In hopes of sparking more discussion on this issue, I post the following ideas for a Pro Go Fantasy League. Consider these ideas draft and open to debate, revision, or competition from your own proposals:

Draft: Pro Go Fantasy League Ideas

OVERVIEW:

Upon Joining the Pro Go Fantasy League, League participants choose pro go players to reside on their active player board. The number of open slots on a league participant’s active player board is both limited (perhaps 8 total slots?) and semi-permanent. These limitations add strategic importance to the pro go players that are chosen.

Positions on the active player board may be left empty. An empty spot on the active player board may be filled with a new pro go player at any time. At some frequency (Once a month?), players can swap out a single position on their active player board to either a new pro player or an empty slot.

During the course of the season, league organizers set up active tournaments. League Participants are allowed to enter one or more pro players from their active player board into the tournament. During the tournament, a league participant’s chosen pro go player will earn points for every win, and may loose points for every loss.

Lets give an extended example as a demonstration of how this might work using the Fujitsu cup data from 2007.

EXAMPLE:

Suppose the League organizer announces the Fujitsu cup as an active tournament with the following properties:
League participants may enter 3 pro go players from their active player board
pro go players chosen earn the following point percentages based on position:
First: 100%, Second 70%, Third 50%
Points for wins in each round are awarded as follow
Round 1: 10 pts
Round 2: 20 pts
Quarter Finals: 30 pts
Semi Finals: 40 pts
Final: 50 pts


Suppose a league participant has the following pro go players on his/her active player board:
1: Gu Li
2: Pak Yeong-hun
3: Yi Ch’ang-ho
4: Cho U
5: Cho Chikun
6: Yi Se-tol
7: Yoda Norimoto
8: Empty

The participant chooses to enter the following pro go players for the tournament:
1. Gu Li
2. Cho U
3. Yi Ch’ang-ho

Let’s score each round of the tournament based on these entries. Note only single best possible win is scored per round.

(Follow along by opening the tournament ladder in another window: http://gobase.org/games/nn/fujitsu/20/)

Round 1: Cho U wins his game and earns (70% of 10 pts) = 7 pts
NOTE: both Gu Li and Yi Ch’ang-ho were seeded into the second round, and did not play in round 1!
Round 2: Gu Li is eliminated, but Cho U wins earning (70% of 20 pts) = 14 pts
Quarter Finals: Cho U’s win earns (70% of 30 pts) = 21 pts
Semi Finals: Cho U is eliminated, but Yi Ch’ang-ho’s win earns (50% of 40 pts) = 20 pts
Final: Yi Ch’ang-ho is eliminated. No players remain, so no points are earned. (we might possibly lose points in this situation.)

Total: 62 pts earned for the Fujitsu Cup.

This concluded the example.

Parting Thoughts:

This system would be most enjoyable if there were many tournaments active – hopefully most major tournaments.

Pro Go Players could not be swapped out if they are entered in a tournament – even if they have already been eliminated from that tournament!

There is a possibility of recognizing winning streaks from a given player, and having a winning streak increase the points earned by that pro go player on behalf of a league participant. Perhaps one additional point for each consecutive game in the winning streak?

TERMS:

Active Player Board: Each League Participant has an active player board. The active player board contains the list of pro go players that can be entered in tournaments to gain points on behalf of that League Participant.

Active Tournament: An active tournament is a tournament recognized by the Pro Go Fantasy League. Participants are allowed to enter predictions on the outcomes. Active tournaments have associated entry deadlines win payouts and other data associated with them.

League Participants: The player making predictions and wagers during on the outcome of tournaments and individual games during the course of the season.

League Organizers: The administrator(s) setting up the point values and prediction / wager conditions on the various tournaments.

Doesn't everyone end up with the Yi's, Gu Li, Kong Jie etc.? Is there any restriction on entering the same players to the tournament?