The CSFBL (Computer Simulated Fantasy Baseball League) is a free web-based game designed by ComputerSims, LLC. were you take over ownership of a baseball team, run the front office, setup your lineups, and compete against others in the longest-running multiplayer Web-based baseball simulation on the Internet.

The CSFBL is known to be very usable by new users and veterans alike, as the game has the ability to be very addicting at times due to its fast sim times (up to 1 every 3 hours), a very friendly community that is willing to help out and answer questions, and a relatively bug-free game.

The CSFBL is funded soley by donations by CSFBL users, ad revenue, and its owner/creator, Brian DeMarzo.

Currently a new version of the game, ComputerSims Baseball, is being written completely from scratch to address the limitations of the CSFBL. There is no release date as of this date.

History

CSFBL has been around since April 1st, 2000, when it was first released as a public beta by its creator Brian DeMarzo. DeMarzo had the idea of creating an free web-based baseball sim where users around the world could run their own fictional baseball teams, right down to drafting players, signing free agents, and managing the day-to-day operations of the team.

Version 1 was released in April 2000. It allowed you to create a team and simulate games at will. When a sim was run, teams were matched up randomly for one game. Fatigue was not yet in the game.

Version 2 was released on August 22, 2000. The CSFBL at the time was about six months old. There were no leagues - everyone was in one big league - but we now had a true endurance system (using a full pitching rotation). "Every morning, one week (5-game series) will be simulated. After simulation, the next week's games will be scheduled for your review."

On February 1st, 2001 more traffic changed the sim schedule to one game per day Monday through Friday. Development of Version 3 was well under way by this point.

Version 3 arrived on September 27th, 2001 brought the introduction of leagues into the game. Leagues had 12 teams, 160-game seasons, and all simmed at one game per day. Playoffs weren't in the game yet, since it would take so long to reach them.

Version 4 was announced on January 20th, 2002, with the ability to for users to join in and try out the new version during it's development. Thus began the most productive period of development by DeMarzo, as he rewrote the entire game in the span of roughly 3 months.

By May 31st, 2002 version 4's traffic had increased so much that it had matched and eclipsed version 3. Version 3 lived on until September 2002, where it was shut down for good.

Since then, the basic look of the CSFBL web site and the basic backend of the game has remained the same. However tons of features and changes have been made since. Trading, commissioner powers, enhanced fatigue (or better known as SeaFat - aka, season fatigue), countless tweaks to sim speed and reliability, and so on.

Today, there have been over 10,000 registered users and over 350,000 baseball games simmed (the equivalent of about 150 Major League Baseball seasons!). A more indepth history of CSFBL can be found in an article in the Help Pages entitled History of CSFBL.

Structure

The CSFBL offers three sim options: 2 sims/day (12 AM, 12 PM), 4 sims/day (12 AM, 6AM, 12 PM, 6 PM), or 8 sims/day (12 AM, 3 AM, 6 AM, 9 AM, 12 PM, 3 PM, 6 PM, 9 PM). All times are EST.

A new user can sign up to create their own 'franchise.' From there, they can own a total of 10 teams.

League Types

There are three types of leagues in the CSFBL:

Public Leagues: The most common type of league. A wide range of users appear in these leagues, ranking from new users to veteran CSFBL users. These leagues tend to have activity problems at times and may/may not be very competitive.

Private League: If a Public League holds a vote and 75% of owners vote yes, the league can become a private league with its own elected commissioner. The benefits private leagues receive include the ability to add/remove owners, enhanced forum powers, and so on. Many private leagues are very competitive and active, as these leagues take control of their own destinys and organize themselves.

Premier Leagues: The top leagues of the CSFBL, these are formed by highly dedicated CSFBL veterans in order to create communities of owners who compete with each other for the honor of winning a World Series in the most competitive leagues in the CSFBL. These leagues are highly organized, with elected commissioners and very detailed rule books. Many owners in premier leagues are also donating members, directly making contributions in order to help the CSFBL survive. Benefits for being in a premier league include access to enhanced statistics (like rightly/lefty stats), league sub-forums, enhanced commissioner powers, and so on.

Future of the CSFBL

DeMarzo has formed a small group of users called the CSFBL Development Team, who's purpose is to help code future versions of the CSFBL and to help manage the user community. Community Managers have been appointed to help out with the forums and training of new users.

Future features that will appear in the game include multi-year contracts, minor league statistics, more accessable statistics, a new web site design, and a rewrite of the sim engine.

External links

CSFBL<br>
ComputerSims, LLC. Web Site<br>
CSFBL Forums<br>
CSFBL Help Pages<br>