BuzzerBeater Forums

I'm going to go ahead and side opposite of how most people feel these days - I don't think teams who miss the playoff should be rewarded with extra scrimmages. I think it discourages people to make a playoff push, and gives those teams a chance to maximize training, whereas playoff teams will likely not be maximizing training since they'll be fighting to win games.

I understand some of the arguments for extra scrimmages (6th and 7th place teams also get games, form would get ruined without games, the advantage would be too great for playoff teams), but I think the focus should be on rewarding those teams who made the playoffs, not on giving a handout to those who failed to do so.

The other point is that, before, there was a decision borderline GMs had to make - go for 5th and sacrifice the training, or drop yourself to 6th or 7th in order to get full training. It is a calculated risk to settle for 6th instead of going for 5th, as you are facing a significant risk of demoting - it's no guarantee you'll win 2 out of 3, and as nick said, you likely aren't going to be optimizing training anyway, as you need to win those games.

I liked that owners had tradeoffs between 5th and 6th - now, that element is gone (save the financial aspect of 1 to 1.66 games worth of arena revenue).

(For what it's worth, the losing form argument isn't an argument since form is reset at the beginning of next season.)

As for whether the 5th place teams get games or not, I can see the argument for giving them games. They're not getting any revenue from the games, so that is their punishment for not finishing higher in the standings. I don't think they need to lose training, too.

But the 6th and 7th place teams are getting revenue, and the finished worse than the 5th place teams. So where's the justice in that? I'd just hate to see the same problem develop as there is in HT where it's advantageous to get a relegation match vs trying to promote. I don't see why the relegation match has to have revenue attached to it...

i posted a different solution in another thread.

The postseason schedule would be this:
http://www.raonne.com/buzzerbeater/schedule.txt

Everyone would have the same number of matches/training (apart some slight differences due to tie breakers), everyne would get arena income (with their natural different attendances), and the advantage to the winners would be finantial prizes.

Edited 10/9/2007 5:28:21 AM by GM-Raonne

Rats...I can't much argue with that.

Rats...I can't much argue with that.

see there they go again with "logical solutions"....
where's the fun in that?
We can't bitch, complain or rant about "logical solutions".....
it's just ruining the game for us "anti-social" types..... ;)

The difference between 5th and other places is often very narrow. I checked 20 leagues in USA D.IV (1-20). In 23 of 40 conferences, the 5th place team had the same record as another team, and the placement was decided on point differential:

9 teams, 5th and 6th tied.
2 teams, 5th, 6th, and 7th tied.
8 teams, 4th and 5th tied.
2 teams, 4th, 5th, and 6th tied
2 teams, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th tied

Add a possible imbalance between the two conferences and giving a team a chance for 5 extra games and possible promotion, sitting home twiddling their thumbs, or 3 extra games and possible relegation, the decision process is somewhat capricious.

With only 1/4 of teams relegating, BB is going to have problems with bot build-up, so they should really use the playoffs as more of a process to rank teams, especially between the two conferences within leagues, and reduce the chance for the lucky playoff run for promotion.

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Possible formats:

6,7,8 from both conference play in mini-league of 5 games to determine 11th-16th places. Regular season games count 1, mini-league games count 3.

3,4,5 play in mini-league of 5 games to determine 5th-10th places.

1,2 play two rounds best of 3, to determine 1st-4th places. Or possibly make final best of 5.

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4 through 8 play 5 interconference foes, to complete 18-game home-and-home season to rank teams 7-16. Games against top 3 teams in either conference wouldn't be used for final record for placement.

1 through 3 play 3 interconference foes to complete 10-game home-and-home season to rank teams 1-6.
5 and 6 play best of 3 to determine 5th and 6th. 1 - 4 play two rounds best of 3 to determine 1st through 4th.

Best of 3 series could use Tues and Thursday, with Saturday if necessary.

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Some format that uses inter-league play, and international play for 1st division teams.

Great response...bet you timed out huh?