Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

Last year it took I believe 471 to make the semis. We had 168 players last year, this year 144, so we lost 2 players per league. The players that didn't sign up this year probably weren't averaging 94 points per season. So I think this year the total will be around 465-466. Anyone want to venture a guess?

I don't have a guess about point totals but I wanted to mention tiebreakers before we get to the semis. In previous years, the tiebreakers are:
1. Championships won
2. Finals made
3. Playoffs made
4. Regular season total wins
5. Pick 3 winner
Tiebreaker #4 is meaningless because if 1-3 are tied, 4 will always be tied. Usually, there are some ties for ranking and last year we had a tie to make the final 12. So, it's a relevant little rule.

Thanks for bringing this up. Last year when we had a tie in 12th place, we used the tie-breaker formula franky mentions above to break the tie. This was not in the current tournament rules, so we referred to what was last posted as a tie breaker in previous tournaments. For this year, I have just updated the rules page to add the following:

In the event of a tie to determine placement/order in the top 24 for the semi-final round or the top 12 for the final round, the following tiebreaker steps will be taken:
1. Championships won
2. Finals made
3. Playoffs made
4. Coin flip

Last year we did have to go to a coin flip, which was done by Strat-o-matic. Next year, I propose we add a new #4, such as highest total "low score" across 5 rounds, or something like that, so that a coin flip less likely to be used. I do not want to insert a new rule like that at this point, that would be for the 2024 tournament.

I disagree with franky35 that if 1-3 are tied, then 4 is always tied. Why do you think that?

mjsm01 wrote:I disagree with franky35 that if 1-3 are tied, then 4 is always tied. Why do you think that?

If 1-3 are tied and you were tied overall, the only possible way to score any points is regular season wins. And since you are already tied, they had to be the same as well or you wouldn't be tied in the first place.

Thanks. I get it now.

It seems to me that if you barely squeak into the semi-finals on a tie breaker that your chances of advancing to the finals are pretty slim. Maybe you mystery tournament veterans can vouch for that. It seems like your only real shot at that point will be to win a semifinal championship, or at the very least advance to the finals. Am I right?

Match wrote:It seems to me that if you barely squeak into the semi-finals on a tie breaker that your chances of advancing to the finals are pretty slim. Maybe you mystery tournament veterans can vouch for that. It seems like your only real shot at that point will be to win a semifinal championship, or at the very least advance to the finals. Am I right?

Yes I think that what you say is right if you make it to semis at 24.

Match wrote:It seems to me that if you barely squeak into the semi-finals on a tie breaker that your chances of advancing to the finals are pretty slim. Maybe you mystery tournament veterans can vouch for that. It seems like your only real shot at that point will be to win a semifinal championship, or at the very least advance to the finals. Am I right?

Yes - win the semi-finals league and you are in the finals automatically. If you are #24 your only other way in would be to win about 110 games and get the 10 extra bonus points by making the finals. It's better than being #25, like I was once!

This is my favorite part of the tournament. We're in the stretch run, September if you will. 36 games left, 2 playoffs, one starting tonight. 61 possible points left, someone will get hot and score 51-54 points and someone will struggle and go 14-22. There could be a 40 pt. change in the standings. By far the most exciting part of the tournament to me. At least 35 players competing for the final 10 or 11 spots.