For Life: League Rules
------Intro-------The aim of the "For Life League" is to keep players on their original team for life. This league encourages team building through savvy drafting strategy and the signing of international prospects. You MUST committ to a minimum of three seasons. You must be willing to agree that non-compliance with the set rules will result in your willing removal from the league, to be replaced by an owner willing to play by and respect the rules. There will also be no excuses tolerated for missing out on signing your own players in time ,etc. The point here is that we're all adults. We shall play the game as such. Much like WiS policy, there will be no helping out in case of "user error". No excuses.
------Player Movement-------
--Free Agency: Traditional free agency (the ability to sign players outside of your organization) will not begin until Spring Training has completed (released players are the exception, see below for rules regarding released players). This will give the entire FA and preseason period as well as all of Spring Training for teams to sign THEIR OWN FREE AGENTS to contracts. (Upon world creation, current FA's will be considered property of the franchise listed under "Previous Franchise". Occasionally, there is no team listed, in which case they are fair game to be bid upon during FA).
Once Spring Training has completed teams may sign any player. However, free agent acquisitions are restricted to one free agent signing per cycle. Read below for details:
-- Multiple FA may be signed solely for filling Minor League Squads. These players must be under 45 overall (Projected & Current) and cannot see the Major League Roster at all for the season in which they were signed.
-- Only 1 Free Agent may be signed per cycle. The period for signing Free Agents will be posted as the world schedule gets posted but will always occur after the completion of Spring Training.
-- Tryout camp players can be signed at any time, in any quantity.
--Released Players: A player released by his franchise may be signed by any team and is available immediately. These players must have been released by their previous franchise. Take care not to confuse released players with players who have simply been allowed to walk by their franchise.
There are a few easy ways to check if a player has been released.
- If you open the player profile the "Playing Status" will read "released". This status is located in the upper right corner of the profile.
- You can run a released player report under World Office --> News --> League
Transactions.
- In the Free Agent Report you can change the "View" to "Status Info". This will indicate
whether a player was released or allowed to file for free agency.
--Trades: Open trading is strictly prohibited in this world, period, as it goes against the "For Life" theme of the league. The only trades allowed will be those trades that correct ineligible free agent signings , any rule 5 draftees and any waiver pickups.
--Waivers: No waiver claims will be allowed.
--Rule V Draft: No player may be drafted in the Rule V Draft.
---------Team Building-------
--Prospect Payroll: There is no limit to what an owner may set or transfer into their prospect payroll.
-----------Tanking Rules----------
--Tanking will be judged on a case by case basis by the Commissioner and the Veterans Committee, 9 owners total. Most worlds leave the judgment of tanking up to one person - the commissioner. In the "For Life" League we feel that the 9 owner panel will be able to make accurate judgments. Rest assured that if a panel of 9 members feels you are tanking - you probably are.
One of the biggest issues in any case of suspected tanking is the amount of time prospects spend in their organizations minor league system. While Commissioner P-Nut and the Veterans Committee do not condone any form of tanking, we also feel that owners may keep their prospects in the minor leagues for as long as they deem necessary for proper development. Most owners have a different sense of what "proper development" is in HBD and the Commissioner and the Veterans Committee will not be looking to put a concrete definition on "proper development". Instead, if an owner is suspected of tanking, their minor league promotion practices will be looked at and subject to the decision of the Veterans Committee.
If any owner has any reason for suspicion of tanking or the violation of any of the rules, they may bring it to the attention of ANY (preferrably multiple) member(s) of the VC for review. It does NOT have to be the Commisioner, especially if the Commisioner is the owner suspected of any rule violation/tanking.
