BuzzerBeater Forums

After the regular promotion of playoff winners, there was a secondary cleanup of bots in the upper divisions. This would begin with D.I and D.II. Any bots in D.I would be replaced by active teams in D.II. It appears that the extra promoted teams were selected on the basis of (1) Conference finish; (2) Wins; (3) Point Difference; and (4) Points Scored.

After completely filling the 1st division with active teams, the process was repeated for D.II and D.III. Teams from D.III could replace both any bots not relegated from D.II, bots that had been relegated from D.I (either by normal relegation or the bot cleanup); and any bots that had promoted from D.III (it is possible for a bot to win a playoff and promote, and then be relegated down into a different league in D.III).

The process is then repeated for D.III and D.IV, so a bot from D.I can be relegated all the way down to the bottom of the pyramid.

If you look at your D.III league for last season, 3 teams promoted: The playoff winner, and the two conference winners. If you look at IV.1 in Israel, 6 teams were promoted to D.III, the top 3 in both conferences.

Depends on how many human players are in the higher leagues.

Not the decision to promote more players but the actually action, yes.

Interesting. This is my experience. I came in at last year with 1/3 of the season to go and we finished last in div III.

Of course we got relegated but to a league that has no other human players......

Was this a one-time only endeavor, or will it be repeated next season?

Last year (at the end of the Season 2) was a one-time only endeavor. But it worked so well and was useful it has been repeated.

I think eventually, in the upper levels it won't matter too much since bots will be rare. I think in the lowest divisions it will provide lots of extra promotion opportunities. For example, in the USA about 20 of the D.IV leagues are full, so there could be around 40 bots that promote from the rest of the D.IV leagues. They will instantly be relegated and replaced by extra teams from the active leagues. This is one way of recognizing that the bottom division might not really form part of a 1:4 pyramid.

I have also suggested that the extra promotions made be more visible. I think that there could be a lot of frustration with only 1 in 16 teams promoting, especially following a good regular season and an upset in the playoffs.

Last year (at the end of the Season 2) was a one-time only endeavor. But it worked so well and was useful it has been repeated.

For the forseeable future this is going to happen on a seasonal basis.

Unless you're in the top or bottom division, you have 5 out of 16 teams being new in any given season.

In the top division, it's 4 of 16, and bottom divisions get a bottleneck.