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!

[brorth]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

You haven't seen the likes of the Anchorage Eskimos or the Columbia KC Hood Stars, both playoff teams run by yours truly.

It does bring up the thought that it would be cool to be able to view the standings and stats of "other" Sandbox leagues.

I don't know how possible it is to make a public page like that, but it would also be freaking awesome to be able to play teams from other leagues in what would amount to exhibition games.
Strictly for entertainment purposes.

[Branden Albert's Huge Balls]

Really excited for this game with Anchorage tonight. Couple of lineup changes for me, tweaked my gameplan.

[cdcox]

Playoff sims are up.

[Branden Albert's Huge Balls]

**** me.

A team that ran for 49 yards and 65 yards against me in the regular season (2.6 yards per carry on average) piles up 161 yards rushing in a playoff game on the road.

Makes sense.

/BITTER

[Branden Albert's Huge Balls]

ARRRRRRRRGH

Spoiler!

I can't believe this happened. I feel like the 1997 Chiefs.

[lostcause]

go team!

[brorth]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Big game. Big, big game. This is how rivalries get started.

No Sir, THAT is how rivalries get started!

[Rain Man]

League 2's Eskimos are hurting right now. They played their hearts out.

[Rain Man]

In League 2, Columbia came out too tight. We got too excited about being in the playoffs and we didn't play our style of game.

And with that, my teams are all out of it.

[Rain Man]

In League 1, it looks like Blaine Gabbert is starting to get comfortable with his receivers.

[DJ's left nut]

I turned the pressure up a bit over the last couple of weeks of the regular season as I started to get a little more comfortable with my CB situation, especially the ability to slot DeMarcus VanDyke in as my Nickel when Shawntae Spencer came back healthy.

It showed a lot against Wichita. 12 QB pressures against Newton to only 5 against Rodgers and by turning the pressure up mostly on 3rd down situations, Wichita's 3rd down conversion rate really dropped. While the game was already pretty much decided by then, the INT/TD when Newton was pressured wrapped the game up.

I warned you fellas; this team took me a little bit of time to figure out how to handle with it's lousy secondary, but it's a contender all the way. I don't think it has the secondary to make the next round, but I'm happy with the AFC (or whatever) championship game. Now it's time to see if they can turn up the heat again and finish this thing.

[Branden Albert's Huge Balls]

Tom Brady - pressured on 6 of his 39 pass attempts.

Alex Smith - pressure on 11 of his 26 pass attempts.

Alex D. Smith had the better game.

Yeah, I'm real mad. REAL MAD. The sim is telling me Tom Brady sucks and the #1 run defense is actually garbage. I should draft Alex D. Smith instead. He responds to incredible pass rush pressure with 150 yards passing and 3 TD in the first half.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Cassel's Reckoning

Tom Brady - pressured on 6 of his 39 pass attempts.

Alex Smith - pressure on 11 of his 26 pass attempts.

Alex D. Smith had the better game.

Yeah, I'm real mad. REAL MAD. The sim is telling me Tom Brady sucks and the #1 run defense is actually garbage. I should draft Alex D. Smith instead. He responds to incredible pass rush pressure with 150 yards passing and 3 TD in the first half.

In fairness, Anchorage has easily the best secondary in the league in terms of pure talent, IMO.

With that little pressure on Brady, it looks like Anchorage went with a lot of drop-back style zones and made Brady try to find holes in a loaded secondary. Meanwhile you went all blitz-crazy as you've done all season and opened yourself up to big plays.

Anchorage leaned on what I think is their greatest strength (secondary play) and exploited your aggressiveness to cover their biggest weakness (RB).

[Branden Albert's Huge Balls]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Meanwhile you went all blitz-crazy as you've done all season and opened yourself up to big plays.

Wrong. I blitzed on 10 percent of plays. My pass rush has been generated from my front 4 all season long for the most part.

I dialed back my blitzes in the 2nd game with Anchorage after Smith shredded me in the first game, and it worked.

My gameplan for the playoff game was virtually identical compared to the last game in which my defense throttled Anchorage.

So I'm upset.

[DJ's left nut]

Wow, just noticed this play:

2nd Q 7:43 3rd and 9 Wichita 21 Cam Newton passes complete to Darren Sproles for a gain of 25 yards.
2nd Q 6:58 1st and 10 Wichita 46 Darren Sproles rushes for 54 yards. PENALTY. Offensive Holding on Justin Blalock. -10 yards.

54 yd touchdown from Sproles that would've knotted the game up at 7s called back for holding...

Wichita could've been looking at an entirely different ballgame if they could've kept Sproles involved. Instead they settled for a FG there and I blocked a punt and returned it for a score on their next offensive possession to make it 14-3, then converted a short field for another TD on my next offensive possession to make it 21-3 late in the third. At that point Sproles was effectively neutralized.