Using delisted riders

therealsmallboy wrote:

Hi guys,

I'm the second placed player. I won the kit and am pleased with that, but on the day that Voeckler got all of those points, I had Kessiakoff. I wanted Voeckler, but I couldn't afford him because I didn't know I could use non TdF riders to give me a credit as it were.... And yeah I am pretty miffed, because I played the game fair and square....

If the rules are changed, without awarding me the bike, the guy below me the kit and the guy below him the helmet to comply with what's been said here I'll be even more annoyed, because it would only admit that it's not right.

Notwithstanding this, the rules need to be clarified, because I didn't know about this and have been playing for two years now. As far as I was concerned we were playing a TdF competition, for TdF prizes, with TdF riders. There should at least be something on the 'how to play' section.

In any event, I won the BMC team kit fair and square and can sleep happily at night.

Therealsmallboy

congratulations on second place

as for the rules, we set them every year. so they'll change next year, for sure. how they'll change is normally the subject of much debate on this forum.

as they stand, the game engine allows anyone to pick riders that aren't riding, by changing the filter from 'riding this stage' to 'all riders'. and your team is still valid if you have riders greyed out:

the rules wrote:

Some of my riders didn't race in the last stage - will I still score points for the others?

Yes. So long as you have nine riders selected, you'll score. It doesn't matter if some of your riders are greyed out.

so as far as the tour is concerned, the result is what it is. assuming everyone's in the same place after the schleck update. which they seem to be.

if the concensus of opinion is that for next year it'd be better if only participating riders were available after the start of a tour, or frank's points stay in the game after he's kicked out, or the star/ds split should be binned, or whatever, then we'll look at making those changes for next year. we're always trying to make the game better for everyone, and we're always interested in what people think about it. I'm happy to admit that the game isn't perfect, and your feedback each year helps to move it forward.

Mrdowen wrote:

If things don't change I'll be playing free next year. The "old boys forum" will not be getting my money.

By definition a forum is somewhere for all people to converse on the topic, in this case fantasy cycling and the competion. If you've not taken the time to keep up with the forum then that's your problem but it's not an 'old boys network' where a few of us distribute loopholes and work arounds to 'beat the game', it's a public forum open to everyone where we discuss the game and raise any issue we have.

Raleigh wrote:

I'll put my hands up and say that I've done this, unwittingly though.

In the Giro I picked Theo Bos, who was the cheapest star by far the day he dropped out on stage 16.

I also picked the cheap DS from Europcar in this year's tour, in the days leading up to his abandonment.

I think there's a difference between picking Bernaudeau before he dropped out and leaving him in there, picking Bos for the Giro who actually started the race and picking Mullery from Team Exergy because he costs 2.3 credits and was never even down to race the TdF.

The difference might not seem much but for me it's the line between morally right and wrong. Yes, it's probably been blown a little out of proportion and I certainly wouldn't advocate changing the result and taking the prize away from the guy who's worked within the current rules but quite a few people have suggested it be changed so it certainly needed bringing up.

livestrongnick wrote:

wow nice loop-hole! I agree seems to have been blown out of proportion abit, but maybe altering the game for next year might be wise, provided the budget goes up to reflect the riders values. Otherwise might as well leave this loop-hole in because the way i see it at least 4 if not 5 riders will probably go upto 40 points plus alot of good ds's will become stars!

As we are paying it is something to think about!

Again... just because some stars (Froome, Wiggins, Sagan, Henao) will be increasing in value next year and some DSs (Pinot...) will become Stars and increase in value doesn't mean we'll all need bigger budgets. Some riders will move in the opposite direction decreasing in value (Gilbert, Evans, Farrar, Hushovd, Schleck, Kreuziger) and others will become DSs (possibly Siutsou, maybe Basso, Oss and Hoogerland?). Likewise with people like Hincapie and Horner(?) retiring other riders will come in at a lower level and overall the game will even out.

drheaton wrote:

Agreed, it was risky and hats off to him, but there's no denying that he wouldn't have been able to pick that team without 'bending' the rules. If, like everyone else, he picked listed DSs at a minimum of 2.7 credits, he'd have had to have one of Voeckler/Kessiakoff and that would have made the difference over 2nd place overall.

What he's done is within the rules and he still needed to pick the right guys, but I still think the rules need changing. If I'd 'played fair' and finished second because I couldn't afford Kessiakoff, Voeckler or Pinot because I had listed DSs I'd be pretty pissed.

I scored higher than the actual winner on both those stages (16 and 17) so picking cheap riders didn't enable him to have the best team as far as star riders were concerned. The best star combination on both that was affordable was Froome, Kessiakoff, Voeckler, Sorenson for 16 and change Sorenson to Valverde for 17, which is close what I did. I had Wiggins but it wasn't significant. In fact if I'd had Izagirre, who is cheaper, instead of Urtasun before those stages I would have won both stages and scored about nearly 50 points more so it was possible to score nearly 100 points more with all 9 riders in the TdF.

In fact If I'd had Izagirre from the start and not Vichot I would have got close to winning the whole damn thing, combined with not dropping Sagan inbetween 13 and 15 (not bitter mind).

It's a clever ruse but if it's within the rules, fair enough. However, it might be worth thinking about changing it for next year so people not aware of this trick don't lose out and I use this forum a lot and didn't realise it, but I do now for the Vuelta

rcorbin wrote:

Hans Dekker

Thats the dude, he was one of the most popular riders last season whenever there were mountains in a stage

Gkam84 wrote:

It was the same last year. I cant remember the rider myself and alot of others (including Dave) were using ALL the time when we were short to bring in some good riders.

I remember he was Europcar and a very cheap sprinter.

So its not a new thing and is well within the rules. Last year, you HAD to have 9 riders who were starting the race to have a valid team, then you could do whatever, this year, you don't even need that

Im sure it was Hans Dekkers and raced for not the same team as bert de waele if im correct, not europcar?

drheaton wrote:

is it possible to limit players to picking actual participating riders once the tour is underway? Maybe something to add to the "next year" list?

probably, and one to add to the list to look at in the future. although i'd add that the chap that won did so because of the scoring riders he picked, not the non-scoring ones. not much help getting Connor whassisface in if you don't then go and pick voeckler on the day he darts off the front for a three-figure haul...

dave_atkinson wrote:

drheaton wrote:

is it possible to limit players to picking actual participating riders once the tour is underway? Maybe something to add to the "next year" list?

probably, and one to add to the list to look at in the future. although i'd add that the chap that won did so because of the scoring riders he picked, not the non-scoring ones. not much help getting Connor whassisface in if you don't then go and pick voeckler on the day he darts off the front for a three-figure haul...

I was just going to say he scored 96, which is what I remembered from looking at the score at the time, then I checked and saw it was 100. Did some points get transferred from another rider because my overall total didn't change? I think they must have come from Kessiakoff. His score seems lower than I remember. Is Tommy V the first rider to score 100 points on a stage?