Welcome everyone to Fantasy Olympian 2014! If you are new, we are glad you found us -- we've been doing this since 2006 and we have gotten bigger every Olympic cycle. If you are returning, welcome back! It's always great to see the same folks returning every couple years. But if you are a returning player, you have no doubt noticed some changes. We are fortunate that veteran Fantasy Olympians and computer programmers Steve Hammond and Nat Budin took such an interest in this project that they spent quite a bit of their free time building this new site. Thank you Steve and Nat!
For the new and old alike, here's a look at how the game will work this year:
1. Registering with the site
Unlike in the past, you now need to register with FantasyOlympian.com. As we have spelled out in greater detail in our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, we will not use your information for any purpose other than to administer the games. To register, simply input your information on the registration page and then click on the confirmation link in the e-mail that will be sent to your account.
2. Drafting
In previous years, we asked you to e-mail us your draft results or allow us to host a draft via AOL Instant Messenger. This process has changed. Now, you can either host your own offline draft and your league commissioner can manually enter the draft results, or each player can pre-rank his or her draft picks and the draft can be completed automatically.
3. Player list
As usual, the player list is a work-in-progress. Qualification events are ongoing, so it's hard for us to make final medal predictions. For this reason, we recommend that you not conduct your drafts until the Olympics fields are set. The athlete list this year is not ranked from best pick to worst pick, but you can see how many points each athlete/team is expected to receive and draft accordingly (or pre-rank your picks accordingly). We've already put some athletes on the list, and we will continue to do so leading up to the Games. We will do our best to make sure every athlete you might want to draft is on the list, but if there is someone that is missing, just shoot us an e-mail and we will make the necessary addition.
4. International athletes
As a reminder, Fantasy Olympian goes international for the Winter Olympics. Athletes and teams from every nation are available for selection, so make sure you are familiar with competitors from outside the United States!
Finally, my usual disclaimer -- we have been hosting this fantasy game from eight years now. It started with four friends and has grown to hundreds of participants. We are happy that it has been bigger each year and we think it is getting better every year. Our goal is to provide an enjoyable and professional experience. But please remember that we have never made a dime off of Fantasy Olympian -- this is a hobby/passion/public service for us. So while we will do our best to keep Fantasy Olympian running at a high level, please know that life (jobs, family, etc.) sometimes gets away. We're glad you have chosen to play our game, and we appreciate your patience.