2017 NRL.com Fantasy thread part 52 - Fantasy talk in here

I was choosing up till now to not go on a spiel about the loophole.  Mulvy did a fine job in the previous thread of explaining why it is a legitimate part of the game.  His thoughts are identical to mine.

The rule that every non-looper refers to "There is no longer the ability to take advantage of the 'Captain's Loophole'", is a remnant of when they changed the ACTUAL loophole 3 years ago.  Fanhub have left this bit of text in for the last 3 seasons.  IT IS NOT NEW THIS YEAR.  They haven't changed anything this year, nor last year.  They actually wrote that at the start of 2015 when they closed the actual loophole-that is, back when you could take the C off your Captain during a round and place it on an NPR to get your VC score under pretty much any circumstances.  THAT WAS THE CAPTAINS LOOPHOLE, not what is being done now.

What we are doing now is NOT the Captain's Loopole, it is just called that as it developed out of the CAPTAIN'S LOOPOLE from 2014.  

The very next line in the rules is that 'a Captain can be substituted out during a game, but no other player can be made Captain. In that case the Vice Captain will be awarded double points.'  That is what we are doing NOW, it is IN THE RULES, and everyone is both aware of it and able to do it.

The game is designed so that you can sub your captain out-it is written there in black and white.  Just like the game is desiged so you can do DPP trades, just like the game is desiged to have price rises and drops, so too is the game designed so that you can sub your Captain out to get double points for your Vice Captain if you choose to.

tl;dr?

The Captain's Loophole WAS closed in 2015.  What we are doing now is NOT actually the Captain's Loophole-it is a legitimate mechanism of the game that is explained in the rules.  

FanHub have created all this animosity by leaving that "we have closed the loophole" text in there from 2015.  Once people realise that the Captain's Loophole was actually something else that has actually been closed by locking the C and VC than maybe we will see peace in our time?

You can't spell Captains Loophole without I can loophole.

I'm thinking maybe it would help by writing this:

The actual Captain's Loophole was when Captain's and Vice Captain's were not locked out during the round.  We used to be able to take the C off and place it on an NPR and thus get your VC points doubled.  You could do it with more than 17 players (so any round) because you weren't subbing the player you originally chose as Captain out.

You could do it anytime, any round, with any player.  That was the Captain's Loophole.  It was closed in 2015 and that is what they are referring to in that rule.

code delta wrote:It's gone a bit quiet tonight.
So let's see if anyone is prepared to post that they did worse than me this week.
Round score of 457.
Ranking dropped by 1299 from 788 to 2087.
Limited trades left but hoping the long game works.

We almost literally traded places this week lol I went from 2100 to 1200

Up to 1600 yay.

Cracked the Top 5000 for the first time since Round 1...

It has been a long year.

Smith, Hodgson
Vaughan Graham Hoare Brown
JDB Gallen Surgess Chichton LOLO Stimson
SJ Munster Feeney Fields
Hayne Aubbs Scott Fui
Walker Slater RTS MWZ

Got 9 trades left with 147k should I get Edwards for Slater?
Is it sideways to trade Hodgson to McInnes?
What are some suggestions for trades?

Nrl4Life wrote:Smith, Hodgson
Vaughan Graham Hoare Brown
JDB Gallen Surgess Chichton LOLO Stimson
SJ Munster Feeney Fields
Hayne Aubbs Scott Fui
Walker Slater RTS MWZ

Got 9 trades left with 147k should I get Edwards for Slater?
Is it sideways to trade Hodgson to McInnes?
What are some suggestions for trades?

I have the same CTRs want to know what your plan is.

Random wrote:

I have the same CTRs want to know what your plan is.

Keeping centres, moving munster down to wing and trading out walker for Pearce in round 20.

Another loophole round coming up... no Angus though

Spuddies wrote:
 
Thanks MS, those are the encouraging words I need to hear! I've got 14 trades left and want to maximise my opportunities during these latter bye rounds. It will be hard to make up ground after rd 20 when everyone starts to have pretty similar looking teams.

By round 20 when everyone is running the same 17 you will be lucky yo put 20 points a week on the top 10 unless injuries strike. Some years there are plenty of popular players that get season enders. Others there is none

SI wrote:I'm thinking maybe it would help by writing this:

The actual Captain's Loophole was when Captain's and Vice Captain's were not locked out during the round.  We used to be able to take the C off and place it on an NPR and thus get your VC points doubled.  You could do it with more than 17 players (so any round) because you weren't subbing the player you originally chose as Captain out.

You could do it anytime, any round, with any player.  That was the Captain's Loophole.  It was closed in 2015 and that is what they are referring to in that rule.

Well said, SI. That was the only part I couldn't remember ie what the old Captain's loophole actually was because it's only my second year. What I do know is that I read the rules last year (because it was my first year) and nothing has changed this year as you say.

Still having a tough time deciding between Mansour or Tedesco this week. Mansour byes are finished but Tedesco has the softest possible draw in the next 2 weeks(except he can't play the Tigers). Titans and Knights are 15th and 14th respectively for conceeding attacking points(tries, TA, LB, LBA, TB, goals, offloads). Tedesco could put up some monster scores vs those two but is a guarentee for origin 3. Mansour is probably behind TTurbo for the wing spot currently held by Bmoz if the blues lose

Also note that SI, Milchow and myself are just clarifying what the rules are now. We haven't advocated for or against the rules as they stand. But if you want my opinion (I'm sure you all do!), I think it's fine the way it is. BUT if you are going to change it, making the Captain ineligible for an AE would stop people doing what they are currently doing whilst minimising any unintended consequences. Eg you would still be able to sub out your Captain if he was a late withdrawl, unlike a hard lockout. This should be done of course only before the start of the season and should be well advertised.

Milchcow wrote:
My opinion on what the rules *should* be is ranked subs with a hard lockout.

No loopholes, and no need to check final teams all weekend. And no difference between a late withdrawal in the 2nd game of the weekend compared to the last.

I agree, that would be nice, but im my limited knowledge about how leveraging the internet works, that will never happen will it? How many extra clicks do you reckon they get through the round by having the rolling lockout?

Kudos to @SI and @mulvy (and anyone else) for privdiing some context and clarity around what we now call the "captains loophole" you guys make a whole lot of sense.

Fantasy seems to stir up a whole heap of emotions in people when things don't go well and when there is a bit of ignorance thrown into the mix too things get even worse. It's good that you guys have cleared this up.

On top of that though it would be really nice if the rules could be ironed out a bit. The "captains loophole" as it stands is an odd part of the game and whilst I completely agree that there is nothing wrong in doing it, it does feel like it is a glitch in the way the game works that should be cleaned up.

But at least its not as bad as VTSD NFL and Super Rugby fantasy,. So many loopholes in those comps its not funny!!