Your Chance To Participate In A New Football Phenomenon (Sandbox Simulations)

[Rain Man]

I apologize if the mods think this is soliciting, and I guess it is, but at the same time it's beta testing a new product developed by long-time planeteers, and it's free.

cdcox and I have been developing a new football game for the thoughtful fan, where players build franchises and compete against each other. A description is below.

If you're interested, we're offering the game for free in Year 1 to Chiefsplanet members, with the goal of both giving the system a dry run and also hooking you like Phillip Morris. You can go to www.sandboxsimulations.com to sign up, and use the access code 6Lanier3.

Here's the overview:

Build and manage a full 53-player roster over multiple seasons, as an offseason activity to give you year-round football

Select your personnel to match your offensive and defensive scheme. Every position matters – even your blocking tight end.

Realistic and accurate simulations of league games based on head-to-head matchups against other teams in your league.


This is essentially a new concept in fantasy football that attempts to simulate as closely as possible the management of a real NFL franchise over a multi-year period. Unlike regular fantasy football, every position on the offense and defense contributes to your success or failure. On special teams, the punter, kicker, and kick returners matter.

In Sandbox Football you will build a team – an entire 53-man football team – via an initial draft, and will maintain it year after year in annual rookie drafts, trading periods, and free agency. You compete against teams in your league. In the first year of the game, before the start of the NFL season, you will build your roster by drafting veterans and rookies through separate drafts, and through trades with other teams in the league. Your roster is frozen at the beginning of the NFL season. During the real regular NFL season, you can focus on your traditional fantasy games and perhaps keep on eye on your Sandbox roster as our statistical models build the data on player performances. At the end of the regular NFL season, the Sandbox season begins. There will be 16 games in the season. In real time, the season will run about 8 weeks (2 alternate reality games per week).

Game outcomes will be simulated based on the performance of individual players during the just-completed NFL regular season. The simulations, developed by a PhD statistical expert, estimate how individual players will perform in the context of your alternate reality team competing head-to-head against other teams in the league and with the specific team that you have built. The simulations will consider the offensive and defensive schemes that you select. So you can build your roster to support a power running game or a high-flying passing attack. You can run a 3-4 or 4-3 base defense. You can run nickel formations or four-wide receiver sets. You can rotate your DL to keep them fresh.

The game is more about building a team than playing video games. So this isn't Madden, but you will have the ability to tweak your game plan to take the best advantage of your roster and the weaknesses of your opponent. Injuries are a factor in the game. If a player is unavailable during weeks 3 through 6 in the NFL, he is also unavailable during the same weeks in the alternate reality season. So roster depth matters. The game simulations are based on the most advanced statistics and the latest research regarding what matters in winning an NFL game. But, the outcomes of the games have a random component, just like real NFL games.

The calendar for the alternate reality league year will look something like this:
• Jan to Mid March: Alternate Reality regular season and playoffs.
• Mid-March to the beginning of NFL season: Roster building through trades, veteran draft (first year), free agent drafts (2nd year and beyond), and rookie draft.
• Beginning of NFL season to end of regular NFL season: Alternate reality league is dormant, but the NFL players are generating their performance stats for the up-coming AR league.
• Rinse and repeat.

Copyright Sandbox Simulations, all rights reserved.

We're still finalizing the cost structure, but this won't be an expensive game to play at all. It might range from a few bucks a year to $50 per year, depending on a few factors.

Year 1 will require a couple of days of drafting with rather high intensity, but we've got it set up where you can put your draft list together and do customized and automated drafting if you like.

So...go! Now! Time to get ready for the draft!

[topher79]

Originally Posted by Cassel's Reckoning

I'm already thinking about how fun it will be to upgrade my roster for next season (provided we're keeping these rosters/this league).

Need to target #2 RB, add a top CB and top S, add a RT, get a little depth at TE and DT.

A.J. Jefferson will be on the table. He's been a cancer though.

[topher79]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Richmond is curious why SFL League 1 Defensive Player of the Year Curtis Brown seems to be unavailable for the playoffs when he played in every regular season game.

PED's or got hurt in the last sim'd game.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by topher79

PED's or got hurt in the last sim'd game.

He wouldn't risk his career on PEDs. He's a burgeoning Sandbox superstar. And he's invincible.

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Richmond is curious why SFL League 1 Defensive Player of the Year Curtis Brown seems to be unavailable for the playoffs when he played in every regular season game.

Anchorage has the same issue with "super sub" QB Greg McElroy.

Columbia has the same issue with defensive lineman Terrell McClain.

Were these guys on the practice squad or IR or cut by the end of the season?

Curtis Brown went on IR after the last regular season game.

In the NFL, Greg McElroy was on IR all season. When I built the injury databases initially, I inadvertently used a very incomplete IR list put out by CBS. I discovered that the list was incomplete part way through the season. I updated part of the Sandbox database by hand, but still missed some players that went on IR early in the season. At the end of the season I programmed a method that would consider the full IR list automatically to build the playoff list. Finally, it caught the fact that Greg McElroy should have been on IR all year. This happened with several players. Two points: 1) this will never happen again because now I will use the official transaction list from nfl.com. 2) This didn't have any affect on simulations, because even if you had tried to use McElroy or another player that was on IR all season, he would not have had any NFL snaps. So the program would have treated him like a street free agent. Long answer.

[cdcox]

Wild card round sims are up!

I have to write the code that will schedule the next round of games. I'll try to do that sometime tomorrow.

[cdcox]

Richmond - Ventura is a game for the ages. Epic!

[cdcox]

Pembroke - Pamona in League 2 was also a great game!

[Branden Albert's Huge Balls]

Pretty sure I play

Spoiler!

Anchorage

now, right?

Guess I won't change my gameplan.

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by Cassel's Reckoning

Pretty sure I play

Spoiler!

Anchorage

now, right?

Guess I won't change my gameplan.

Spoiler!

Yup, round three. Should be a good one.

[Branden Albert's Huge Balls]

Originally Posted by cdcox

Richmond - Ventura is a game for the ages. Epic!

Holy shit, missing a 22 yarder.

[Rain Man]

Uh-oh. We have a penalty yardage controversy in the Richmond game. A call against Ventura was marked off against Richmond. (And don't tell me the score. I'm still watching it.)

Richmond 0, Ventura 7
Richmond
1st Q 5:43 1st and 10 Richmond 30 LaRod Stephens-Howling rushes for 3 yards.
1st Q 5:01 2nd and 7 Richmond 33 James Starks rushes for 5 yards.
1st Q 4:19 3rd and 3 Richmond 37 Matt Hasselbeck (pressured) passes complete to Malcom Floyd for a gain of 44 yards.
1st Q 3:34 1st and 10 Ventura 19 James Starks rushes for 8 yards.
1st Q 2:52 2nd and 2 Ventura 11 James Starks rushes for 3 yards.
1st Q 2:10 1st and goal Ventura 7 Matt Hasselbeck passes complete to Malcom Floyd for a gain of 8 yards. PENALTY. Personal Foul on Yeremiah Bell. -1 yards.
1st Q 2:02 2nd and goal Ventura 8 James Starks rushes for 3 yards.
1st Q 1:20 3rd and goal Ventura 4 Matt Hasselbeck passes complete to Scott Chandler for a gain of 1 yards.
1st Q 0:35 4th and goal Ventura 3 Josh Scobe field goal attempt from 20 yards. Good.
Richmond 3, Ventura 7

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Uh-oh. We have a penalty yardage controversy in the Richmond game. A call against Ventura was marked off against Richmond. (And don't tell me the score. I'm still watching it.)

Richmond 0, Ventura 7
Richmond
1st Q 5:43 1st and 10 Richmond 30 LaRod Stephens-Howling rushes for 3 yards.
1st Q 5:01 2nd and 7 Richmond 33 James Starks rushes for 5 yards.
1st Q 4:19 3rd and 3 Richmond 37 Matt Hasselbeck (pressured) passes complete to Malcom Floyd for a gain of 44 yards.
1st Q 3:34 1st and 10 Ventura 19 James Starks rushes for 8 yards.
1st Q 2:52 2nd and 2 Ventura 11 James Starks rushes for 3 yards.
1st Q 2:10 1st and goal Ventura 7 Matt Hasselbeck passes complete to Malcom Floyd for a gain of 8 yards. PENALTY. Personal Foul on Yeremiah Bell. -1 yards.
1st Q 2:02 2nd and goal Ventura 8 James Starks rushes for 3 yards.
1st Q 1:20 3rd and goal Ventura 4 Matt Hasselbeck passes complete to Scott Chandler for a gain of 1 yards.
1st Q 0:35 4th and goal Ventura 3 Josh Scobe field goal attempt from 20 yards. Good.
Richmond 3, Ventura 7

Oh shit.

[Rain Man]

Curtis Brown watched the game from his hospital bed, but we couldn't get it done for him.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by cdcox

Oh shit.

You realize that every football fan in Richmond is going apefeces over this, right? It's the Denkinger of Sandbox.

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

You realize that every football fan in Richmond is going apefeces over this, right? It's the Denkinger of Sandbox.

I hate myself for ever writing that first line of FORTRAN in 1980. Now look what happened.