Important updates for Omnifantasy 2024
Here's what you need to know as we roll the site to 2024
It’s that time of the year again! I still need to wrap up the results from the Omnifantasy 2023 calendar, but I’m excited to announce that Omnifantasy is back for 2024, and with improvements. We’re still a mom-and-pop shop that doesn’t take in any money and can’t offer the best user experience out there. But we’ve spent time over the past several weeks updating some key things that needed to be addressed to improve things for 2024 and beyond.
Let’s walk through each of the new features on the site for 2024.
Email log-in
Easily the most-recommended feature request was a new log-in system. Previously, all log-ins came through Twitter, because we didn’t want to store passwords and that type of information. But the direction of that site has become a cause for concern for many — hell, it’s not even technically called Twitter anymore.
I’m excited to say we’re changed this to a direct email sign-in option. The easiest way we could do this was to make sign-ins operate through email verification links, but the headline is you will now be included in leagues via an email address. This might be a little clunky at first, but it’s in the long-term best interest of the site to allow easy access for people no longer on Twitter, or who have potential leaguemates that refuse to join that site.
Additionally, if you use the email associated with your Twitter account, your past leagues should get linked.
On The Clock emails
One of the biggest practical issues of Omnifantasy in years past is how we’ve had to manually ping each other when we’re on the clock. No more! With the switch to an email log-in system, we’ve also added On The Clock emails. Pretty standard stuff, but starting this year you’ll get email notifications when your pick is up (assuming your league chooses to opt into this).
You’ll be able to unsubscribe from these (and can also resubscribe if you change your mind on that, via a link in the email).
New admin tools
For those of you creating leagues of your own, we’ve added some key new admin features. I’ll break those down below.
Set your own draft order
This has to be done at league creation, but previously all leagues randomized draft order. Now, you’ll be able to unselect the option for a randomized draft order, and instead enter league member names in the specific order you prefer for the draft.
Here is a screenshot of the relevant section of the league creation page.
The two keys are: First, make sure to unselect “Randomize the draft order,” and second, make sure to enter the members in this window in the draft order you want. (Also, if you make a mistake on this page, you can now remove that individual, rather than having to start over.)
Change draft picks/roll back draft
Once your league is created, there will now be an “Admin” page for the league creator/commissioner during the draft. Previously, there have been very limited options here, and I know some of you have had to contact me when a league member made an erroneous pick, like taking Dallas in the wrong sport.
Now, you can roll back the draft. Obviously, be careful with this; you could theoretically roll back your whole draft, and we won’t be able to fix that. (There should be a confirmation button before anything happens.)
You won’t be able to directly change specific picks, but this rollback feature should hopefully catch the majority of issues. It should look something like this.
Change league member
There is also an option now to change a league member, whether that’s to replace someone during the draft because they are a no-show, or simply because someone wants their email updated.
In the past, we’ve had users whose Twitter accounts have been deactivated or locked that lose access to the site. Now, league commissioners should be able to directly swap that user’s information for new information. You can also change a user’s display name if you enter the same email for both options, but choose a different name.
Remove League
One thing I didn’t anticipate the first year was that many who had never done this would want to create dummy leagues and play around with the site a bit, before committing to getting friends together and starting a league. That was a very common thing, and then people’s front pages naturally got cluttered with dead leagues, and I got a lot of requests to delete these dummy leagues.
Now, you’ll have the option to remove your own league after creation. Go ahead and play around with the new features, then click “remove league” here and go through the confirmation steps.
Obviously, don’t do this unless you’re sure you want to remove the league.
New sports on the site
Every year, our menu of league offerings shifts a bit, particularly as non-annual sports need to be removed, and we can also add some. Sports from 2023 that aren’t back for 2024 include the World Baseball Classic and the Women’s World Cup, but we have a couple new offerings to help fill that gap.
Women’s college basketball
A much-needed addition allows you to take Caitlin Clark and Iowa, or the favorites South Carolina or last year’s champions, LSU. It’s a competitive field for 2024, and the deep single-elimination NCAA bracket structure obviously creates the potential for chaos.
Cricket (Men’s T20 World Cup)
I don’t know anything about cricket, but some of our overseas friends have lobbied for it for a few years, and I’m told this is the shorter and more accessible version of the game, with this year’s World Cup being hosted in part in the United States. The odds are fairly concentrated among seven or so prime contenders, but there’s no huge favorite of that group. It’s an interesting sport for Omni, perhaps similar to something like the Champions League where the number of practical champions is limited, and the top nations are likely to make the quarterfinals, making them popular early-round options, but where the 80 and 50 point earners are very much up in the air.
UEFA European Championship
The EURO runs every two years offset from the World Cup, and we’ve always enjoyed including that as we cycle through the non-annual international soccer competitions. The field for EURO is a bit thinner than World Cups, and sets up a bit like I just described for Cricket, although with likely more potential for surprise runs from longshots given the single-elimination knockout round and general variance in one-match soccer results.
UFL
The other two leagues that were removed from 2024 Omni after being there in 2023 were the XFL and USFL, because they merged into the now-included UFL. The Spring football leagues have been through a lot of restructuring since their resurgence a half decade ago, but it’s the UFL for 2024.
Omnifantasy Cup 2024 signup
I’ll go over the final results of Omni Cup 2023 soon, but I want to start circulating the signup form for Omni Cup 2024, which you can access here. If you’re not sure what this is, it’s a contest with many different drafts all competing against each other in one larger contest. You can view the 2023 results here, including our champion Paul, who wins a trip to a (reasonably-priced, regular season) sporting event of his choosing, on us.
This was only our second year running the Omni Cup, but several of the above changes (including most notably OTC emails) should hopefully help things run smoother in Year 3. More info on this coming soon, including a timeline for drafting (we’ll likely start in mid-February), but feel free to start the sign-up process so you don’t miss out.
I’ll be back with more information soon, but until then, happy Omni drafting!
If anyone is starting a league I'm happy to join
In the future will there be an option to hide expected points and just list the player/team pool alphabetically?