As of today, the NFL season is just eight days away! Here’s what you need to know for all your DataForce teams.
Email Drafts May Speed Up
Already, we have entered our Accelerated Draft Period, where all 8-hour drafts are now on a 6-hour timer.
Already, every remaining email draft in the lobby has switched to a Speed Email format, with a maximum of 4 hours per pick.
We hope you’ll help us out! Your league would appreciate if you’ll follow these courtesy guidelines for the remainder of the draft season:
- If you’re going to be away from your computer for an extended period, set predraft picks.
- Avoid making trade offers when it’s your turn to pick. Don’t delay making picks for trade talks.
- We strive to finish all drafts before the Wednesday game, but if it turns out this isn’t possible, the draft will continue through Saturday. The draft will conclude Saturday evening whether all teams are full or not, when a final kicker and/or defense may be selected from free agency on a first-come-first-served basis so as to round out your starting lineup. Players drafted or added to your team after their game begins on Wednesday or Thursday may not be placed in your starting lineup.
But we may go further than that. We try really hard to get all email drafts completed before the season begins (it’s not TOTALLY necessary, see below) but we do try hard. And that means, we’ll be monitoring every email draft closely and moving the timer up faster if need be, as the season approaches.
Holdouts Will No Longer Qualify for I/R
Beginning Wednesday of week 1 (September 9), holdouts will no longer qualify for your Injured Reserve. Per DataForce rules, only players on their team’s official I/R can be placed on your fantasy team’s injured reserve. You’ll have to pull any holdouts off I/R in order to set your lineup once the season starts.
This affects two players in particular:
Brandon Aiyuk was being drafted and tucked away on I/R until his situation resolved one way of the other. Well, now you have to make a choice. If you want to hold on to this guy, he has to take up a bench spot.
The other player, interestingly, is Josh Jacobs. He’s on the Commissioner’s Exempt List, and never really qualified for I/R (suspended players don’t), but for a brief few days, MyFantasyLeague had his status as “holdout.” We purposefully keep our player status in line with MyFantasyLeague because we host about 100 of our leagues there, so he carried the same designation on the DataForce site.
He doesn’t, anymore. He doesn’t qualify, and if you managed to hide him on I/R while his status was up in the air, you now have to decide whether to keep him or not. He can’t stay there.
Waivers Run Early in Week 1
This year, week one opens with a game on Wednesday night. Therefore, waivers will run Wednesday, September 9th at noon Eastern on both DataForce and MFL platforms.
Then, thirty minutes later at 12:30 ET, the first free agency period will open. (On MyFantasyLeague, free agency opens the moment waivers finish processing.) You have until each player’s game time to pick up players from the Free Agency page. Free agency is first-come-first-served.
In future weeks, waivers (blind bidding) will run on Wednesday evening at 10pm ET for both platforms, just as they did during the preseason. Free agency will then open at 10:30.
If you’ve never used the DataForce waiver processing page before, watch this short video.
Here is an old newsletter that explains how waivers and free agency work at DataForce (skip ahead to the Newbie Corner)
Live Drafts Through Saturday Week 1
In the week the season begins, drafting will continue through Wednesday afternoon up until game time, and on into the weekend, with Saturday as the final chance to build a new fantasy team.
However, draft activity naturally slows down after the season begins, so don’t wait to lock down any late-draft spots you want to participate in! We typically have several lower-level draft options still available, and an auction or two.
Draft strategy can change after some of the players have already played! Be sure to read on to the rule differences below for these drafts.
Starting Lineups For Week 1
Remember to set lineups early next week! As soon as Wednesday’s Patriots/Seahawks game begins, all of THOSE players will be locked in place, whether on your roster or on your bench. You will continue to be able to bench or start all other players up until their game times Thursday, Sunday and Monday.
It is DataForce Fantasy Football’s policy that all teams will have a starting lineup set for week one games. Specifically, what that means is that if your opponent doesn’t have a lineup by game-time Sunday morning, we’ll set one for them. We will use The Wonk’s suggested lineup so there is never any speculation about favoritism.
So if the Sunday games start and your opponent has no lineup, or empty spots in the lineup, don’t expect it to be a freebie! Changes could be made by us soon after the games begin.
Live Stats Feed
You can watch all your games live on DataForce! Bookmark this page.
The handiest way to locate the live stats feed is just to click your TEAM MANAGER button to go to that hub, and look for the LIVE STATS button.
On the mobile app, you’ll find live scoring on the left-side slide-out.
NOTE: If you own multiple teams, when you bring up the live stats page, you’ll see all of your teams listed with their opponents. If you want to see all of the games in one league, switch the display to just that league. You can do this where it says ‘All my DataForce Leagues’ at the top of the page: click that to select a specific league. (NOTE: This is the only way you can watch Tin Baby live stats, as they aren’t displayed with the rest of your leagues.)
Watching Your MyFantasyLeague Games on DataForce
It’s possible to watch live scoring of your MFL leagues on DataForce as well if you prefer. But to do this, make sure your rosters are updated on DataForce: the DataForce rosters are not kept in sync minute-by-minute with MFL.
On the team Manager hub, click MyTeams->RefreshFromMFL. We recommend you do this just as the games begin, since that’s when rosters lock.
Drafting After The Season Begins
Nearly all of our email drafts are on pace to finish before Thursday’s game. But in the event that any one of them doesn’t finish drafting, it’s not a catastrophe. Simply continue drafting as usual, but any players from Wednesday or Thursday’s game that you draft after the games start will go on your bench, and cannot be put into your starting lineup this week.
Not so with live drafts and auctions! If you participate in live drafts on Thursday, Friday or Saturday, and you draft a player who already played, you are allowed to start that player in week one! Draft the players who scored the most points and win your week one game!
League Name Nominations
We don’t name your multi-year leagues. You do. If you joined a start-up dynasty, keeper, legacy, contract or salary cap league this year, your league can name it whatever you choose.
You have until Sunday night of week 1 to nominate a league name on your Owners->LeagueVotes page. The next day, all nominations are displayed, and you get to begin voting for your preferred league name. A week later, the votes are tabulated and all the start-up multi-year leagues get new names!
Thanks to our wonderful customers for another great preseason of drafting! Please don’t be afraid to ask if you have any questions at all as the games get underway.
Updated Mobile App
This Summer, DataForce upgraded its mobile app. You’ll find several enhancements and new features, including:
- Push notifications for trade and draft activity.
- Much easier system navigation.
- A brand new look (seen here in the Blackout skin, a popular option from the Locker Room.)
- Many more slide-out options for quick actions.
- An upgraded mobile software engine behind the scenes (DataForce’s mobile web version and mobile app share the same software now, which was also updated over the off-season).
- Considerably faster, with slimmed-down interfacing.
Do yourself a favor and check it out! Be sure you’re using at least version 2.1.0.
🏈 Leagues Forming Now at DataForce Fantasy Football! 🏈
Ready to draft? We offer the widest variety with the best prize payouts anywhere!
Come check out what we have available in our lobby and Orphan Marketplace.
Join the fun and draft your winning team today at DataForceFF.com!
Lee Harmon
Commissioner