way for individuals to compete against each other to see who has the best managing skills in any given sport. Fantasy Football is traditionally considered the most popular of all fantasy games.

The first order of business in creating any fantasy league is collecting its members. As "team owners," these individuals draft real-life, professional players to be members of their respective teams. The statistics these players generate in their real games are collected, and fantasy points are awarded based on these numbers -- the better a player performs, the more fantasy points he accrues for his owner's team. In fantasy football, these points determine a winner in a weekly head-to-head match-up of two of the league's teams. The team that accumulates the most victories over the course of the season -- and prevails in the postseason -- is declared the League Winner.

What is Fantasy Football?
Fantasy Football is the closest thing you can find to buying your own franchise and becoming the team's manager, owner, and president all in one. All decisions are yours to make. Each team owner is supplied with all of the tools -- live box scores, unlimited waivers and trades, free agency, custom team injury updates, an all-empowering commissioner, league bulletin boards, sortable stats for all players, etc. -- everything needed to build a team in the best manner possible.

Statistical reports, expert analysis, and up-to-date feature articles from ESPN.com and CBSsportsline editors are readily available on the web to keep owners informed. Armed with this information, owners are free to create the team of their dreams. To win, an owner has to be crafty, as each team competes directly with nine other owners who are equally determined to come out on top. Owners can choose who they compete against and are free to join a league at their own level of competition.

During the final four weeks of the NFL season, the top 6 teams (2 division qualifiers and two wild card teams) will play each other in the playoffs for the league championship, while the remaining teams plan for next season.

Teams

Positions and Active Roster
A team's active roster consists of 8 players -- six offensive players, one kicker, and one defensive unit. The defensive unit (D) includes the defense and special teams of a single NFL team. Only your active roster will accumulate points for your team -- players on your bench gain personal stats but these are NOT included as points for your team. The eight active roster spots of each team are filled using the following requirements and position maximums:

1 - Quarterback (QB)
1-2* - Running Backs (RB)
2-3* - Wide Receivers (WR)
1 - Tight End (TE)
1 - Kicker (K)
1 - Defensive Unit (D)


* - You have the option to set your lineup in two formats: standard (2 RBs, 2 WRs) or run-and-shoot (1 RB, 3 WRs). 3 RBs and 1 WR is not a possible combination.

You can still only have a total of eight players on your bench at one time. A team's minimum roster size is eight, so you could choose for your bench to be completely empty.

Scoring System

The eight players on a team's active roster generate statistics that earn points which are added together for a weekly score. Statistics of bench players do NOT earn points. The winner of the game is the team with more points earned for the week. In the event that both you and your opponent accumulate the same number of points, a tie will be given. No playoff game can end in a tie, see the Playoffs page for more information.

Offense:
Quarterbacks (QB), Running Backs (RB), Wide Receivers (WR), Tight Ends (TE)
1 pt per reception
6 pts per rushing or receiving TD
4 pts per passing TD
2 pts per rushing or receiving 2 pt conversion (note: teams do not receive points
for yardage gained during the conversion)
2 pts per passing 2 pt conversion
1 pt per 10 yards rushing or receiving
1 pt per 25 yards passing

Kickers (K)
5 pts per 50+ yard FG made
4 pts per 40-49 yard FG made
3 pts per FG made, 39 yards or less
2 pts per rushing, passing, or receiving 2 pt conversion
1 pt per Extra Point made

Defensive/Special Teams (D)
10 pts per shutout
7 pts for 2-6 points allowed
4 pts for 7-13 points allowed (note: team defense is responsible for all points allowed)
1 pt for 14-17 points allowed

3 pts per defensive or special teams TD
2 pts per interception
2 pts per fumble recovery (Note: includes a fumble by the opposing team out of the end zone)
2 pts per safety
1 pt per sack
2 points per blocked Feild Goal, Punt or Extra Point

All scores are based entirely on the official AP statistic provided to Real time Sports web site. No other statistical source will be used. Not NFL.com not ESPN not your local Newspaper. AP is the final word

Schedule

Teams play 26 regular-season games. Each team will play a double header every week playing teams within their Division twice by the end of the season. At the end of the fantasy football regular season (after Week 13), the top 8 teams advance to the League "Playoff Bracket" while the other 16 teams plan for next season. See the Playoffs section of the rules for more information on the postseason.

Transactions

Teams can make changes to their lineup throughout the week. Players may be moved in or out of a team's active roster until the start of that indiviual players game. Each player then becomes locked at their current position in the active roster. Players that become locked in your lineup may not be moved again until 7:00 a.m. on Tuesday.

Activating/Benching Players
You can decide which eight players to start for the upcoming game each week. The Team Capsule page allows you to analyze each of your current players, review their year-to-date and previous week's performance, and freely move players between your active roster and bench. As detailed in transactions (above) roster moves involving a player may be made right up until that player is scheduled to begin play for the week.

Each team is required to have 8 players active at all times. As a result, when you make transactions during the week you must move a player to the bench or waivers when moving a player to the starting lineup.

Adding/Dropping Players
There are many players available in the player pools which you may want to pick up for your squad each week. The player pools may be searched by position from your Modify Roster page. These unsigned players are available to add to your team at all times that a player is not frozen. Each week, players are frozen -- may not be added to a team's roster, cut, or traded -- from the time they begin play until 7:00 a.m. on Tuesday. When all 16 slots on a roster are filled, a team must drop a player before or during the addition of a new player. See Waivers and Free Agency for more information on this matter.

Trade

Trade Deadline:
through the 9th week of the NFL season

Trading
Players may be traded between teams throughout the year (except during he trading freeze period of week 11 through the league Superbowl) and there is no limit to the number of trades a team can make during that period. Trades do not necessarily need to include the same number of players, though each team must stay within the restrictions of the 16 man roster. In the event that a trade is accepted and is invalidated by a subsequent roster move -- often in a two-for-one trade the team receiving two players must create an empty bench spot prior to the execution of the trade .

Note that the week 9 deadline is only for trades between teams. Owners are free to add and drop players to free agency and waivers as usual throughout the entire season and the playoffs.

Trade Review
Trades must be made in an attempt to benefit BOTH teams. If a trade is discovered that appears to be collusive, or one-sided to the point that it cannot benefit one of the parties involved, league members may protest the trade and send it on to the Commissioner for review. The League Office reserves the right to handle all such situations to preserve the integrity of the game.

In any situation where the League Office believes that a proposed trade is collusive or will not fairly benefit both teams, the League Office may reject the trade. The League Office further reserves the right to suspend or revoke a team owner's ability to propose or protest trades when the League Office believes, using reasonable discretion, that a team owner has acted in a collusive or unsportsmanlike manner or in any other manner which undermines the integrity of the game. The League Office further reserves the right to suspend, place on probation or revoke the ownership of any team with regards to unfair play. The decisions of the League Office on all such matters shall be final and binding.

Trade Vetoes

The following are NOT sufficient reasons to veto a trade:

I changed my mind
Once you complete a trade, it's too late to change your mind. It's unfair to the other owner involved.

I will quit if this trade goes through
Sorry, this game is not about blackmail. We can't let statements like these make our decisions for us.

My little brother/mom/dog hit the button by accident
It is your responsibility to keep your account access away from irresponsible people or pets.

The owners have the same e-mail address
Collusion is against the rules. Sharing an account is not. Please have some amount of proof before you accuse another owner in the league of collusion.


A player is injured AFTER the trade was accepted
As long as the player was healthy when the trade was made, we consider the trade to be in 'good faith'.

So-and-so is a proven veteran - how can you trade him for a rookie?
We see this often. We judge a trade on how likely we think it is that it will help a team. If each team has a decent possibility to improve, we'll OK it.

Reasons the League Office will consider vetoing a trade:

Both owners protested the trade and asked us to cancel
Simple enough - no explanation needed.

Collusion
On rare occasions, collusion is very evident. We'll veto these automatically.

A recently injured or retired player is involved, and the trade occurred right after the injury or retirement.
This is to protect an owner who leaves an offer on the table, that is snatched up by an unscrupulous trading partner right after an injury is announced.

We feel the trade is extremely unlikely to help one of the teams
This is the most controversial responsibility of the League Office. Usually, no matter what the final decision is, one or more owners will be unhappy. The decisions are not personal. They are informed decisions made by the League Office and are based on empirical data and statistics. If, in the League's judgement, both teams have a reasonable chance to improve their position through the trade, and the trade is being made in good faith, the League Office will approve the trade. Many owners automatically protest a trade if a "big name" player is involved - however, fantasy value can differ (sometimes greatly) from real value or reputation. The decisions are often very close. The panel's responsibility is to make the most informed decision it can, based on the data available when it reviews the protest.

Final thoughts:

Decisions on protests are final. We will never re-create a voided trade. If you feel the League Office's decision was in error, we recommend reproposing the trade and then registering a "protest" yourself, except you should include reasons to allow the trade instead of reasons to veto it. Situations can change - what was unfair last week may be fair this week. For example, a running back fighting for a starting spot would have his stock go way up if his competitor for the job was significantly injured.

Remember - the game is supposed to be fun. Get out there and make some deals!

Waivers and Free Agency

"Waivers" is simply a holding tank for players that allows all members of a league to have a fair opportunity to add a player to their team. Players are placed on waivers (1) at the start of each week (2) when they are dropped from a team, and (3) when a new player is first introduced to the player pool.

Unowned players reside on waivers following each week of play, residing there from Monday morning until they begin running on Wednesday. Due to the high volume of waiver claims at certain times of the season, it may take multiple hours for all waivers for all leagues to process. At the clearance time, the player leaves waivers to join either a team (if a request was made) or the free-agent pool (if no request was made). Unclaimed players become free agents and may be picked up on a first-come, first-served basis without affecting a team's waiver position.

Waiver claims are awarded based on the waiver position of each team. Your waiver position is the relative power you have when selecting a player off of the waiver wire. When more than one team requests a player in waivers, the player is awarded to the team with the lower waiver position (closer to 1). When a claim is resolved, the waiver position for the team that received the player is changed to 14 (the lowest priority) and all the other teams move up a position.

Waiver schedule
Following every week of fantasy play, each team's waiver position is reconfigured according to the team's position in the standings -- the team with the worst record receives the best waiver position (number 1) and the top team receives the worst waiver position 14. * In the event of a tie (identical won-lost records) the team with the lowest number of fantasy “points for” is given the better position (closer to 1). In the event that two or more teams have identical records and fantasy points, “points against” is used as the next tie-breaker with the teams with the most points against getting the better waiver position. If none of these tie-breakers break the tie, a random drawing will be made to determine which team receives the higher waiver position.

Waivers are proposed by owners daily beginning on Tuesday at 7:00 am , Note that due to the high volume of waiver claims at certain times of the season, it may take multiple hours for all waivers to process. Also, during certain weeks of the NFL season, the first game of the week is played on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday, affecting the waiver process.

* - In the event that there is an official scoring change (affecting the outcome of a game) made after the initial weekly run of waivers on Wednesday, waiver positions and claims will not be retroactively changed.

Playoffs

The fantasy playoffs begin in the 14th week of the NFL's regular season. The team with the highest point total advances. Each playoff team will have the opportunity to change their active roster between each week of playoff play.

Making the Playoffs
The top eight teams -- six divisional qualifiers and two wild card teams -- compete for the League Championship. The wild card teams will be determined according to the tie-breaker below.The wild card teams may come from any division.

Playoff Brackets
The brackets are set similar to the NCAA Tournament. Positions are concrete. Teams are positioned so that the teams with the best two records have the greatest (in theory) chance of facing each other for the championship. This also allows for any combination of teams to face each other in the "Superbowl" game. Not just the Victor Conference champ -vs- CHampion Conference victor every year.


Determining Playoff positions

Tie Breaking Scheme:
1. Overall Record
2. Head-To-Head Competition
3. Divisional Record
4. Total Points Scored
5. Points Scored Against

The winner each division advance based on the formula above
and the remaining two positions are determined using the following formula

Tie Breaking Scheme:
1. Overall Record
2. Head-To-Head Competition
4. Total Points Scored
3. Divisional Record
5. Points Scored Against

Playoff Tie Breaker:
In the event of a tie during the playoffs, the victory will be awarded to the higher seeded team. This rewards the team with the better regular season win lose record.

Transactions:
Only teams which are still active in the postseason may adjust their rosters through Free Agency or Waivers. All Trades are suspended after week 9.

[Loqutis]

I've been fielding some questions concerning the draft and how it's going to be run. Since we have so many owners and so many schedules to try and coordinate a LIVE draft really isn't an option. Instead we're going to have a continuos draft

What will happen is the draft will be set up through the RT website and inside our league website. This way i won't have to reload everyones picks into the system.

Each owner will have 24 hours from the last selection to make their selection. The hope is everyone will check the draft board every day (more often if possible) and make their selection. In this way we won't actually have 24 hours pass for each pick, and everyone won't have to be on the same schedule or in the same time zone.

I'll also start a Discussion thread RT Masters league Draft Discussion where all league owners, and forum members, can discuss each selection in detail. After each pick I would really like the owner who made the section to post their pick in this tread and a brief comment on why they selected tis player at this point in he draft

[Loqutis]

the draft will begin as soon as all the team slots are filled.

At that point everyones name will be thrown into a hat and selected one at a time to determine the draft order.

I will, of course, cheat and draw my name out of the hat first

[Littlebighead]

[Loqutis]

2 more spots to fill and we're all set.

League Name = RT Masters League

Conference = Champion League

Western Division
power18
c0nfederate5
Larry
Kyle


Central EW Division
Drew
ThePez
BJ
nuttz4football

Eastern Division
4U2NV
Jackal
Team 3
Team 4

Conference = Victor League

Northern Division
loqutis
TBarrister
DarthBall
Warpigs


Central NS Division
TBLCommish
elwayfan446
Conn
Little Big Head


Southern Division
Odieman
Guzzlers
tribe
Chavez

[Loqutis]

now is the time to ask any clarification questions you may have about the rules.

Fire away and I'll answer them as fast as possible.

[Littlebighead]

so there will be two seperate drafts going on? one for each conferance

[Loqutis]

yes there will. Both will start at the same time. As it stands now I need to speak with a site administrator. Cyclone or power18 when the league is filled (have the site comped).

At that point I've been assured the site can automatically set up a schedule where each team plays a double header every week and each team will play the teams in their conference twice.

Also, with the RT Platinum edition. we have the ability to run 2 separate drafts for each conference where each playe may be drafted only once in each conference.

[Loqutis]

When is the draft and when will you show the draft order?

I'll start the draft ONE day after all the slots are filled I hope to have the league filled by Wednesday or Thursday.

[elwayfan446]

Are you going to announce the draft order when the league is filled before the draft gets underway?

[Loqutis]

Once everyone is in (I plan on filling the last spot today) I'll send a mass e-mail to the league, letting everyone know the draft will start in 24 hours. Draft order and the schedule will be determined automatically by the website

the only person who will not receive the e-mail notification is power18. I don't have his e-mail

[elwayfan446]

Sounds good

[Littlebighead]

I noticed that the maximum roster size is 16. Could you draft 8rbs provided that your starting line up has the require positions filled?

[Loqutis]

[Glimmer]

Little big head good to see you in the league. I have my team registered as glimmer. I might see if I can change it since my name on fftoday is Zackattack. Competition looks like it will be fierce. Are we serpentining in this draft?