Resource The Official SFA Match Simulation Process + General Sim Queries Thread

[Kennedy Parker]

Hi everyone,

This is a thread created for the purposes of promoting transparency in the simming process, helping the average player gain better insight into the official processes involved in bringing the games to your Sunday evenings, and providing an appropriate avenue for curious people to respectfully direct questions to the simming team.

This is in response to the recent increase in baseless accusations of cheating/rigging/manipulation, abuse and general disrespect towards volunteers in the sim team throughout Season 33 as raised by the previous Administrator NaturalDisaster in this statement:

Admin Notice - ND Speaks Out - League Simmer/Posters accusations - Important notice Please Read

Lately, we have seen a lot of distrust and accusations levelled at our league simmers and match posters. These accusations include: That the Simmers are manipulating outcomes That games are being re simmed until desired result is being achieved. That the simmers are targeting certain teams or...

www.bigfooty.com

With a new season beginning, I have decided we will draw a line in the sand on this matter and simmer abuse will no longer be accepted by moderators on the board.

For reference, a summary of the expectations going forward, which will be reflected in the full version of the S34 rules and its related notes.

1. Simmer Abuse.

Simmer abuse will consist of any harassment, abuse, baseless accusations of cheating/rigging/manipulation of the game towards the volunteers who run the Qooty application to simulate the games, explicit or implied.

Examples of what is no longer allowed include:

• "[simmer x] is a cheat."
• "Eat a bag of dicks simmers."
• "This s**t [the game] is rigged."
• "Corrupt simmers screwing us over again."
• "How many times did [simmer x] resim to get that result?"

Banter bemoaning the SIM application itself will not constitute simmer abuse. In layman's terms, you can still complain about the sim results as much as you like, but as soon as you bring the simmers into it then you've crossed a line.

Examples of what is still allowed include:

• "The Sim really hates us this season."
• "The Sim is such a campaigner."
• "[Club x] is seriously being kissed on the dick by the Sim this season."
• "Qooty Gods have cursed me."

Hopefully the standard is as clear as possible with little grey area.

With that being said, we cannot crackdown on simmer accusations and abuse without giving everyone an avenue to voice genuine concerns and ask fair questions which is why this will serve as a resource on the main board, open to any player in the league (with the exception of people who are just coming in here to troll and derail the thread).

The following steps can be reperformed by anyone with a computer that runs Windows by downloading the Qooty application from this thread in the archives:

Sim - Qooty64 v10.5 RELEASED

Qooty64 release 10.5 is available via the above download. Download instructions: New users - Download the above-linked rar file (5mb) and unpack (20mb) into a dedicated folder (maybe make a new folder called Qooty). Existing users - Download the above-linked rar file (5mb) and unpack (20mb)...

www.bigfooty.com

Part 1: Qooty Set Up

First Screen



1. Make a league



Name you league then enter




Part 2: Set Up a New Team

2. Set up a new team



Use the following team names and abbreviations

Baghdad Bombers (BOM)
Coney Island Warriors (CIW)
Dragons FFC (DRA)
East Side Phoenix (ESP)
Fighting Furies (FUR)
Gold City Royals FFC (GCR)
Gumbies FFC (GUM)
Las Vegas Bears (LVB)
Mount Buller Demons (MBD)
Ophidian Old Boys (OOB)
Roys FFC (ROY)
Sin City Swamprats (SCS)
West Coast Wonders (WON)





If this error comes up because of the blank spaces just re-type ROY and enter





Input all names exactly as per username and type Y



Type Any Key once the team has finished saving.


Congrats your first team is entered. Rinse repeat for all teams.

 

[Kennedy Parker]

Part 2: Set Up a New Team continued...

To check or edit your team go to SETUP LEAGUE and arrow across to Edit Team and enter



Select the team and enter


You can arrow up and down to see each player and hit edit to change or edit (in case of typo) and enter to save the change



When you've finished just hit enter to save all changes and go back to the home screen.

Part 3: Playing A Game

3. Playing a Game

Select PLAY FOOTY: Play Game




Arrow down (assuming all teams set up) to select the home team and select.
Then arrow up or down to select the away team.

Press any key to continue



Press any other key to continue



Press any key to continue. You won't see players in form until after simming the same side 3 times.
Tip - turn down the volume on your pc if you don't want the annoying beeps after goals.

 

[Kennedy Parker]

Part 3: Playing A Game continued...

Press enter to start the game




Press any key to complete the game



Snip and copy the votes to PM the Admin for Mobbs Medal




Press Any Key



Press Any Key



Press any key to complete and go to home screen.

 

[Kennedy Parker]

Part 4: Saving the game box score and commentary

4. Saving the game box score and commentary.

First you should have a folder with the program on your desktop. Mine is labelled Qooty. Save another folder for you to save the commentary and box score files. Mine is Qooty2


Open Dropbox so you're ready to cut and paste the commentary and box score files.


In Dropbox I have a Sweet FA season folder


Then inside each season I have the round folders



Inside the round folders I saved the files


How to save the commentary and box score files.

Arrow down to VIEW RESULTS: Ladders then arrow across to Games and select



Hit enter


Use the arrow key to select the game you want to save. Then select "c" to save the commentary file



Select f

 

[Kennedy Parker]

Part 4: Saving the game box score and commentary continue...

Select any other key to return to home menu



Then do the same
View Results: Games
Enter
Select "s" to save the box score


Select any key to return to the home menu


Now your game is simmed and your files saved. Now we need to access the files and Name and save them then cut and paste them to your Dropbox folder.

Open both your Qooty and Qooty 2 folders.
In Qooty double click on the forumcom file.


Delete out all the first game lines.


Clear a couple of the spaces where first game info was and type in the round number.



Save the file. Select File and Save As and Desktop if not default then your Qooty2 folder



Type your commentary file name in the format like below


Now save the box score file from your Qooty folder to your Qooty2 folder.
Double click on AftrMtch file



Select File then Save As (Desktop) and Qooty2 folder

 

[Kennedy Parker]

Part 4: Saving the game box score and commentary continue...

Save as like the below format.



Now in your Qooty2 folder select the commentary and box score files and cut and paste into your Dropbox (season and) round folder.







You'll note the green tick signifying they are saved in Dropbox.

If you right click on the round folder you can select Copy Dropbox link which will copy the link to paste into the simmers group discussion. (for match simmers)

Once the match files are shared in the Simming Group, the Administrator will roster which simmers will sim which games.

Team Sheets are required by 11:59pm Thursday to ensure that there is enough time to:

• check the team sheets for errors
• simmers will be able to find an appropriate time to run the sim before games need to be posted Sunday afternoon/evening
• simulated game files can be checked for input errors or significant glitched

- input errors for instance, a typo in a player name will be rectified by the Match Poster by doing a find and replace in the .txt file as per the SFA rules.​

- significant glitches e.g. a game ends at the 10 minute mark of the 4th quarter instead of the usual 25th minute of the 4th quarter will require the game to be re-simulated as per the SFA rules.​

​

- Organise Match Posters, sort their availability on Sunday and allocate them game files to post.

---

Thanks to Dingster for preparing the simming notes.

 

[Kennedy Parker]

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is it theoretically possible to rig the sim?
A: Yes, it is possible if you were to delete the stats files and repeatedly sim games with the same teams until you get a desired result. In order to mitigate this risk we have strict protocols in place to avoid conflicts of interests:

• Only the Administrator or the GM may decide the sim roster, the simmers have no say in which games they are to sim.
• We have at least 3 simmers who play for 3 different clubs at any given time to ensure that no simmer will ever sim their own games.

On top of that, the people who are allowed to sim will have numerous seasons of experience with no history of suspect behaviour or troublemaking and usually volunteer their efforts in other areas behind the scenes as well.

Due to the nature of the league operating on an anonymous forum, as much as we take measures to mitigate the possibility of rigging, an element of trust and good faith will always be required as it is unreasonable to make people jump on zoom calls, do live recordings and share screens for the sake of an unpaid role in an online game.

In the context of the league's history, there are now stricter controls in place than ever before compared to past eras that had a single simmer sim all games including their own.

Q: Does form, home ground, playing certain players in certain positions and other factors affect the result of the sim?
A: Form is purely an aesthetic feature and has no effect on subsequent games. There is no home ground advantage and where players play does not affect the underlying probabilities of which way the result can go. Every game is 50-50 and independent of other results.

Q: Is the weather random?
A: Yes, weather in a game is randomly determined by the Qooty application at the beginning of each simulation.

Q: Are the people posting the games on Sunday the same people who sim?
A: The Sim Team actually consists of two distinct groups. The simmers who use the Qooty Application to enter the teams and simulate the games and the Match Posters whose role it is to present the games in an engaging and entertaining manner.

The Match Posters do not interact with the Qooty Application and only get allocated their game files once the simming process is complete.


To be updated as more commonly asked questions get answered in this thread.

 

[Falconista]

When are the matches simmed and is there an expected timeframe for simmers to get this done? I.e. are the matches simmed early on match day Sunday or earlier that week.

 

[Braklet]

Thanks for this thread, Kennedy Parker. You're answering a lot of questions that popped into my head this rookie season.

 

[Dingster]

When are the matches simmed and is there an expected timeframe for simmers to get this done? I.e. are the matches simmed early on match day Sunday or earlier that week.

Anytime between Friday (after squad submission deadline) and Sunday morning. I'd say we should be looking to get them done by Saturday early evening to allow time for the check process KP has re-added this season.

 

[Test Tickle]

Nice work KP, best admin ever.

 

[Agent93]

The veil is lifted, and with it a bit of the mystery dies.

 

[serial_thrilla]

I'd like to know about player form Kennedy Parker. Does it carry over from game to game, or is it purely aesthetic with each game truly independent of each other? If the former, does it mean different simmers will have different teams in better aggregate form?

 

[sante]

Who are the simmers?

 

[Brenton Davy]

Great thread Kennedy Parker !! Thanks for giving everyone a step by step guide.

 

[Kennedy Parker]

I'd like to know about player form Kennedy Parker. Does it carry over from game to game, or is it purely aesthetic with each game truly independent of each other? If the former, does it mean different simmers will have different teams in better aggregate form?

Form does carry over and aggregated form would determine which players appear in the 'Players To Watch' line in the opening post of a sim.

However, outside of this feature is purely aesthetic feature, form will have no impact on the result of how the next game plays out.

 

[Kennedy Parker]

Who are the simmers?

Dingster, Barrybran and Moz. This is not a secret as it gets stated in the OP of the rules each season.

 

[Dingster]

I'd like to know about player form Kennedy Parker. Does it carry over from game to game, or is it purely aesthetic with each game truly independent of each other? If the former, does it mean different simmers will have different teams in better aggregate form?

Form does carry over and aggregated form would determine which players appear in the 'Players To Watch' line in the opening post of a sim.

However, outside of this feature is purely aesthetic feature, form will have no impact on the result of how the next game plays out.

To go into a little more detail, each simmer's program is unique so form is only relative to their sim. Also each time you play another team every match up comes up against a new series of form. Add to that a simmer might not sim an individual team for a few weeks and I always get a chuckle when a team says no change but I might have made half a dozen changes in my sim!!

However if you have a player in a key position not performing consistently maybe consider a change rather than get a similar set of results week on week.

 

[damicky]

To go into a little more detail, each simmer's program is unique so form is only relative to their sim. Also each time you play another team every match up comes up against a new series of form. Add to that a simmer might not sim an individual team for a few weeks and I always get a chuckle when a team says no change but I might have made half a dozen changes in my sim!!

However if you have a player in a key position not performing consistently maybe consider a change rather than get a similar set of results week on week.

… BUT isn’t it random

 

[Robertio]

So Moz is a simmer? I've always said what a great poster he was.

 

[damicky]

So Moz is a simmer? I've always said what a great poster he was.

 

[Cadsky]

Careful bud. Or I'll take the captaincy back and delist you.

 

[Dingster]

… BUT isn’t it random

Don't go all mouldy cheese on me.

 

[nahnah]

Thanks KP, impressive to see 1999 program in action

 

[Jabba73]

Surely there is an inbuilt advantage for the Home team? Even if it is only 1%, there needs to be a small chance the home team will beat the away team more often than not.

That is a feature in nearly every sport, why would it not be one in this?