Associated Fantasy

"Its fine to have ability, but the ability to find ability in others is the true test" -Lou Holtz

16×16 Knock-Out Tournament Rules

16 x 16 Knock-Out 

Tournament Rules

I     General

  • These will serve to be the official rules for AF’s 16×16 Knock-Out (16xKO) Tournament
  • For anything not covered in these rules, please refer to the League Settings page at League website:
  • All arbitration of Tournament Rules to be arbitrated solely by Tournament Coordinator (TC)
  • Should any unforeseen event arise not covered explicitly in the rules, TC will exercise final judgment
  • Any TC decision not covered in the rules that involves TC’s team and must be ruled on by TC, will cause TC’s team to be removed from Championship eligibility

Logo small, greenII     Format

  • 16 Teams; Total Points Seeded; Elimination Bracket
  • The 16xKO is an “Open” Entry Tournament
    • All slots filled on a first apply – first entry basis
  • Teams may enter in back to back seasons, but must re-enter each year

III     Entry/Payout

  • Entry Fee for the Tournament will be $16.00(US)
  • Additional to entry fee will be a required Ante ranging from $4.00-$16.00(US) to ‘purchase’ draft position (see Section VI Draft)
  • Both Entry Fee and Draft Ante are payable together at time of registration
  • Total prize pool from all entry fees and all Draft antes will be $400.00(US)
  • Payouts will be as follows:
    • 1st Place/Tournament Champion = $200.00 (US)
    • 2nd PLace/Runner-Up = $100.00(US)
    • 3rd and 4th Place = $50.00(US) each
  • Collection of entry fees and disbursements of payouts will be conducted through LeaguSafe.com
  • Prize money will not be disbursed until Friday of the week following the Tournament Champion being named

IV     Scoring

  • Offense: AF Arena offensive scoring settings
  • Defense: AF Nickel defensive scoring settings

V     Rosters

  • AF Classic roster settings
    • 1 QB, 1RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, 1 RB/WR/TE FLEX, 1 K
  • Team Defense: 1
  • Bench: 3
  • There will be no trading of players in Tournament

VI     Draft

  • The Inaugural Tournament draft will be live online on: Wednesday August 31, 2016 @ 9:00pmEDT
  • Draft will be serpentine style, 11 rounds in length
  • 60 seconds are allotted for each pick
  • Draft order is determined by an Ante-For-Your Spot Format in which teams will pay a Draft Ante to purchase their desired draft position based on the following scale:
    1. $16.00
    2. $15.00
    3. $14.00
    4. $13.00
    5. $12.00
    6. $8.00
    7. $6.00
    8. $7.00
    9. $7.00
    10. $5.00
    11. $4.00
    12. $4.00
    13. $5.00
    14. $7.00
    15. $10.00
    16. $11.00
  • Values are in $US
  • Positions will be awarded on a first-pay / first serve basis
  • TC will take the final available draft position once all other positions have been purchased

Draft Ante - Horizontal

VII     Schedule/Season/Bracket

  • The Tournament uses no schedule or W-L standings, rather relying on a combination of Total Points and match-ups based on a Fixed Seeded Bracket
  • Seeding
    • Weeks 1-3 teams will compete for total points
    • Seeding for the Tournament Bracket is determined by total points scored through Weeks 1-3
      • Teams will be ranked 1-16 based on their Week 3 accumulated points totals
      • Teams will be seeded into a Fixed Bracket based on their ranking: 1 vs 16, 2 vs 15, 3 vs 14, 4 vs 13, 5 vs 12, 6 vs 11, 7 vs 10, 8 vs 9
      • Bracket can be viewed at the Tournament Bracket Page through the entirety of the season
  • Bracket
    • The first set of bracket match-ups (Group of 16) will be a best of 3 series played in Weeks 4-6, in which teams must win two of 3 games to advance
    • All teams that lose twice in the best of 3 series will be eliminated and their rosters will be locked
    • If a team in any match-up wins the first 2 of the 3 games, the 3rd game will be meaningless
    • The second set of bracket match-ups (Group of 8) will be a best of 3 series played in Weeks 7-9, in which teams must win two of 3 games to advance
    • All teams that lose twice in the best of 3 series will be eliminated and their rosters will be locked
    • If a team in any match-up wins the first 2 of the 3 games, the 3rd game will be meaningless
    • The third set of bracket match-ups (Group of 4) will be a best of 3 series played in Weeks 10-12, in which teams must win two of 3 games to advance
    • All teams that lose twice in the best of 3 series will be eliminated and their rosters will be locked
    • If a team in any match-up wins the first 2 of the 3 games, the 3rd game will be meaningless
    • The final set/championship of bracket match-ups (Group of 2) will be a best of 5 series played in Weeks 12-17, in which one team must win 3 of 5 games to win the Tournament
    • Once one of the teams loses three times in this best of 5 series it will be eliminated and the winning team will be declared Tournament Champion
    • Once one team wins the 3 of the 5 games, it will be declared Tournament Champion and any remaining games will be meaningless

VIII     Free Agency

  • There will be no trading of players through the Tournament; after the draft, personel may only be acquired through free agency
  • Free Agency transactions during the length of the Tournament will be regulated by the following Free Agency Periods:
  • Weeks 1-3
    • Immediately following the draft through to the conclusion of Week 3 (MNF game) there will be Open Free Agency
    • During this period, there will be no Waivers, and players may be acquired on a first come – first serve basis
    • During this period, players will not ‘lock’ and may be acquired at any time, including after the start of their games
    • NOTE: once an individual player’s game has started, they may still be acquired but will not be able to be placed into a team’s starting line-up for that week; likewise players may not be removed from a team’s roster if they are in the team’s starting line-up and their game has already started; therefore despite the “Open” nature of the free agency period, players may only be acquired after game time if the acquiring team has a coresponding player – either on the bench or in a starting position before their game has started – available to drop; if a player whose game has already started is acquired, and there are no players remaining on acquiring team’s roster elligible to be started, team will have to play short for that week
  • Week 4
    • At the conclusion of the Week 3 MNF game, all add/drop transactions will be locked
    • Free Agency will then be switched to “Revolving Waivers, Move To Last After Successful Claim” with a 2 day waiver period
    • Waiver Order will be inverse of draft order
    • On Thursday of Week 4 – after waivers have cleared, but before the Thursday Night Game has started – all Add/Drop transactions will be locked for all teams and Free Agency transactions will remain locked through the duration of the first round of the Tournament Bracket (Weeks 4-6)
    • Waiver Order will remain as is at the time transactions are locked
    • TC will not make any add/drops for his own team for a period of 3 hours leading up to the locking of all transactions
    • NOTE: once an individual player’s game has started, they may still be acquired but will not be able to be placed into a team’s starting line-up for that week; likewise players may not be removed from a team’s roster if they are in the team’s starting line-up and their game has already started; therefore despite the “Open” nature of the free agency period, players may only be acquired after game time if the acquiring team has a coresponding player – either on the bench or in a starting position before their game has started – available to drop; if a player whose game has already started is acquired, and there are no players remaining on acquiring team’s roster elligible to be started, team will have to play short for that week
  • Week 7
    • At the conclusion of the Week 6 MNF game, all add/drop transactions will be unlocked
    • Free Agency will then be opened with settings set to “Revolving Waivers, Move To Last After Successful Claim” with a 2 day waiver period
    • Waiver Order will remain as it was when transactions were locked before the start of the Week 4 games
    • On Thursday of Week 7 – after waivers have cleared, but before the Thursday Night Game has started – all Add/Drop transactions will be locked for all teams and Free Agency transactions will remain locked through the duration of the second round of the Tournament Bracket (Weeks 7-9)
    • Waiver Order will remain as is at the time transactions are locked
    • TC will not make any add/drops for his own team for a period of 3 hours leading up to the locking of all transactions
    • NOTE: once an individual player’s game has started, they may still be acquired but will not be able to be placed into a team’s starting line-up for that week; likewise players may not be removed from a team’s roster if they are in the team’s starting line-up and their game has already started; therefore despite the “Open” nature of the free agency period, players may only be acquired after game time if the acquiring team has a coresponding player – either on the bench or in a starting position before their game has started – available to drop; if a player whose game has already started is acquired, and there are no players remaining on acquiring team’s roster elligible to be started, team will have to play short for that week
  • Week 10
    • At the conclusion of the Week 9 MNF game, all add/drop transactions will be unlocked
    • Free Agency will then be opened with settings set to “Revolving Waivers, Move To Last After Successful Claim” with a 2 day waiver period
    • Waiver Order will remain as it was when transactions were locked before the start of the Week 7 games
    • On Thursday of Week 10 – after waivers have cleared, but before the Thursday Night Game has started – all Add/Drop transactions will be locked for all teams and Free Agency transactions will remain locked through the duration of the third round of the Tournament Bracket (Weeks 10-12)
    • Waiver Order will remain as is at the time transactions are locked
    • TC will not make any add/drops for his own team for a period of 3 hours leading up to the locking of all transactions
    • NOTE: once an individual player’s game has started, they may still be acquired but will not be able to be placed into a team’s starting line-up for that week; likewise players may not be removed from a team’s roster if they are in the team’s starting line-up and their game has already started; therefore despite the “Open” nature of the free agency period, players may only be acquired after game time if the acquiring team has a coresponding player – either on the bench or in a starting position before their game has started – available to drop; if a player whose game has already started is acquired, and there are no players remaining on acquiring team’s roster elligible to be started, team will have to play short for that week
  • Week 13
    • At the conclusion of the Week 12 MNF game, all add/drop transactions will be unlocked
    • Free Agency will then be opened with settings set to “Revolving Waivers, Move To Last After Successful Claim” with a 2 day waiver period
    • Waiver Order will remain as it was when transactions were locked before the start of the Week 10 games
    • On Thursday of Week 13 – after waivers have cleared, but before the Thursday Night Game has started – all Add/Drop transactions will be locked for both remaining teams and Free Agency transactions will remain locked through to the conclusion of Week 15 (the MNF game)
    • Waiver Order will remain as is at the time transactions are locked
    • TC will not make any add/drops for his own team for a period of 3 hours leading up to the locking of all transactions
    • NOTE: once an individual player’s game has started, they may still be acquired but will not be able to be placed into a team’s starting line-up for that week; likewise players may not be removed from a team’s roster if they are in the team’s starting line-up and their game has already started; therefore despite the “Open” nature of the free agency period, players may only be acquired after game time if the acquiring team has a coresponding player – either on the bench or in a starting position before their game has started – available to drop; if a player whose game has already started is acquired, and there are no players remaining on acquiring team’s roster elligible to be started, team will have to play short for that week
  • Week 16 – Week 17
    • At the conclusion of the Week 15 MNF game, all add/drop transactions will be unlocked
    • Free Agency will then be opened with settings set to “Revolving Waivers, Move To Last After Successful Claim” with a 2 day waiver period
    • Waiver Order will remain as it was when transactions were locked before the start of the Week 13 game
    • Transaction settings will remain untouched from this point on until the conclusion of the Tournament
  • NOTE on Waiver Order:
    • Once Waivers have been turned on (Week 4) Waiver Order will remain “Move To Last After Successfull Claim” and will not be affected during the periods in between the 5 Free Agency periods (Week 4, Week, 7, Week 10, Week 13, and Weeks 16-17) when add/drop transactions are locked
    • When teams are eliminated from the Bracket, their add/drop transaction privileges will be locked, however they will retain their spot on the Waiver Order List and will eventually move to the top of that list as other teams  make successful claims even though those eliminated teams will be unable to conduct transactions
    • When viewing the Waiver Order List, the above must be taken into account
      • EXAMPLE: if, after the first round of eliminations (8 teams) the 8 eliminated teams happen to have Waiver Positions 1-8 (or once they acquire those positions by moving to the top when other teams make successful claims), position 9 will, in effect be position 1

IX     Tiebreakers

  • Weeks 1-3 being for total points, the hosting site match-ups in Weeks 1-3 are meaningless as are any ‘Tie Games’ produced in those weeks by those ‘match-ups’
  • If two or more teams should have a total points tie at the conclusion of Week 3, order of tiebreakers for Bracket Seeding will be as follows:
    1. Total Starting QB points (Weeks 1-3)
    2. Total Starting FLEX points (Weeks 1-3)
    3. Total Starting RB points (Weeks 1-3)
    4. Total Starting WR points (Weeks 1-3)
    5. Total Starting TE points (Weeks 1-3)
    6. Total Starting DEF points (Weeks 1-3)
    7. Total Starting K points (Weeks 1-3)
    8. Total number TDs scored (all positions) (Weeks 1-3)
    9. Longest successful field goal attempt(Weeks 1-3)
    10. Coin Flip
  • No individual matches within the confines of the bracket (Weeks 4-17) may end in a tie
    • Settings on hosting site will be set to “Allow Tie Games” in order to allow for these tiebreakers to be used in lieu of the default hosting site tiebreaker (Bench Points)
    • In the event of a Tie Game, TC will use the tiebreakers below to determine a winner and then manually adjust the score by one point to reflect the result
  • If an individual match within the bracket finishes with a tied score, order of tiebreakers will be as follows:
    1. Starting QB points
    2. Starting FLEX points
    3. Starting RB points
    4. Starting WR points
    5. Starting LB points
    6. Starting TE points
    7. Starting DL points
    8. Starting K points
    9. Total number TDs scored (all positions)
    10. Longest successful field goal attempt
    11. Coin Flip

X     Special Rule

  • Participation in tournament is limited to one entry per household/IP address
  • After all tournament slots are filled but before draft order has been established, NFL.com will be contacted to verify that all participants registered with tournament are originating from different IP addresses to verify that no participant is registered with multiple teams
  • Multiple teams originating from the same IP address will result in immediate expulsion of all teams involved
  • It is recommended, that before the draft, each individual team verify for themselves that all teams are from different IP addresses; this can be done through the contact NFL tool (found in the FAQs), simply send an email, include league id number, and ask NFL to verify that no teams in the league originate from the same IP address