Fantasy Fight Card Masters

Inspired by the television competition show "Top Chef Masters", I've been thinking about a new Fantasy Fight Card game. This will be essentially the same as past FFC games, with two twists (see below) intended to make it more challenging than usual.


The usual rules:
1. Each participant will select one fighter with each pick, one pick per round.

2. Each fight card will consist of 10 matches. Thus, the draft will last 20 rounds.

3. Each fight card must meet NSAC rules, if it matters. No more than one fight for each fighter; the event can be in a ring or in a cage; we'll all be using the "10-point must" scoring system; elbows are allowed, but not kicks or knees to the head of a downed opponent; blah, blah, blah...

4. Each fighter selected may compete at any weight at which he has previously competed in real life. Declaring an intent to move up or down in weight is not sufficient (so you couldn't have Anderson Silva fight a Heavyweight until he actually does it).

5. Each participant will have 12 hours to make a selection, beginning from the previous pick. If Person-A makes his pick at 12:10pm, Person-B has until 12:10am. If Person-B then picks at 12:15pm, Person-C has until 12:15am.

6. If you miss a pick or make an ineligible selection, the draft will proceed apace. If you get in before the next person makes his pick, that's fine. If not, you can make up your pick at the end of the draft. Having people pick out of order is just too confusing.

7. If you think you might miss your pick, please send someone a P.M. with your choices, in order of preference, asking them to make your pick for you. If you completely miss two picks, you'll be dropped from the draft and replaced by an alternate (provided we have any alternates, of course).


One small change to the usual rules:
The draft order will remain constant throughout the draft. We will not use a "snaking", or reversing, draft order. It's simply too easy to be able to select two fighters consecutively, and this isn't supposed to be easy.

And one big change to the usual rules:
No participant may select any fighters ranked in the USA Today/SB Nation consensus rankings, as published by Bloody Elbow.


I'd like to have at least 6 people, but probably not more than 10 (including myself, of course). This sign-up thread will remain valid through Sunday evening (23 August). The draft will start on Monday morning (24 August), provided enough people are interested. I'll open a new thread for the actual drafting, and a third for determining the best assembled card.


Draft order:
1. gspfan: Goran Reljic; Alexandre "Xande" Ribeiro; "Mayhem" Miller; Dean Lister; Paul Daley; Paul Taylor; Paul Kelly; Jeremy Stephens; Sam Stout; KJ Noons; Dan Hornbuckle; Ben Saunders; Ben Henderson; Billy Evangelista; Evan Dunham; Matt Veach; Ben Askren; "War Machine"; Jared Hamman; Jason Brilz
2. rabi: Semmy Schilt; Gilbert Yvel; Chris Leben; David Loiseau; Melvin Guillard; Terry Etim; Josh Neer; Aaron Simpson; Nate Quarry; Phil Baroni; Matt Brown; Yves Edwards; Joe Riggs; James Wilks; John Howard; Matt Riddle; Mark Bocek; Gary Goodridge; Ray Mercer; Matt Wiman
3. playmma: Sergei Kharitonov; Denis Kang; Anthony Johnson; "Shaolin" Ribeiro; Ryan Bader; Hermes Franca; Yoshiyuki Yoshida; Lyman Good; Wilson Gouveia; Stephan Bonnar; Scott Smith; Andrew McFedries; Johnny Hendricks; Caol Uno; John Hathaway; Jacob Volkmann; Mario Miranda; Jerome LeBanner; Thiago Tavares
4. AchillesHeel: Melvin Manhoef; Zelg Galesic; Jim Miller; Joe Lauzon; Cris "Cyborg" Santos; Erin Toughill; Michael Russow; Stefan Struve; Din Thomas; Wilson Reis; Mike Whitehead; Tim Boetsch; Tim Kennedy; Riki Fukuda; Tara Larosa; Sarah Kaufman; Rob McCullough; Deividas Taurosevicius; Megumi Fujii; Yuka Tsuji
5. The_Ho_Bag: Roger Gracie; Pedro Rizzo; Tomasz Drwal; Jorge Masvidal; Mitsuhiro Ishida; Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante; Joey Villasenor; Benji Radach; Andre Galvao; Mike Pyle; Donald Cerrone; Chris Horodecki; Ross Pearson; Andre Winner; Jay Silva; Xavier Foupa-Pokam; Dave Herman; Rob Roy; Jeff Lawson
6. StorminYourman: Bobby Lashley; Ricardo Arona; "King Mo" Lawal; Todd Duffee; Mark Hunt; Pat Barry; Efrain Escudero; George Sotiropoulous; Yoshihiro Nakao; Kevin Randleman; Seth Petruzelli; Chase Gormley; Cyril Diabate; Tom Lawlor; Matt Lindland; Mike Ciesnolevicz; Badr Hari; Hidehiko Yoshida; Amir Sadollah; Butterbean
7. king_katool: Rousimar Palhares; Kimbo Slice; Kiril Sidelnikov; Frank Shamrock; Luigi Fioravanti; Marvin Eastman; Murilo "Ninja" Rua; Shonie Carter; Houston Alexander; Carlos Newton; Philippe Nover; Ken Shamrock; Mac Danzig; Mustapha al Turk; Antoni Hardonk; DaMarques Johnson; Marcus Jones; Junie Browning

Im in mate, i love these.

How is the draft order determined? Without a snake draft the #1 pick has a huge advantage.

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Posted by ncordless

How is the draft order determined? Without a snake draft the #1 pick has a huge advantage.

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Draft order will be determined randomly.

The logic of a snaking draft order typically used in fantasy sports drafts doesn't apply to these Fantasy Fight Card drafts. In fact, the reverse is true; whoever picks first and last in a snaking draft has a huge advantage. Primarily, it's because we're making matches of two draft selections. Each pick is only half of one unit of our final product.

That doesn't completely mitigate the impact any one selection can have on our "roster", but it reduces it in two significant ways. First, a bad match is a bad match. Some people might have enjoyed seeing Fedor Emelianenko beat up Zuluzinho just for the display of talent, but most will agree it was a stupid matchup and a dumb fight (for those familiar with Elo scores, it's the only fight I'm aware of that was worth zero points).

Second, being able to select two fighters essentially simultaneously removes the challenge of anticipating your adversaries' selections entirely. I've twice had either the first pick or the last pick (in either case, getting two picks back-to-back) and it frankly sucked. It took a lot of the fun out of it, for me, which lies in the challenge. This being the "Masters" competition, I'm trying to make it challenging for all of us.

so the top 25, of each weight class cant be picked? thats my understanding, id just like a clarification on this rule

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Posted by king_katool

so the top 25, of each weight class cant be picked? thats my understanding, id just like a clarification on this rule

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In other words, create your own Strikeforce card.

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Posted by king_katool

so the top 25, of each weight class cant be picked? thats my understanding, id just like a clarification on this rule

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Yes, that's right.

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Posted by emfleek

In other words, create your own Strikeforce card.

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Heh. Not even.

I WILL GIVE IT A GO

Its gonna be hard, but will be great fun.

ill try it out, i agree with it going to be hard, i usually find myself sometimes struggling to think of a good match-up for my last 2 fights playing normal. but this should make it VERY interesting,

LOL fleek, EDIT sorry man i dont spread my love enough i guess

ill try this

Not much interest, I guess. Oh well. Maybe next time.

You wanted at least 6 and got 5. I still reckon you should do it.

I'll give it a go, if it's still on.

Suggestion:

Draft Order (with 6 people)

Rd 1
1
2
3
4
5
6

Rd 2
2
3
4
5
6
1

etc.

add me if you're still doing it.

Wuhoo, we have 7. Lets get it on.

And away we go...

The draft order:

1. gspfan
2. rabi
3. playmma
4. AchillesHeel
5. The_Ho_Bag
6. StorminYourman
7. king_katool

Since we're only just on the second page, no need to start a whole new thread, just post your picks here. I'll also add the draft order to the first post, since that'll be easier to find.

The clock is now running!

Rd #1 - Goran Reljic 6'3''/205lbs (8-0)

Semmy Schiltz

Rd 1
Sergei Kharitonov

"Marvelous" Melvin Manhoef (23-6-1; 22 TKOs; 5' 8"; 185 lbs)

Shoot, I was going to go for Manhoef in Rd 2

Roger Gracie

Bobby Lashly

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Posted by StorminYourman

Bobby Lashly

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panzi

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Posted by StorminYourman

Bobby Lashly

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damnit, one pick away.....i pick Palhares

Rd #1 - Goran Reljic 6'3''/205lbs (8-0)
Rd #2 - Alexandre "Xande" Ribeiro 6'0''/205lbs (2-0)

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Posted by gspfan

Rd #2 - Alexandre "Xande" Ribeiro 6'0''/205lbs (2-0)

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Ah, darn. It was toss-up between Xande and Manhoef for my first pick. I figured I had a better shot of Ribeiro falling to the next round than Melvin, though.

Good pick.

Jerk.

Gilbert Yvel