AI Cheating with Playoff Rosters - Any Way to Fix?

hefalumps · 10-07-2025, 04:28 PM

OK, this is kind of convoluted and a long read, and it's actually happening with OOTP25 but I wouldn't be surprised if it could happen with OOTP26 as well.

My Orioles are playing the Tigers in the ALCS. I make a habit of checking every team's playoff rosters before a series to make sure they a) are full and b) make sense. As a result, I remember most of the players who were on the playoff roster at the start of the series and those who weren't but were eligible (it's 2014 so anyone on the 40-man is eligible).

In Game 4, their closer Papelbon gets hurt. I didn't check the roster after the game, but according to the transaction log, Papelbon hit the Playoff IL the next day and Jared Burton was added to the active roster. Playoff roster transactions aren't logged so I don't know if he was also placed on the playoff roster.

In Game 5, their OF Rocco Baldelli gets hurt. Again, didn't look at the actual playoff roster, but transaction log says Baldelli hit the Playoff IL and Aaron Rowand was added to the active roster. No idea if it was playoff roster too.

Burton didn't appear in Game 5 or Game 6 and Rowand didn't appear in Game 6.

After an intense 1-0 Game 6 win by the Orioles, we're going to a Game 7. And which pitcher is starting for the Tigers? Ryan Rupe, who was on the injured list before the LCS started and NOT on the playoff roster. According to the transaction log, he was activated off the IL on the day of Game 6 with no other corresponding roster movement. How was this possible if no roster moves can happen during a playoff series? My thought was - maybe when one of the players got hurt, Burton or Rowand weren't actually added to the playoff roster - so maybe Rupe was a delayed injury replacement. So I decided to take a look at the whole playoff roster.

Burton was on there, but Rowand wasn't. OK, so maybe Rupe got added on as the 25th man instead of Rowand - I can accept that. But then I tried to figure out what happened to the guy Rupe replaced in the rotation (Erasmo Ramirez). And lo and behold - Ramirez isn't even on the roster anymore. He's not hurt - he's just not on the roster anymore. Upon further review, I also noticed that another pitcher who had pitched earlier in the LCS had been removed and replaced with someone else. How can a player be removed from a playoff roster mid-series if no injury is involved?

They also added another player already eligible (Kenebel) to replace Papelbon, so Burton shouldn't be on the roster either.

I decided I want to put Ramirez and the other guy (Maness) back on the roster since they shouldn't have been removed, and I want to take off Rupe and Burton. I go to commish mode, I act as Detroit, but I still can't move the players mid-series.

Has anyone else seen this craziness? Detroit is flat out cheating - they had two injuries and took the opportunity to swap out other non-injured players in the process of adjusting their roster. And now I can't correct it. So if Rupe ends up beating us in Game 7 (and he already threw a complete game win against us in the regular season), I'm going to be really, really upset.

If you've hung with me this long, wow - thanks for taking the time. Any ideas on how to make this right? And any chance it's fixed in OOTP 26? Is there some rule I'm missing that would allow them to do this?

Thanks for your time and thoughts.

LoneRhino · 10-07-2025, 06:24 PM

Can you go into commissioner mode and change the rosters?

hefalumps · 10-07-2025, 07:21 PM

Wondering if there's a safe way to do that. I can't seem to drag or use the right click to move players on and off the playoff roster in Commish mode while the series is still going on.

If I go to the player editor, I can try assigning the player to another team - I guess I could force the guys who are NOT supposed to be on the Playoff roster on to the Tigers AAA team - that should clear them from the ML Playoff roster. But then how do I get the Playoff eligible guys back on to the playoff roster? They're already eligible, and that seems to be the only thing I can control in the editor.

Also worried that trying to do some kind of whole roster CSV export/import might break something else. Can anyone think of anything else to try?

hefalumps · 10-10-2025, 10:27 AM

So I PM'ed Matt Arnold and he did say they're looking into this issue in case anyone else runs into a similar problem, but he didn't have a solution now or any advice on how to undo the illegal moves - I asked if maybe in a future patch there could be a way to allow commish mode to override the "series in progress" postseason roster move restriction if they can't find the bug that allowed Detroit to make these random moves mid-series.

But after waiting a few days to see if he or anyone else had ideas on how to fix their roster, I decided to just roll with it and take my chances in Game 7 - knowing that if we lost because the illegal player (Rupe) completely shut us down, I was going to force quit OOTP before the game was over and try again! As it turned out, Rupe didn't even last two innings and gave up five runs on seven hits on our way to an eventual 11-6 victory, so maybe the AI's illegal roster manipulation actually did us a favor in this instance!

10-07-2025, 04:28 PM	#1
hefalumps All Star Starter Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 1,374	AI Cheating with Playoff Rosters - Any Way to Fix? OK, this is kind of convoluted and a long read, and it's actually happening with OOTP25 but I wouldn't be surprised if it could happen with OOTP26 as well. My Orioles are playing the Tigers in the ALCS. I make a habit of checking every team's playoff rosters before a series to make sure they a) are full and b) make sense. As a result, I remember most of the players who were on the playoff roster at the start of the series and those who weren't but were eligible (it's 2014 so anyone on the 40-man is eligible). In Game 4, their closer Papelbon gets hurt. I didn't check the roster after the game, but according to the transaction log, Papelbon hit the Playoff IL the next day and Jared Burton was added to the active roster. Playoff roster transactions aren't logged so I don't know if he was also placed on the playoff roster. In Game 5, their OF Rocco Baldelli gets hurt. Again, didn't look at the actual playoff roster, but transaction log says Baldelli hit the Playoff IL and Aaron Rowand was added to the active roster. No idea if it was playoff roster too. Burton didn't appear in Game 5 or Game 6 and Rowand didn't appear in Game 6. After an intense 1-0 Game 6 win by the Orioles, we're going to a Game 7. And which pitcher is starting for the Tigers? Ryan Rupe, who was on the injured list before the LCS started and NOT on the playoff roster. According to the transaction log, he was activated off the IL on the day of Game 6 with no other corresponding roster movement. How was this possible if no roster moves can happen during a playoff series? My thought was - maybe when one of the players got hurt, Burton or Rowand weren't actually added to the playoff roster - so maybe Rupe was a delayed injury replacement. So I decided to take a look at the whole playoff roster. Burton was on there, but Rowand wasn't. OK, so maybe Rupe got added on as the 25th man instead of Rowand - I can accept that. But then I tried to figure out what happened to the guy Rupe replaced in the rotation (Erasmo Ramirez). And lo and behold - Ramirez isn't even on the roster anymore. He's not hurt - he's just not on the roster anymore. Upon further review, I also noticed that another pitcher who had pitched earlier in the LCS had been removed and replaced with someone else. How can a player be removed from a playoff roster mid-series if no injury is involved? They also added another player already eligible (Kenebel) to replace Papelbon, so Burton shouldn't be on the roster either. I decided I want to put Ramirez and the other guy (Maness) back on the roster since they shouldn't have been removed, and I want to take off Rupe and Burton. I go to commish mode, I act as Detroit, but I still can't move the players mid-series. Has anyone else seen this craziness? Detroit is flat out cheating - they had two injuries and took the opportunity to swap out other non-injured players in the process of adjusting their roster. And now I can't correct it. So if Rupe ends up beating us in Game 7 (and he already threw a complete game win against us in the regular season), I'm going to be really, really upset. If you've hung with me this long, wow - thanks for taking the time. Any ideas on how to make this right? And any chance it's fixed in OOTP 26? Is there some rule I'm missing that would allow them to do this? Thanks for your time and thoughts.

10-07-2025, 06:24 PM	#2
LoneRhino Minors (Double A) Join Date: Nov 2023 Posts: 106	Can you go into commissioner mode and change the rosters?

10-07-2025, 07:21 PM	#3
hefalumps All Star Starter Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 1,374	Wondering if there's a safe way to do that. I can't seem to drag or use the right click to move players on and off the playoff roster in Commish mode while the series is still going on. If I go to the player editor, I can try assigning the player to another team - I guess I could force the guys who are NOT supposed to be on the Playoff roster on to the Tigers AAA team - that should clear them from the ML Playoff roster. But then how do I get the Playoff eligible guys back on to the playoff roster? They're already eligible, and that seems to be the only thing I can control in the editor. Also worried that trying to do some kind of whole roster CSV export/import might break something else. Can anyone think of anything else to try?

10-10-2025, 10:27 AM	#4
hefalumps All Star Starter Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 1,374	So I PM'ed Matt Arnold and he did say they're looking into this issue in case anyone else runs into a similar problem, but he didn't have a solution now or any advice on how to undo the illegal moves - I asked if maybe in a future patch there could be a way to allow commish mode to override the "series in progress" postseason roster move restriction if they can't find the bug that allowed Detroit to make these random moves mid-series. But after waiting a few days to see if he or anyone else had ideas on how to fix their roster, I decided to just roll with it and take my chances in Game 7 - knowing that if we lost because the illegal player (Rupe) completely shut us down, I was going to force quit OOTP before the game was over and try again! As it turned out, Rupe didn't even last two innings and gave up five runs on seven hits on our way to an eventual 11-6 victory, so maybe the AI's illegal roster manipulation actually did us a favor in this instance!