Convention Tournament: All-Star Team (2012) using Netplay, pick 25

Requirements to Participate in this Tournament

(This first section will discuss exactly what you must have, in order to fully participate in our tournament for the convention. This tournament utilizes the Strat-o-matic Computer Game using the Netplay program which allows play through the internet using the 2012 MLB Roster set.  By working with the computer game it will automatically follow all the super advance rules for you. The team you will play with with will be an All-Star team based on the 2012 MLB season and roster. How this team will work is explained below but essentially everyone will have access to the same players so this tournament becomes more a challenge, played on a level playing field and a new way to do a tournament. Basically everything you need to prepare for this tournament is contained on this page but if you have any questions feel free to contact us.)

1. 2013 Strat-o-matic Windows Computer Baseball Game version f – this will include the Netplay software which allows you to play your opponents over the internet.

2. The 2012 Baseball Roster which run on the computer, you do not need the fringe players for this tournament, as the All-Star players selected all played to a great degree during this Major League Baseball Season.

3. A fast internet connection. The ability to be both the visiting or home team (also known as the hosting team). Some people have had a problem being the hold team because of a way to allow a certain channel for data to flow through the internet connection (or via your router). We will provide a document shortly that will explain what help to ask from your internet provider to allow you to host games.

Quick Summary for how this Tournament will be Played.

1. The Tournament Director (TD) will setup all the participants into small divisions of 8 managers we hope so you will play each manager in your division one series of three games or a total of 21 games over the weekend. Before the tournament begins, the TD will already have your full schedule of games, everyone will play the same amount of games over the weekend to qualify for the playoffs.

2. The rule handbook describes which players are available to be selected for each round as you will have 35 (or 40) All Star players to pick from which you must do first at the start of each round.  Also this rule handbook explains all the other various rules including how many starting pitchers are required, how many innings per round a relief pitcher can pitch, which rules are utilized within the computer game, how injuries work, etc … Since we recently changed the teams participates will use, the rule book is not ready quite yet but will be soon. If you have not signed up for our free newsletter we will announce it there when the handbook is ready. But we suggest you take the few days before the tournament to study the players available for your team so you will be able to select your starting 25 quickly.

3. On the day of the tournament, as we stated earlier, each round will consist of 3 games. As indicated in the rules, you will need at least a 4 man rotation for the entire tournament (although some teams may draft a 5th starter for specific conditions). You will set your rotation of starters with each starter requiring 3 games of rest before he can start again. The winner of each round of this tournament is the team who wins at least 2 of the 3 games. It is necessary to know who wins the round in case you tie with this individual, the winner of the rounds get preference. At this time, we have yet to determine if the winner (and possible runner up) within a division will be decide by the Won-Lost record by rounds or total games. When the rule book is released this final determination will be explained.

4. The visiting team will decide first, its 25 man roster and once set, it is set for that round, with the home team following to declare its roster.

5. After each round, the TD needs 15 minutes to set up the schedule tournament files for all all the managers in your division. Each manager is responsible for keeping track of the use of their relievers (per rules each reliever can pitch a max of 3 innings per series) which can be verified by looking at the stats of your team but since we will play the three games together, at one time, its better to have a written sheet near you to consult. In the rule book it will discuss which files that are stored on the computer of the home team to send to the TD attached to an email – this is so we have a record of each game and the tournament.  Also the Home Park used will be the same for everyone, again in the rule book it will discuss the settings for the Home Park.

6. If we are able to setup the 8 team divisions we visualize, then 12 games (4 rounds) will be played on Saturday, October 26th and 9 games (3 rounds) will be played on Sunday. Those teams who qualify for the playoffs have the option to play their first round on that Sunday, October 27th or they can wait to make an arrangement with their opponent to play after the weekend. If possible, we would like to have on person from the co-team be an observer during the playoffs, if you qualify, please let us know.  Again depending on how many divisions there are, it is possible the first round or so of the playoffs may go best of 5 with the final rounds being best of 7.

7. Finally one team will emerge as the champion and a second team as a runner-up. The first place team will receive a $100 gift certificate we have obtained for them from the Strat-o-matic Game Company, a trophy and John Dewan is denoting the book, “Bill James Handbook”. The second place will win a $50 gift certificate that we have obtained from the game company and a trophy. The Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter requests an interview with the champion and runner up to discuss their experiences during the touurnament and convention.

Extra Tools that will Assist Tournament Play.

1. The Tournament Rule Book – this PDF document contains the full details how to play in the tournament and all the rules, that you can study before you begin to play in the actual tournament. You will find within the Rule Book a section with directions how to setup your computer so you can host (be the home team) for Netplay – if you have a router. You may want to test this out before the tournament as you will have the possibility to be the home team during the tournament. This rule book is not ready yet but will be so very soon, we will announce it.

2. Special Tables and Reports from Star Tournaments used for the Pure Strat Skype Draft Tournament might help you with your Convention Tournament play.  You will find some of these document here on our websitewith links below for a few of these documents or they are also shown on the Resources page (via this main menu).  However to get the latest version of these documents you can visit Star Tournaments at their website at www.startournaments.com under the section entitled APS, Drafts and Eligible Players:. The document we suggest you download and study as well as print out are (click on the link to the right underlined and in parenthesis to get the document as a Microsoft XLS or PDF file):

Average Pick Sheet (Average Pick Sheet – July 2013) – this table shows the average pick in the draft when each player was taken. For example for the 2012 Card Set, the Average Ten Picks of players are: Trout, Cano, Votto, McCutchen, Medlen, M. Cabrera, Stanton, Y. Molina, D. Ortiz (find this document on the “Resource Page” by clicking on the Resource Menu above …). This document can help you in deciding which is the 25 top players to use by seeing which players were drafted the earliest and how often.

— a supplemental or different version of this sheet is the Average Pick by Position (Average Pick Sheet by Position July2013) which shows you the players rated by when they are picked by position played. This version gives you an idea of which are the top players for each position as sometimes a player will be picked out of their normal position like a great hitter (find this document on the “Resource Page” by clicking on the Resource Menu Above …). This document will help you

Eligible Players —a list of all the players that can be used in this tournament. This list is not ready yet but we will have a separate PDF file listing all the players available to be picked for your 25 and which positions they play. (Note a player may only play a position listed on his card). Another version of this list of players, less detailed will be in the rule book.

Draft Summaries – (Star Tournament Draft Summaries in 2013) a summary from prior tournaments what each participant drafted. This is very helpful as it gives you an idea what type of teams have been drafted and you can see which teams had the most success.  You may notice a pattern amongst how the winning teams were constructed.  Again, studying the winning teams in the Star Tournament drafts may help you decide your 25.

Player Winning Percentage – this table shows by player, which players were part of the most successful winning teams (percentage of winning – find this document on the Star Tournament website). Just another document that can show the best 25 players to pick by using the players from this report, if they are available, as a guideline.

We don’t want this tournament to sound complicated, but Star Tournaments and Pure Strat provide these documents to help new players get a feel for what type of teams have been drafted before in previous tournaments and when certain players are picked. Many participants of these tournaments have found that these various reports (in a spreadsheet form) to be very helpful and if you take the time to review these reports you will understand why. But note, that are a number of versions of some of the reports based upon how many teams are within a specific division.