BuzzerBeater Forums

There are circumstances when it is beneficial to 'tank'

Gotta say I totally agree. BUT does that not mean there is a fundamental issue with the game???

Once again, this is an every season thing. Here is hoping this is the year they do something about it!

In the real world, teams tank games for pretty much the same reasons - better draft picks, playoff positioning, etc. It's just that they don't come out and openly admit to it as some are willing to do here. Don't see why having it in the game would be seen as a fundamental problem with the game. The team should pretty much suffer the same type of consequences - lower fan support due to poorer finish, possibility of the strategy blowing up in their face and being relegated, etc.

And this happens because finishing in 6th in comparison with 4th will surely affect the fan survey for the entire next season.
Also this could backfire and you will lose the chance to make a big surprise in the playoff.But if you have the last 2 games on away courts and you lose your first playoff match then you will have to pay your players for 2 weeks with no income.Maybe for a div.V this is not a huge deal but for teams that pay 300-400k this is hard on the team.

Teams in the NBA tank all the team. The lakers this year tanked, just to play against OKC in the first round and not the Spurs. It almost back fired on them. Teams tank for better draft picks.

I just feel it would be more beneficial, for my team to possible try and squeeze a 3 game series with a team, I am 100% confident I can beat. How much would 6th place be in fan survey type ness and merchandise sell. or affect my season next season?

I can understand and will not judge a team that tanks because of that, it's part of strategy that exists in the game (both in real life and here on BB).

Having played for 20+ years the real thing I've witnessed, played into, coached and refereed many games where one of the teams tanked. I've even been the ref in a game in which both teams played not to win the game in order to have a better pairing in the PO.

I could do this if I could see that I could get an advantage by tanking a game (i.e. - an higher immediate income and more week(s) of full training for my team due to finishing 6th).

For example this season, as of now, I'm playing a lot of TIE (hence losing by 25-35 points in games I'd normally lose by 10-20) in order to raise the enthusiasm and give all my guys have into 2 matches against direct opponents in my own conference in order to get....5th! This is because the other conference is much stronger than mine, hence finishing 6th will be a risky thing. But if it was the other way around and since I have a pretty young team this season I'd not have minded finishing 6th.

It's strategy and it's part of the game. It has its ups and downs and I'll never judge negatively a team that does something like that.

Seeing that you just promoted the difference between the "I am pleased with the team's performance last season" line in the fan survey( now i believe you have 5 stars) you could get something like 3-4 stars next season.This is risky because doing this next season too will really hurt your team but for this season it shouldn't affect your rating to much.This will also give a little bit of a head start in the "The team played well in our last league game" line for next season seeing that you will finish 6th this season, next one you will probably have 4-5 stars on this line if you can place in the top 4.
As of the merchandise sale this will probably have no effect(or only a small one) because you will be able to balance the over all fan survey stars with better cup matches, not selling your players, etc....
This is my take on this matter so keep watching for some other opinions just to be sure.
I also suggest you try your best for the next to get to position 2-3 to play better playoff matches because this tactic is not worth 2 seasons in a row, but i could be very effective for team to try to compensate for your inexperience in your current league.
Hope this helps.

chances are I can swing 3rd place in my league. but both 1st and 2nd place are highly better than the 3-6th place which are equally the same. Ill look more into the tanking as the season goes on, as we are all around the same record now, but they still have to play the #1 team on the other side.

I dont plan on being in this situation next year, as i have a plan focused on atleast 2nd place possible championship next year..

In the real world, teams tank games for pretty much the same reasons - better draft picks, playoff positioning, etc. It's just that they don't come out and openly admit to it as some are willing to do here. Don't see why having it in the game would be seen as a fundamental problem with the game. The team should pretty much suffer the same type of consequences - lower fan support due to poorer finish, possibility of the strategy blowing up in their face and being relegated, etc.

Very nice post. And I totally agree that it does happen in the real world. The big difference in the real world there are consequences. In BB finishing 6th is way better than 5th, especially when you can scout your relegation opponent and know that you will likely win. TBH I am totally OK with teams tanking, but think there needs to be some serious risks.

So for example a team that falls far below its fans expectations should see a significant drop in fan support. There merchandising should also take a beating. Another good solution is that the relegation games be on neutral site so there is no income from them.

The current system punishes the 5th place team while giving the 6th and 7th place teams more available income and training. Yes there is a risk of relegation, but it is often quite slim. As the team has intentionaly positioned themselves in a spot they feel is favorable.

I agree that there probably needs to be greater risks associated with tanking, as it does sound as if there is probably too much incentive for a team to shoot for finishing 6th over 5th and not enough repercussions. Although this is only my first full season, and, personally, I'd love to finish 5th so I don't have to worry about being relegated back down to Div V.

Another option, in addition to the ones you brought up, might be to have the two 5th place teams in a league play each other a home-away series during the playoffs. That way each 5th place team does get two games during the playoffs for training and some arena revenue. Although perhaps that would result in people tanking from 4th to 5th, as 4th place likely doesn't get too much from the playoffs unless they can pull off a bunch of upsets.

I've got a very simple solution to this problem.

All income from relegation games is equally divided among the 5th, 6th, and 7th place teams in the league, with no regard to who played in the game.

That would remove 99% of the incentive for tanking your way into a relegation match. (The other 1% is that you get a better draft pick.)

It would work.

I still prefer the relegation tournament as a format, but maybe the cash can be distributed evenly as well.