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Another, deeper fantasy idea

First of all, I hope the admins will show some leniency towards this slightly off-topic thread. (I wasn't sure where to place it, I figured this subforum is read by the most fantasy freaks like myself.) I love the idea of "Fantasy Cycling", but I'm here to tell you some more about my own little project and hear what you guys think.

Short version

I am organizing an independent fantasy competition (starting from Paris-Nice) which, unlike "Fantasy Cycling", focuses more on the long-term future of your fantasy team that competes with the other 17 WorldTour teams. It is a so-called contracts (aka dynasty) league, in which you initially keep 3-5 riders from a chosen WorldTour team, and then complete your team by bidding for the rest of the peloton offering them contracts up to 3 years long, while being limited by a salary cap. Then you select 8/9 riders to compete in each WorldTour event. Pretty much makes you feel like a real team owner. I don't think it has been tried before. I'm looking forward to your comments, advice, or maybe even interest in joining. More details: http://www.profsl.com/smf/index.php?board=1107.0

Long version - the rules

Summary
This is a fantasy league in which you take over one of the 18 World Tour teams, sign up to 30 riders in a series of auctions, and give them multi-year contracts within your total salary cap. Then you choose 8/9 guys to score for you in each race based on the real-life results, and redo the bidding for riders out of contract and neo-pros each January.

Salary Cap
Each team starts with 3-5 keepers and is equally rich. It can spend €5M per year on salaries, including the keepers. Each team can have between 20 and 30 riders.

Keepers' Salaries
All keepers are on a 1 year deal. The salary is derived from his CQ ranking in 2011, 2010, and 2009. The highest of the three is multiplied by 500 and rounded up to the next €10k. Minimum keeper salary is €100k. Examples:
Vanendert - 435*500=217500 => €220k
Gilbert - 3168*500=1584000 => €1.58M
Voeckler - 1744*500=872000 => €880k
Boonen - 1377*500=688500 => €690k
Your grandma - 0*500 => €100k

FA Bidding
Bids are in format of total contract value. The minimum bid is €30k and the minimum increment is 10% of the last bid, rounded up to the nearest €10k. Note that the number of years does not need to be listed until the bid is won. The resulting salary will be the final bid divided by number of years, rounded up to the next €10k. The winning bid will be the highest total contract amount.

Each player is auctioned in a separate thread at the ProFSL website that may be started by anyone, but please follow the template. There is no limit to the number of players that can be auctioned at one time or the number of bids for a player. You cannot at any point make bids that (if all successful) would take you over 30 riders or the salary cap. A bid on a player is considered final when it has been open for 48 hours. This means that no other GM has bid higher on the player of interest.

Contracts
Bidding will be done for players before the league starts and as well as during free agency each following winter. You will be bidding on the whole amount of the contract. Example: If a team bids €3M for Cadel Evans, then that declares that the entire value of his contract is €3M, and they can still choose between 1 year €3M, 2 years €1.5M per, or 3 years €1M per. If he retires earlier, tough luck. Contract guidelines are:

Salary range, Maximum Years
€200k or less (per year) = 1 year
€210k - €990k = 2 years
€1M or higher = 3 years

Example: Astana sign Andy Schleck for €2.4M. Based on this amount, they are only able to sign him to a contract up to 2 years, because if Andy's total salary was broken down over 3 years, it would only be €800k per year, not the €1M that is required for a 3 year contract. Nevertheless, if the bid was won at €2.4M then a higher total contract amount can be awarded.

Trades
Two teams can at any point exchange riders and their contracts, as long as it keeps them within the salary cap.

Free agents
A team can at any point during the season start an auction for any rider on the free market. From February 1st, please send a PM to everybody in such a case, the clock increases to 96 hours.

Scoring
Until the evening before the race (until 23h59 local time), every team nominates 8 riders (9 for the Grand Tours) that represent them in this race. Only these riders will score points if they do well IRL. If a team doesn't announce its squad, their 8/9 highest paid riders not participating in any other race at this moment will be selected automatically.

Points are scored in UCI WorldTour events only, but according to the CQ ranking scoring, and not to the UCI WorldTour scoring. CQ ranking rewards riders for finishing well in classics, stages, stage races, but also for keeping and winning jerseys.

All these points are added up in the individual ranking. The final score of each team will be equal to the sum of the points scored by their riders in the calendar year (when nominated for races). The ranking of teams in the unlikely event of a tie will be determined by the place of their best rider in the individual ranking.

Calendar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_UCI_World_Tour#Events
(We're skipping Tour Down Under this year.)

If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.

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82 comments

Avatar
Ghedebrav | 10 years ago
0 likes

I'd be interested but my sleep-deprived brain won't permit me to understand where/how I sign up...

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Garfield | 10 years ago
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Ghedebrav, I'm sure you'll manage to notice the Sign-up sheet after you follow the link I posted above  26

FYI:
Last call for 2014!
Both the free agency and the neo-pro draft begin on November 1.
16 people checked in for 2014.

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Ghedebrav | 10 years ago
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Thanks, spotted and stuck my name down.

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Raleigh | 10 years ago
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Whoever takes over Katusha gimme a shout.

Was way too much stress last year. Had no idea what was going on most of the time.

Still. Its Garfield's baby and he seems to be looking after it well enough.

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Garfield | 10 years ago
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We have one last-minute opening: Katusha with Uran, van den Broeck, Fuglsang, Hushovd, Goss, Goos, Polanc, and over 60% of their budget still untouched. The auctions are very intense right now, so only sign up if you have free time this very weekend.

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Garfield | 9 years ago
0 likes

The auctions for year 4 of our league start soon, feel free to sign up here:
http://www.profsl.com/smf/index.php?topic=44212.0

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Joelsim | 9 years ago
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I'm in Garfield. Looks like there are a few familiar faces there too.

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Garfield | 9 years ago
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Great to have you on board!
See my reply in the sign-up thread  16

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Joelsim | 9 years ago
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6 teams left for next year, I have just joined and TER and Ghedebrav are in there already.

Starts on 14th Nov, so you can pick a team now and await the auction beginning. Looks good.

Anyone interested? (something to do in the offseason  21

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TERatcliffe26 | 9 years ago
0 likes

You could say its similar to the podium cafe game, except we bid for riders with money on contracts, and no team can have the same riders, so its like a real life roster, and we have a neo-pro draft. Your riders score based on CQ scores. So most of the fun is in the bidding in the off season, and then you can focus on road.cc when the season is going (just inputting your roster from your squad in this game as you go along)

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Joelsim | 9 years ago
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It does look good. I'm itching to get going.

BTW if anyone is interested then sign up now as the Neo Pro draft is about to commence shortly.

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Joelsim | 9 years ago
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Another team just gone...come on it looks brilliant.

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Ghedebrav | 9 years ago
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This is a great game, I've really enjoyed it.

The bidding element makes it much more interesting than Podium Cafe IMO - plus it's a pretty exclusive league with only 18 players! And because the bidding happens in November, it's a nice sticking plaster to tide you over between seasons...

I doubt there'll be an opportunity for quite a few people to get involved like there is at the moment, so I'd say - join in!

 4  26  4

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Joelsim | 9 years ago
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Just 5 teams left. As Ghedebrav says it will fill the gap until road.cc starts again in January very nicely indeed. Plus the fun of bidding on the riders you want.

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Joelsim | 9 years ago
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EDIT: 4 teams left

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Joelsim | 9 years ago
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3 teams left. If you want in, be quick. Hostilities due to commence on 14th November so you have time to plan who you want to bid for in the auction.

Having done FL football auctions for many years, I am so looking forward to this. The auction is often the best fun of the year.

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Garfield | 9 years ago
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Season started today, only Belkin still available!

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Joelsim | 9 years ago
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My team ended up like this. And yes, yes, yes I bought Tschopp the day before he decided to move to the (other) dark side.

A few riders signed up for 2 years, just Froome for 3 as it has to be in excess of a $3m bid to stretch over 3 years, over $420k to stretch over 2.

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Garfield | 9 years ago
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This just in: we're expanding! Tomorrow at 8pm CET (2pm ET) we'll hold a live draft for three brand new second division (Pro-Conti) teams. If you feel like joining, tonight's the night - contact me on ProFSL ASAP  1

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Joelsim | 9 years ago
1 like

Do it, do it, do it!

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Garfield | 9 years ago
0 likes
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Garfield | 8 years ago
1 like

We're back for our fourth season, bigger than ever before: 20 teams and 79 races. Free agent auctions and the neo-pro draft begin on November 1. Join here: http://www.profsl.com/smf/index.php?topic=44212

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Aragonite | 8 years ago
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Is it too late  to enter this. I realise that I've missed all the auctions and will be well tailed off in 2016.

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Garfield | 8 years ago
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Happy to report our main league is growing steadily, and nowadays we look into having even more fun with small games on the side. The newest addition is called Quick Fix - a series of independent mini leagues, each focused on a different type of races, and thus potentially more inclusive for casual fans.

So in case you only follow le Tour de France, or if you're some perverted sadist only watching people hit the ground on wet cobblestones - we're not judging, so do join!

At least five completely separate mini leagues will take place in 2016: cobbles (E3, GW, RvV, PR), Ardennes (BP, AGR, FW, LBL), Giro, Tour, and Vuelta. Each will be preceded by a quick draft, with a salary cap in place, and individual salaries fixed depending on past CQ scores of each rider. Again, feel free to join just one, or some more.

The cobbled season starts soon, please sign up here if interested: http://www.profsl.com/smf/index.php?topic=255651.0

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Garfield | 8 years ago
1 like

The first draft (cobbles) has started today, but unfortunately one person pulled out. We're still 14, but will accept another person within the next 24-48 hours. Please contact me directly via ProFSL if interested.

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Garfield | 7 years ago
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I'm guessing not too many people browse cycling forums in November, so let me start the 2017 recruiting early!

We're coming back stronger than ever. A community of 20 fantastic personalities, and always looking for more cycling die-hards to join us on the dark side, participating in one or more of our fantasy leagues  1

On the menu in 2017:

- UCI WorldTour aka the main league: big teams, long contracts, neo-pro draft, 500 auctions every November.

- Rainbow Cup: straight up snake draft of all cyclists, but their price is fixed based on past results.

- Country Roads: not one, but nine drafts, as all riders get divided into separate pools: sprinters, puncheurs, GC men etc.

- Quick Fix: a series of 5 mini-leagues (cobbles, Ardennes, 3x GT) where you have to guess the next dominant force some weeks before the proceedings.

- Fine Young Cannibals: new league, focusing on finding fresh talent, a combination of auctions and extensions.

- Wall Street Cycling: another new idea, and the only league where you can make big changes overnight. You auction riders very shortly before every big race, and get rewarded/penalized instantly based on the investment/result ratio.

Please note I'm not around here very often, so in order to join you MUST sign up to ProFSL  and contact me there using the links you'll find in my opening post. (Everything's free, btw.)

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Rory McCann | 7 years ago
1 like

It looks tempting! For how long have you been doing this?

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marrcena | 7 years ago
1 like

Good to go, we'll back you up

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Garfield | 6 years ago
1 like

Yes, we'll be back for 2018.
If interested, please make the leap of faith: create a free ProFSL account and PM me there. Cheers!

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Garfield | 6 years ago
1 like

Our season-long games are mostly filled, but you can still join one of the daily competitions now that the cycling season is finally underway!

1. In Wall Street Cycling we hold a bunch of intense auctions on the evening before each WT race, and once you secured a rider by betting the highest, you'll score positive if his CQ score exceeds your bet, or negative if it's below: http://www.profsl.com/smf/index.php?board=3473

2. Life Behind Bars is a winner guessing game for anything you please, from TdF polka-dot jersey to a La Tropicale Amissa Bongo stage. Again, a wrong bet is worse off than not placing any, so cycling knowledge is more important than sheer activity: http://www.profsl.com/smf/index.php?board=3608

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