- Posts: 301
- Joined: Thu Jan 10, 2019 2:49 pm
This thread has flipped my thinking on this topic. Even though I'm in one of the contest-themed leagues for October, I wondered even as I was joining how I felt about it - and if winning the contest that way was a tainted victory. Now that I've heard the various arguments, I've realized that not only is SOM unlikely to make a rule against a contest-themed league, it's probably their objective to get multiple contest-themed leagues going. It's way better for them if there are whole leagues formed around the contest, rather than just a smattering of owners in various leagues trying to win it. And, if there are one or more entire leagues trying to win the contest, it is actually making it more competitive, not less - since there are 12, or 24, or 36+ owners going for the credits, rather than a smaller number. I suspect if you look back at months where there were not any contest-themed leagues going, you'll see the same owners winning the credits each month - yes, because they're good players, but also because there was less competition.
As far as how fun or strategic either approach is... that depends on your preferences, but participating in a league aimed at maximizing pitcher Ks has been fun, and there was quite a bit of strategy involved in picking players and setting up the team, since the 11 other teams were trying to do the same thing. So sure, the league parameters helped maximize the Ks, but I still had to out-do 11 other owners, win more than half my games, and lead everyone in Ks. And, if there were other contest-themed leagues going at the same time, there would be even more competition.
As far as how fun or strategic either approach is... that depends on your preferences, but participating in a league aimed at maximizing pitcher Ks has been fun, and there was quite a bit of strategy involved in picking players and setting up the team, since the 11 other teams were trying to do the same thing. So sure, the league parameters helped maximize the Ks, but I still had to out-do 11 other owners, win more than half my games, and lead everyone in Ks. And, if there were other contest-themed leagues going at the same time, there would be even more competition.