Up till now I've only played open leagues. I'm thinking about jumping in and playing some themes. I guess the first things I would ask, would be is there time limits on drafting your team? If you join does everyone wait till you finish drafting? The reason I ask is I am super slow at drafting my teams, I don't want to hold up leagues starting or tick people off waiting on me.

I'd say the average league (lately) takes at least 2 or 3 weeks to fill once it's posted. So if you're one of the first to sign up, you'll have plenty of time to draft a team. I hope...

On the other hand, some of the more popular leagues fill in a day or two and you'll be expected to have a team ready within a few days after it opens.

Regardless, the theme creator will set a deadline once all the teams are signed up and notify everyone.

As a guy that starts alot of Themes, I would say that Communication is the key. If you join one of my leagues I normally wait until there are 15-18 guys signed up before I make the league. At that time I will send out the league number via Sitemail. I will then send another Sitemail when the league is full in the forums. In this sitemail I normally set a deadline (as elduro25 pointed out). What I am looking for here is a response. "I will be in tonight" "I am too busy and need to drop" "I really want in but I need an extra day." If you do not respond (I can see if you read the SM) I will look to replace you so the other 23 guys don't have to wait. If a guy asks for an extra day (especially if I know him) I am glad to wait 24 or 48 hours to give him a chance. After all, we all have lives. You show me the respect of communicating, I show you the same respect. To me, I owe you a spot in the league and you owe me a response. FYI: Guys that are chronically unreliable do get labeled, so please don't join leagues if you don't really want to join.

Another tip is. If you take a long time, open a Spring League team and start to play with your roster. The Team Center now allows you to load those teams in once I have sent you the league number. This makes getting a head start easy. If you don't have an available Spring Team, look at the Theme League listing and enter a number any Public Theme League. This will give you a blank team to start working on. The league you entered will never know.

In my opinion, Theme Leagues are the way to go around here.

Good Luck.

Thanks for the advice, I'm kind of interested in playing some high salary caps, will spring leagues let me draft say 255mil? I also see browsing that some leagues have 60 or more AAA players? Are they just like open league aaa players? Ratings and the such.

Some AAA players are way above average,below average,or average-----just depends on the creator of the league you want to jump in.

The creator of those leagues usually state the value of AAA players your getting.

A Spring Team will let you draft any cap, it just shows you that you are over the Minimum. If you take a long time to draft Choose your own AAA may not be for you. You may not know, but you have more Stadiums to choose from in Theme Leagues.

Right, just avoid using "Cash " as your maximum salary search, and you can draft as though you are cap-less. Then when it's time to join the league, use the "Edit League Option" link above your roster, paste in the theme ID that the commish sends you, and it should preserve your draft roster to enter the team.

Quote: Originally Posted By clackumus on 6/01/2010
is there time limits on drafting your team? If you join does everyone wait till you finish drafting?

There are 2 types of theme leagues, Open Entry and Reserved. an Open Entry league is first-come first-served. If you want to join you need to enter your team before the league fills. If you join a reserved league you first reserve your spot, then once the league is fully reserved the commissioner sets a reasonable deadline, typically 4 or 5 more days. the advantage of Reserved leagues is you get to take your time drafting. the disadvantage is you often have to wait for 1 or 2 deadbeats who miss the deadline by 5 to 10 days.

I have two suggestions. start drafting your team when you reserve your spot, don't wait until the league is full. Most themes take a long time to fill so you should have plenty of time to draft. and if you are running late stay in contact with the commissioner letting him know you are still playing.

This seems extremely strange, I'm working on drafting a spring team. I'm just shooting at a 255 cap. I can draft anyone I want. Seems like this would be like a kind of a "crap shoot" leaugue.

It's not nearly the crap shoot it may appear to be.

Quote: Originally Posted By clackumus on 6/04/2010This seems extremely strange, I'm working on drafting a spring team. I'm just shooting at a 255 cap. I can draft anyone I want. Seems like this would be like a kind of a "crap shoot" leaugue

total crap shoot

if you lose it was a crapshoot, if you win it wasn't.

Quote: Originally posted by rbow923 on 6/04/2010if you lose it was a crapshoot, if you win it wasn't.

Bingo...and since my $255 mill team won its Division...that was drafting brilliance...if we lose from here on out...it was a crapshoot.