To whom it may concern (Vin? Grey? Rudy?):

I was wondering whether or not it's fair to everyone to have essentially pre-chosen leagues like ECFBL participating in the RCLs. They have a distinct advantage over other randomly chosen leagues because they know the caliber of the managers and can be guaranteed of a good league rating and adjustment. Now, I realize that ECFBL is a Razzball tradition and I'd hate to step on toes (too late?)...but I feel like pre-chosen leagues have an unfair advantage over everyone else considering the format.

I'd like to hear what the powers that be think.

::ducks::

Just like to point out that 1st place in the ECFBL was only good for 12th overall.

I'll take it up with Rudy, but I do understand your point. Better chance of a higher league index if the managers all know each other... Not sure it's totally true though. The Original league hasn't had much turn over, they're not the top ranked league. I know my keeper league always has a few teams stop participating in August and we've known each other for 15 years.

I was thinking the same thing earlier today, but ended up thinking that the loss in fun from denying friends (and competitors) the opportunity to compete with each other is just giving up too much, with no guarantee of benefit.

I mean, the alternative would be to pool all RCL entries and randomly assign leagues, right? And there you'd run into the same "luck" problem. Some would be placed in wildly competitive leagues, others would find themselves competing against 6 or 7 other active managers.

In the end, I think the solution is for those interested in ensuring a competitive experience to do their best to ensure they create one for themselves. The way to do that would be to participate in the forums and comments, bring on friends, volunteer to manage your own league and build it yourself. Everyone has an equal opportunity to do just that, so it's not like there is any unfair advantage.

All that said, as one of the folks that should have learned his lesson, I've failed spectacularly at creating that situation for myself. (But I did host a league and join another, so I've at least doubled my chances of participating in a decently competitive league this year).