GroupMe Fantasy Football bot

This is a GroupMe bot built with Python and Flask, utilizing cwebdt94's Python ESPN API and the ESPN "Gamelog" API endpoint listed in nntrn's espn-wiki repo, to send messages to a group chat in Groupme about Fantasy Football related data, deployed on Glitch

The bot's purpose is to respond with the winning team based on the "weekly" if you message the GroupMe chat where the bots lives with the command "!weekly#, where # is the week number.

A "weekly" is an achievement for a team that meets a certain condition. If they meet it, they win that week's weekly.

To get a response from the bot, you would type for example, "!weekly1" to find out the winner for the week 1 weekly.
An example response would be "Winner of Weekly 1: Team Red - Team with the single highest scoring starter: Team Red (Patrick Mahomes 35 points)
So the team that won the week 1 weekly is Team Red, because Patrick Mahomes scored 35 fantasy points.

List of bot Commands

• !weekly<week number> where <week number> is the week number
  • Bot responds with the weekly of that week.
    • Example: !weekly1
• !survival
  • Bot responds with the list of surviving and eliminated teams for the surival bowl
• !week
  • Bot responds with current NFL week
• !commands
  • Bot responds with commands users can use
• !hello
  • Bot responds by introducing itself
• !<anything else>
  • Bot responds with a random response
• "bad bot"
  • Bot responds negatively
• "good bot"
  • Bot responds positively

The Weeklys are:

• ✅ WEEK 1: Get Schwifty - Team with the single highest scoring starter
• ✅ WEEK 2: Chicks Dig The Long Ball - Team with the starting QB with the longest pass
• ✅ WEEK 3: Bench Warmer - Team with the most total points from their bench
• ✅ WEEK 4: Run Forrest Run! - Team with the starting RB with the most rushing yards
• ✅ WEEK 5: Dirty 30 - Team with any starter closest to 30 points (over OR under)
• ✅ WEEK 6: Over Achiever: Team with most points over their weekly projection with their starters
• ✅ WEEK 7: Touchdown Thurman Thomas - Team with the most offensive touchdowns scored with their starters
• ✅ WEEK 8: Should Have Swiped Right - Team with the highest scorer on the bench
• ✅ WEEK 9: Bulls-eye - Team closest to their projected point total (over OR under)
• ✅ WEEK 10: Blownout.com/rekt - Team that wins with the biggest points margin of victory
• ✅ WEEK 11: Best Loser - Team that loses with the highest score
• ✅ WEEK 12: Gotta Catch Em All - Team with the starting WR with the most receptions
• ✅ WEEK 13: Blackjack - Team with a starter closest to 21 points without going over
• ✅ WEEK 14: Photo Finish – Team that beats its opponent by the smallest margin of victory

Other things to implement

• ✅ Survival Bowl
  • ✅ Every week, team with lowest score is eliminated from list of all teams. Last team standing wins.
• Playoff winners command
  • 3 division winners at end of season (top teams of each division)
  • 3 wildcard winners at end of season
• 1st, 2nd, 3rd, place command
• Consolation prize command
  • Winner of consolation ladder
• ✅ Check if trying to get info on future weekly and to not give info yet if that week is not over.
• Schedule the weekly to trigger every Wednesday for current week and the survival bowl automatically
• ✅ Detects if somneone says "good bot" or "bad bot" and responds accordingly
• ✅ Added a random response to the else statement
• ✅ Added ability to run bot a production server gunicorn when running on Glitch
  • got rid of this because of errors on Glitch
• Command to show list of weeklies

What to do when new season starts

• Will add this in future but most likely have to edit config file. create a new bot, get new bot id, enter new league id, and enter new year

How to test locally

1. Git clone into your machine
2. Create a config.py in the same location as testGroupmeBot.py, and add your bot id, espn league id, and espn season year
   • To get your bot id, login to the GroupMe Developers site, log in or make an account, click on Bots, and you should find your Bot Id.
   • To get your espn league id, go to your espn fantasy page, and you should find it in the URL in this form:
     • https://fantasy.espn.com/football/team?leagueId=12345678&teamId=1
   • Format it in the config.py file in the form:
     • BOT_ID = 'asfd987sfda978'
     • ESPN_LEAGUE_ID = '12345678'
     • ESPN_SEASON_YEAR = 2024
3. Run the program with VSCode, making sure to have Flask, and espn_api installed on your machine
   • If theyre not installed on your machine use the commands:
     • pip install flask
     • pip install espn_api
4. To make requests to the bot locally, run Postman
   • Run a POST request to http://127.0.0.1:5000
   • Go to Headers
     • Key: "Content-type"
     • Value: "application/json"
   • Go to Body
     • enter a JSON object with:
       • "sender_type": "user"
       • "text": "!weekly3"
   • Send Request
     • Example Response:
       • Winner of Weekly 3 Bench Warmer - Team with the most total points from their bench: \n\nTeam Red (88.10 bench points)

How to Deploy on Glitch

• Fork this repo
• Go to Glitch
• Log in or make an account for Glitch
• Copy the HTTPS Clone link of the Forked repo.
  • Example: https://github.com/John-Doe/GroupmeFantasyFootballBot.git
• Click New Project -> import from Github, paste the link in the popup
• Make the config.py file with the information:
  • BOT_ID = 'Your bot ID'
    • Go to GroupMe Developers
    • Log in or make an account
    • Click "Bots" at the top
    • Click "Create Bot"
    • Choose group chat your bot will live in
    • Name the bot
    • Enter CallBack URL
      • Example: https://your-project-name.glitch.me/
    • Click Submit
    • Click on bot you just made
    • Copy Bot ID
      • Example: 441076d3e670b76b9f03447eat
  • ESPN_LEAGUE_ID = 'Your League ID'
    • Go to Your ESPN Fantasy League
    • Copy League ID in the URL
      • Example: 12345678
        • You can find it in the URL: https://fantasy.espn.com/football/league/scoreboard?leagueId=12345678&matchupPeriodId=7&mSPID=7
  • ESPN_SEASON_YEAR = 2024
• The bot should now be live in your group chat.

What I learned

• Python: Syntax related to routing, requests, and config
• Flask: How to use a microframework to build a bot
• APIs: How to connect to an API and use it to fetch ESPN Fantasy Football data
• Glitch: How to deploy a bot have it working
• Postman: How to test the bot and it's responses using Postman

What I can improve on

• Python: Cleaner code, exception handling, logging.
• Functionality:
  • ✅ Add weekly announcements based on that week's weekly. Example: week 1, team with starter with most points, and announce that in groupchat when giving a command in the format of !weekly#, where # is the week number. Example: !weekly2.
  • ✅ Add weekly annoucnement based on survival bowl. Example: every week, eliminate team from list of who has the least amount of points. End of season only 1 team remains.
  • Put logic for ties (2 teams have same score and how to resolve those ties) for all weeks.
  • Consistent error checking for all weeks.
  • Maybe Defenses are not considered players and should not be counted.