The Progressive League Update was released on Monday and included the following features (if you're a visual person, you can page down for the screenshots!):

1) We've added the ability to tie leagues together from one "season" to the next. Within the Theme League Wizard, the league commish can specify the previous league number and a password to validate membership.

2) As a result of chaining leagues, we can show historical results for multi-season leagues (dating back to April, 2007). Player profiles, team profiles, league standings, playoff results and league leaders allow owners to go back in time for previous league results and stats.

3) We've added a new trade history page that provides any completed trades including notes regarding future draft picks. This page will also allow you to view previous season's trades for multi-season leagues.

4) New league formats to allow for more realistic replays of historical seasons as well as smaller leagues for more unique themes. See below for more details.

5) Team profile addition so that you can view your team's actual player statistics moving forward or in reverse 1 season at a time (multi-season leagues only). So if you have a team of players from 1948, you'll be able to click a link to show the available players on this roster and their stats for 1949 (and continue to move 1 season at a time).

6) We've added a whitelist option to the Theme League Wizard. Only players from this list will be eligible in the league.

7) Along with the whitelist is an option to show whether a player has been drafted and, if desired, who drafted him.

8) We've added an option in the Theme League Wizard that allows league members to draft their own AAA. Owners will be able to draft their own AAA or allow the AI to create prospects. For instance, if a theme league is setup to have 6 position players in AAA and 2 pitchers in AAA, you'll be able to draft 2 position players and 1 pitcher and the AI will create the rest for you. In addition, you can specify whether the AAA players should follow the regular theme league rules or not.

9) We've added a note section within Draft Center that will carry over to the Team Center. This should serve as a good location to maintain info regarding DL and IR players. It will automatically pull your previous season's team note as a starting point.

10) We've added a new option in the Draft Center to allow you to load a previous team with a year offset. So, if you have a team of players from 1948/1990, you can specify an offset of 2, for instance, and it will load eligible players from the team in seasons 1950/1992.

11) We've added an option in the Theme League Wizard that allows you to specify the number of vetoes required to negate a trade.

12) We've added a new player search option (advanced mode) that will allow you to search players from a season list rather than a season range. i.e., 1949;1963;1978.

13) Similar to #5, we've added new functionality in the Draft Center to allow you to view your roster X years into the past or future to help with roster assembly (multi-season leagues only).

14) We've added automatic private forum generation for multi-season leagues. Only owners in the league will be granted access, and the forum will remain the same from season to season. If a league already has a forum, we can initialize this ahead of time (see below).

Step # 4 from above in more detail:

Another step has been added to the Theme League Wizard that allows you to specify the league size and configuration.

You can choose from 1 of 10 historic league formats or 1 of 4 custom WIS formats (including the current standard).

Here are the historic formats:

* 2001-present with 30 teams, 2 leagues, 3 divisions (5-5-6-5-4-5), 8 playoff teams, interleague play and an unbalanced schedule
* 1998-2000 with 30 teams, 2 leagues, 3 divisions (5-5-6-5-4-5), 8 playoff teams, interleague play and a balanced schedule
* 1997 with 28 teams, 2 leagues, 3 divisions (5-4-5-5-4-5), 8 playoff teams, interleague play and a balanced schedule
* 1994-1996 with 28 teams, 2 leagues, 3 divisions (5-5-6-5-4-5), 8 playoff teams, no interleague play and a balanced schedule
* 1993 with 28 teams, 2 leagues, 2 divisions (7-7-7-7), 4 playoff teams, no interleague play and a balanced schedule
* 1977-1992 with 26 teams, 2 leagues, 2 divisions (6-6-7-7), 4 playoff teams, no interleague play and a balanced schedule
* 1969-1976 with 24 teams, 2 leagues, 2 divisions (6-6-6-6), 4 playoff teams, no interleague play and a balanced schedule
* 1962-1968 with 20 teams, 2 leagues, 1 divisions (10-10), 2 playoff teams, no interleague play and a balanced schedule
* 1961 with 18 teams, 2 leagues, 1 divisions (8-10), 2 playoff teams, no interleague play and a balanced schedule
* 1901-1960 with 16 teams, 2 leagues, 1 divisions (8-8), 2 playoff teams, no interleague play and a balanced schedule



Here are the custom formats:

* WIS 1 with 24 teams, 2 leagues, 3 divisions (4-4-4-4-4-4), 8 playoff teams, interleague play and an unbalanced schedule
* WIS 2 with 24 teams, 2 leagues, 1 divisions (12-12), 2 playoff teams, no interleague play and a balanced schedule
* WIS 3 with 16 teams, 2 leagues, 2 divisions (4-4-4-4), 4 playoff teams, no interleague play and a balanced schedule
* WIS 4 with 12 teams, 2 leagues, 1 division (6-6), 2 playoff teams, no interleague play and a balanced schedule



Please see the following knowledge base entry for details on prize distribution, founder credit and TOC eligibility: click here

For existing progressive league commissioners, we ask you to please provide us with the league chain of your league so we can prepare it ahead of time for the update. This should include the league number of every season you've had in your league thus far.

In addition, please let us know if your league has a private forum thread setup already so we can get that in place ahead of time, too.

If you're a progressive league commish, please submit a ticket to customer support with this information.

Since many of you are not familiar with progressive leagues, we wanted to give you a brief description and to also provide screenshots of what the changes entail.

A "Progressive League" is a league that spans multiple leagues. In its most basic form, the league moves from 1 season to the next.

For instance, a progressive league could begin in 1930 where all players on all teams are from the 1930 season. After the league concludes, the same group of owners form another league where all players are from the 1931 season.

Progressive leagues typically use a draft to select their players. Some leagues use the SimLeague Baseball draft utility, while others prefer to use the forums.

Some leagues allow the trading of future season draft picks. Some leagues have an injured reserve or a DL. Some leagues protect a certain number of players from season to season.

League rules vary, too. There are reverse progressive leagues that go down rather than up a season. There are leagues that combine two seasons, where pitchers are from 1 season and hitters from another. The possibilities are endless, and we've been fortunate to have a great deal of very creative progressive league owners.

Screenshot #1: Click Here

The 2nd tab of the Theme League Wizard allows you to create/continue a progressive league. If you're creating a progressive league, all you have to do is check the box. If you're continuing the progressive league, you have to enter the previous season's League # and password (which only the theme commish sees).

In addition, you can specify what league format the league should use. This new feature is incorporated in one drop down box. Pick the format, and the rest is automated.

Screenshot #2: Click Here

The 4th tab of the Theme League Wizard allows you to specify the whitelist for the league. The whitelist is the specific list of players that can be drafted in the league (or claimed off waivers).

We've had the blacklist since the Theme League Wizard's inception, but the whitelist makes the available of players a less time consuming process for theme owners.

You'll also notice a checkbox at the bottom of the screenshot. If this property is checked, you'll be able to see which team has drafted whom during the process of building your team, even if you don't use the live draft utility. This is in place to help the commish verify rosters easier and quicker.

Screenshot #3: Click Here

This is the Future Season Outlook page available from the Draft Center for multi-season leagues. You can view what your roster will look like seasons into the future (or past).

This is a very useful tool for progressive league team owners so they can better prepare for the long haul, since many protect players from season to season.

Screenshot #4: Click Here

Another part of the update is available for all theme leagues. Theme owners can now specify via the Theme League Wizard that the AAA players can be drafted manually.

If an owner wants to draft their AAA players, they can. If not, they will be generated automatically like always. The group of players available for manual AAA drafting is based on another Theme League Wizard property.

You'll also notice there's a note section within the Draft Center. This note is carried over to the league once you complete your team. And for multi-season leagues, the previous season's team note is carried to the next season's Draft Center note. This allows owners to easily maintain their notes from season to season, which can include protection lists, injured reserves, etc.

Screenshot #5: Click Here

You can now specify the seasons for a player search manually rather than relying on the range of seasons. This provides greater flexibility, especially for split progressive leagues that use more than 1 non-consecutive season.

Screenshot #6: Click Here

Once a progressive league (or other multi-season leagues) reach their 2nd season, you'll be able to view previous season's results.

Here, you can see the option for viewing the standings or the playoffs from a previous season.

Screenshot #7: Click Here

Team Profiles also allow you to view previous season's statistics.

Screenshot #8: Click Here

Team Profiles within progressive leagues also let you view your roster's outlook for seasons into the future or past. This is helpful for owners looking to wheel and deal during the season or planning their protection list for next season.

Screenshot #9: Click Here

Progressive League Player Profiles will also let you view previous season's stats.

Screenshot #10: Click Here

Progressive Leagues also have previous season data for Team Rankings, Awards and League Leaders (screenshot).

Here, you'll see that you can go back and view league leaders for a particular league or spanning all leagues of the Progressive League.

Screenshot #11: Click Here

Leagues now have the Transactions page broken down into trades and waiver claims.

For Progressive Leagues, you can view trade history for previous seasons, too. This helps league owners remember how future draft picks were moved from season to season.

That's all the screenshots -- we hope they prove useful.

Progressive leagues are a great deal of fun. And if a league goes 10 or more seasons with minimal turnover, we (WIS) typically provide additional incentives. Contact customer support after the 10th season concludes, and we'll provide the additional credits to the winners.

We've noticed other users have chimed in, so we'd like to show their thoughts as well: click here.

While the update was focused on progressive leagues, it can also be used for multi-season tournaments which we know many of our users like to do. And we're sure users will figure out other ways to take advantage of the multi-season format.

We're incredibly excited about the update because of all the possibilities it introduces. With various league formats, it's now easier to replay historical seasons as well as create smaller leagues with more unique rules.

We hope everyone enjoys the update!