Rules

 A Classic Guide to Getting Ahead and Winning Trophies While Following The Rules 

 

Chapter I: League Structure and Outline of Rules
1.     The purpose of this league

a.    We aspire to be a league filled with people that genuinely enjoy each other as a group of friends or are friendly people;

b.     We enjoy creating an environment that mimics that of an MLS organization. That is, we intend this fantasy league to mimic closely the byzantine rule-system of MLS, for better or for worse.

2.    Owners

a.     All individuals participating with running the league and operating teams are refereed to in this document as either “teams”, “team owners” or simply “owners”.

b.     The specific responsibilities of owners are detailed specifically in Chapter II.

3.     Commissioner

a.     The uses a League Commissioner as the acting figure head of the league.

b.     The Commissioner will rule on any disputes and make clarifying rulings on current rule sets. Decisions made by the Commissioner can be appealed, but can only be overturned by the majority vote of team owners. The intention isn’t for the Commissioner to be a dictator but to make quick decisions as necessary for the betterment of the league both immediate and future.

=c. The current League Commissioner is Harrison Crow.

=4.     Annual Vote

=a. Between the end of every season (MLS Cup) and the start of the next season, signaled specifically by the keeper deadline, there will be a vote to confirm or change these rules as we think necessary and to best reflect changes to the MLS system and structure.

=b. The vote will include a break down of the following chapters: Team Ownership, Point System, Roster and Lineup Rules, Player Acquisition, Budgetary and Financial Information and lastly, the Regular Season Calendar.

=c. A majority vote is needed to ratify all rules. Should the rules not pass a majority vote, a breakdown of each individual chapter should be voted upon with discussion highlighting all points of contention.

= d. Should something come up that isn’t detailed in the rules during the regular season, a nomination will be made by the commissioner based upon input by all teams and a vote will occur to provide guidance. A majority vote is needed to ratify the guidance and once that has been passed it should be added to this document as a new rule.

Chapter II: Team Ownership
= 1.      Team involvement 

a. Owners should be checking in weekly with the league through the Slack team communication web application, setting their weekly line-ups for weekend match-ups through the google drive, and be willing to respond to trades and partake in any votes needed for rule clarification in a timely manner.

b. Obviously there are always life encumbrances and plenty of issues that complicate our participation. Patience and leeway should always be granted to an individual that wants to be involved but goes through a period of time in which they are unable to be as active as they would like.

c. In any case of delay or “life encumbrance” please communicate that to the commissioner either through e-mail or direct message on slack. Additionally, a minimum of setting an injury free line-up for a weekend game is still the least acceptable level of participation. If that cannot occur then alternative plan will be developed.

d. At any time a team may elect an “assistant” or “caretaker manager” in the interim basis without a league vote. But should consult the commissioner before hand and an announcement to the rest of the league must occur.

e. The league/commissioner shall intervene should a repeated issue of negligence with week head-to-head line-up selections occur. The league and commissioner will work to either find a way to assist the owner or select a caretaker manager for whatever term is deemed necessary.

2.      Team Ownership replacement 

a. Should a situation arise where we need to permanently replace an owner, a vote should take place for a new owner. A majority would be needed to elect an individual into our league as a new team owner. Once the owner is elected into the league he or she will inherit the team as-is.

b. Should a situation arise where an immediate decision need to be made the league commission may step in and elect an owner. If the selection does not meet the approval of the league, an opposition vote may occur with a majority vote needed to overturn.

3.      Expansion or Contraction 

a. This league was originally set up with 10 teams in 2016. The existing owners voted to expand the league to 12 teams for the 2017 season. It will remain at 12 teams until the league decides to contract or expand by a majority vote.

4.      Selection of Expansion Team Owners 

a. If the league decides to expand the number of teams in the league for the next season, a form will be created and every returning team will have five unique nominations or individuals they feel should be extended an offer to participate in the league.

b. Once every returning team has submitted their form with nominations then the list will be racked and stacked based upon the most frequently nominated individual.

c. Offers will be extended to those with the highest multiple nominations.

d. Tie-breakers will be discussed and/or voted upon to discern who next to extend offers to.

e. Should the league run out of suggested or interested parties, the league commissioner will take it upon himself whether to pursue expansion or find suitable parties that can round out the expansion bid. Should the league request an opposition vote for whomever is elected a majority vote is required to overturn the Commissioner’s decision.

Chapter III: The Points System
1.      Head-to-Head Games 

a. Games will be played head-to-head and will be decided by an accumulation of point total. The team that gets the most points will record a win; if the two teams get equal points they will be awarded a draw. Points will be rounded to the nearest tenth of a point.

b. Scoring will be conducted as games are played to completition for the player's involved. Should the heat-to-head match-up end within a ten point difference between the two teams the match-up should be rescored

2.      Scoring Source 

a. This league will utilize Opta as the determinate in recording each of these events—more specifically we will use WhoScored chalkboards to account for the event actions that constitute points.

3.      Off-Season Scoring Adjustment 

a. Every season an effort should be made to properly assign the most accurate and representative point ratios to properly weigh and balance positions and talents as a whole. We will try closely represent the talent level of those taking the pitch every week in MLS. It’s important that we come to an agreement on how the point’s system best reflects this.

4.      Point System Theory 

a. Goals, by most measurements, are the most vital and important events that can take place in a match and thus the point structure should be based around a goal-determinate ratio system. That said all positions should be relevant and effectual in the final outcome of a match.

5.      Point structure 

a. General Points 

i.     Each half played:  +1 point

ii. Attempted pass:  +0.05 points

iii. Yellow card:  -1 point

iv. Red Card:  -2 points

b. Goalkeeper Points 

i.     Clean sheet:  +8 points

ii. Save:  +0.65 points

iii. Claims:  +0.4 points

iv. Punches:  +0.2 points

v.     Two or more goals allowed in a match:  -2 points

c. Defensive points 

i.     Interception:  +0.4 points

ii. Tackle:  +0.4 points

iii. Blocked shots:  +0.4 points

iv. Clearances:  +0.6 points

d. Attacking Points 

i.     Non-penalty goal:  +6 points

ii. Penalty goal:  +3 points

iii. Assist:  +4 points

iv. Key Pass:  +0.75 points

v.     Through ball key pass: +1.75 points

vi. Shot from inside the 18 yard box:  +0.7 points

vii. Shot from outside the 18 yard box:  +0.4 points

Chapter IV: Roster and Line-up Rules
'''1.     Defined Roster Spots '''

a. Senior Roster:  Each team starts with a 25-man roster. There is no enforcement of defined positional depth. However, it would be advisable to have at your disposal one goalkeeper, three central defenders (CD), two outside defenders (OD), three central midfielders (CM), two outside midfielders (OM), and three forwards (FW) to meet eligible formation restrictions.

b. Discovery Reserve Spot (DRS):  Each team retain preference for one player that is not under contract with MLS. This bid may only occur during the Super Auction. This reservation will be referred to as the Discovery Reserve Spot (DRS) with the intention of having first claim to the player should he enter MLS. The DRS is good for only a single year unless a keeper spot is utilized. This reserve spot is not considered part of the normal 25 man senior roster and their salary cost does not count against the team’s salary cap.

i.     Should the player enter MLS during the week and prior to the start of games a transaction and roster announcement will need to be made moving that player from their DRS to the Senior Roster.

ii. Should an owner not have an immediate roster spot, the team can either allow the player to remain in a DRS or release a player through either the waiver or buyout mechanism to create a roster spot.

c. Prospect Reserve Lists (PRL):  Each team may retain five player's in their Prospect Preserve Lists (PRL). Players may be added as to the PRL if they are under 24 years old and logged fewer than 500 MLS minutes. While on the PRL roster, their bid/salary cost doesn't count against the budget but are not eligible to start on your in weekly head-to-head games.

i.     Eligible players may be demoted and promoted from the PRL prior to the start of the first game of the week.

ii. If you have at least a single PRL player that's meets the criteria to remain on the PRL at the end of the season you may be awarded an additional keeper slot specificaly for your PRL. Limit one spot per team. However, this spot is tradeable to a team that does not have one. However PRL criteria still applies.

iii. A player may stay on the PRL once surpassing all criteria of age and time played. However, once promoted they may not be demoted back to the PRL. If the season ends and the player is still on the PRL the team may use a regular keeper spot on the player OR release the player to the RED draft pool. Player may not utilize a PRL keeper spot if ineligible for PRL.

'''2.     Determining Positional Eligibility '''

a. All player positions at the start of the season will be dictated according to positions played as documented by WhoScored in the previous season with at least 90 minutes.

i.     It’s important to understand that WhoScored does not provide positions for subbed players. If you have documentation or chalkboards of a player filling a specific position that is not documented you may submit/request additional positional eligibility from the commissioner in the ‘#positionaladjustments’ channel within the league slack page.

ii. No team should take it upon themselves to automatically assume that the player has eligibility without clearance from the commissioner or proven eligibility in WhoScored.

b. Entering into the summer season each team must conduct a self-audit, and properly adjust any changes in positional eligibility in their roster for that season. If a player be played in an ineligible position, all points accrued for that week will be forfeit.

c. Players can gain eligibility for a position at any time in the season by playing 90 minutes at that position.

d. Any new player entering the league will have their position eligibility determined by the Commissioner should they not have previous information in WhoScored.

e. Should an owner disagree with the Commissioner’s ruling they may request a team vote for the position(s) being requestedrequiring a majority.

'''3.     Official Eligible Lineups '''

a. There are six approved positions for official lines

i.     GK = Goalkeeper

ii. OD = Outside Defender, otherwise known as a full back. We do not distinguish between those on the left or on the right. An outside defender is simply an outside defender.

iii. CD = Central Defender, otherwise known as a centerback.

iv. OM = Outside Midfielder, otherwise known as a wide midfielder, winger or left/right midfielder. Again, we don’t distinguish between which side they play, just that they place outside midfield.

v.     CM = Central Midfielder, this can be a defensive midfielder, central attacking midfielder. It doesn’t matter.

vi. FW = Forward or center forward aka striker.

b. There are a total of nine authorized line-ups or positional combinations that may be submitted each week for matches. You can see the different combinations as provided in the image below. '''4.     Annual Keepers '''

a. Each season, following the MLS Cup and prior to the Super Re-Entry Draft, a deadline will be set by the Commissioner for teams to elect players as “keepers”. They have the opportunity to keep these players for the next season at the same price as they won during the Super Auction. If the player has gone two seasons without being drafted during the Super Auction the player will earn an imposed keeper tax upon that individual player.

5.     Keeper Tax 

a. Once a player has missed two sequential Super Auctions there will be an incumbency tax on the salary of that player. The tax applied is equivalent to 1.2 times the salary and rounded up to the nearest dollar.

i.     Should a player’s salary be under $10 then the tax will incur an additional $10.

b. Each year following will be an additional 20% will be added to the tax.

'''6.     Weekly Deadlines and Substitution Protocol '''

a. Line-ups, substitutions, and formations must be set by the first kickoff of the first game each week to include mid-week games.

b. Teams may list three substitution players, ranked 1 through 3, with their positional ranks as well.

c. At the end of the week, if a starter plays zero minutes, his position may be filled by the first sub listed with that same positional preference. (Example below—If the first player subbed out is an OD, Acosta becomes the substitute for that position as they have “first preference” at that position.)

i.     Ellis CD  OD

ii. Acosta OD  CM

iii. Shuttleworth GK

d. The substitution section of the lineup spreadsheets will have a section for scorers to document which starters have been subbed, their position, and the player substituting in.

e. Any changes to the substitution list after kickoff of the first game that week are prohibited. Any player caught modifying their substitution list once games are underway will have any/all points for that particular position voided. We are operating on an Honor System, so please respect that out of sportsmanship and love of the game.

f. If an owner fails to submit a lineup before the kickoff deadline in a given week, they will revert to the previous week’s lineup as a default, but will not include substitutes posted in the previous week.

Chapter V: Player Acquisition Mechanism
'''1.     Super Auction '''

a. A Super Auction will take place approximately a month prior to the season, on or around February 1st. This will be a live auction style draft in which each team, in randomly generated order, takes turns nominating players and bidding upon them until every team passes or a 12 hour period has elapsed in which every team has either passed or not responded. This draft goes on until every team fills all 25 roster spots, or all owners pass on nominating and bidding on players. Teams are not required to fill all 25 roster spots.

2.     Free-Agency 

a. Due to complexities of “dibs” and a lack of automation we will utilize a Silent Auction (see: 5.3a for rules) during the week for all free-agent claims. Teams in need of supplement players may submit a nomination and bid upon players during the week of the regular season.

b. The player pool is only those of whom are under contract with MLS and who does not currently reside on an opponents roster.

i.     Discovery Reserve Spots (DRS) claims only takes place during the Super Auction and are not part of the free-agency process.

'''3.     Silent Auction  '''

a. A nomination document will be posted early in the week during the regular season, following the completion of past week games. All nominations are due within a reasonable time to be determined when the document is posted.

b. Any team may nominate any player under contract with MLS not currently residing on an opposing team.

c. If multiple teams nominate the same player, ties will go to the lowest total points, then worst record, then coin flip by the commissioner if necessary.

d. A list of which players nominated and whom nominated them will be made available in addition to the bidding form once the nomination time has been completed.

i.      If a team nominates a player, they must bid at least $1 in the bidding form to be eligible for tying any other $1 bids. A blank bidding column assumes no bid.

ii. If a nominated player receives no bids, the team that nominated him must roster the player for $1.

e. Roster cuts/buyouts can only occur BEFORE or AFTER Nomination process, never during.

f. Winning bids will be announced once all forms are submitted with the gainning teams and bidding documentation released to all for transparency and fact check.

i.     Tie-breakers are awarded to the team with the fewest points accrued for the season.

g. If the winner of the blind auction already has a full roster, they must cut an existing player on their roster, as well as absorb their salary cap hit if their one free waiver for the year has already been used.

i.     Teams may bid on players they have previously bought out or waived. However, that team must place a bid equal to at least the player's previous salary amount.

h. All bidding is due by a time to be determined with the posting of the bidding document.

i. Winning bids will be announced in transaction channel following the closing of the bids.

'''4.     Releasing Players '''

a. Of course there comes a time in which a player becomes either useless or someone of more value comes up and you must make room for them. Waiving a player releases him back to the rest of league and his auction fee counts against your budget in full. As the releasing team you lose any claim to the player.

i.     As mentioned in 5.3.d.i Teams may bid on players they previously waived but the minimum bid must be equal to that of their budgetary charge.

ii. Teams in this way will affectively pay “double” for the player creating a purposeful penalty in an attempt to prevent a gaming of the system.

iii. A dead contract, or the budgetary charge of a waived player, may be absorbed by another team should it be agreed upon by that other party.

b. Teams may release one player per season without a charge against the budget. Called a “buyout”.

c. If the player has a “buyout” used against them they become a free-agent like any other free-agent and anyone in the league may place an auction bid for that player.

'''5.     Trades and Acquiring Resources '''

a. When attempting to acquire players there are times that a team needs more leverage than just another player or players in return. Teams may use General Allocation Money (GAM) in addition a team may offer up any number of possible or inventive resources. Some of those resources include nominations, re-entry draft picks, keeper spots, or even a buyout. The league should attempt to encourage inventive ways for teams to recoup value and expenses in an effort to increase teams avenues in acquiring players due to complications inherit to the MLS player pool.

'''6.     Trade Window Deadline '''

a. There will be a general trade deadline established for each year prior to the start of the summer schedule. No trades or transactions may be made from that day until the conclusion of the post-season tournament.

b. Should an emergency situation be identified by a team where they will be unable to field a full 11 player team with a valid roster during this period, they have the responsibility to bring the situation to the Commissioner. A solution will be worked out that is in the best interest of the league as a whole while allowing the team to field a full team that is still relatively competitive in the weekend matches.

'''7.     End-Of-Season Trade Window '''

a. At the conclusion of the MLS Cup, a trade window shall be established until January 1 of the new year.

b. During this trade window, any player or resource may be traded between teams.

'''8.     Expansion Draft and Preferential Treatment of Expansion Teams '''

a. Following the creation of expansion teams an expansion draft date will be set to provide the teams with players.

i.     All players priced at $20 and over are excluded from the expansion draft and do not need to be protected.

ii. In addition to $20+ players being exempted from the expansion draft, every team will have a three player exemption list in which they can prevent players from being selected.

iii. Any player under $20 and not on the three-player protection list will be available to be selected by an expansion team during the expansion draft.

iv. The expansion teams as a whole may not collect more than three players from any one specific team within the league as a whole.

v.     If a team loses two players during the draft that team may add a fourth player to their exemption list.

b. All expansion teams will be chosen at random to have first opportunity at Re-Entry Draft selections. No owner that managed a team in the previous season will select before them.

c. All expansion teams will be chosen at random to have first opportunity at nominations in the Super Auction, with no owner that managed a team in the previous season selecting before them. As above, a random generator will be used to determine the selection order.

'''9.     Super Re-Entry Draft (RED) '''

a. The Super Re-Entry Draft occurs every year following the elected keeper deadline and prior to the Super Auction. The intention of this draft is to try and persevere some of the good values left from the previous year and lighten the time involved during the Super Auction.

b. After each team selects their keepers, the remaining players are sent to the RED player pool. From this specific pool teams take turns, in reverse order from the season standings, selecting players as they may wish. The reverse order will apply to each for two rounds (10 → 1, 10 → 1, etc.).

i.     These two players are in addition to the keepers the players selected previous.

c. When a team selects a player in the first round they agree to take the player at 1.4 times their existing salary. If the player is taken in the second round the price is only 1.2 times their existing salary.

i.     For example, John Smith’s existing salary is $15. If selected in the first round, the team must pay him $21 for the upcoming season. If he was drafted in the second round his new price would be $18.

Chapter VI: Budgetary and Financial Information
1.     Budget 

a. Each team is provided $300 in General Allocation Money (GAM) entering the Super Auction. This is used to bid for players but also should include covering the cost of keepers and those selected in the re-entry draft. They are provided an additional $100 in Transaction Allocation Money following the commencement of the season.

'''2.     Table Placement and Winnings '''

a. Each season the winners of the Hex Cup, Variance Cup, NLS Cup and Single Entity Shield for first overall in the league table earn an additional five dollars of General Allocation Money for the next season. Teams finishing in the bottom two positions in the league standings earn ten