2022 Players Championship

Participating in Barnstormers, I’m moving closer to Top 9 get in, and have a three 12 team semifinals where the three Champs get into the Finals.

Pros:

*Top 45 in total points have a shot (more teams involved throughout)
*Top 9 teams get the reward they want
*One win = One point (no bonus points for division or wildcard wins is better than Barnstormers)

Cons:

*Parity among top teams is not conducive to a Top 9 cutoff
*Requires huge Commishioner commitment:
- you need to have assigned leagues in order to avoid a way to seek out soft competition
- you need to have strict commitments to deadlines
- you need to finish open leagues with fillers in a very timely fashion

Other:

Still not sure on ballparks and draft picks, and can’t mentally resolve having simple solutions or making everything more convoluted and complicated.

And there’s no getting around that the majority of managers just don’t care about any of this, and deciding what to do on the basis of the most vocal board posters might not be the best way to resolve anything. But in the end, I guess it’s lead, follow or get out of the way.

What is the point of the ballpark restrictions? Seriously just curious. I don't really understand what that achieves or proves?

Whatever decided upon is fine with me

I would rank this the most compelling reason not to have byes (given there is not much point total separation between #9 and down the list.).
*Parity among top teams is not conducive to a Top 9 cutoff"

My observation is that ATG has a core group of long-time expert players (some of which are insiders involved in the selection and pricing of cards) which have and will make or compete for the top 9 every year.
I see a similar core group in the mystery league tourney where there is no semis.

A top 9 finish would require time and effort that perhaps a lot of us would prefer not to put in.
Personally, I have coasted once a Semi berth is all but certain.

Whatever decided upon is fine with me

I would rank this the most compelling reason not to have byes (given there is not much point total separation between #9 and down the list.).
*Parity among top teams is not conducive to a Top 9 cutoff"

I disagree with this a bit. Friendly disagreement though.

I think parity is the BEST reason to have the top 9 get in. Every single game counts. No coasting. And if everybody is paying attention during all the events, the odds of getting in to leagues with people that just dont care decrease, meaning the standings better reflect reality. You have to be good in every event rather than just sneaking into the semis but then having 1 good season to get into the finals. But with the level of parity here, everybody has a shot to get into the finals in any given year meaning the races will be really exciting at the end.

one thing I dont like about barnstormers (there is actually a discussion going on there about how to handle the semis there also) is that its always the same managers pushing the top 9. I also agree the format of all the bonus points there really skew the final standings. I prefer the 1 point 1 win, although i could see maybe giving 2 points for a championship (makes it an even 10 for winning)

Having finished 10 and 12th in Barnstormers standings over the last 3 years, the model of the mystery tournament doesnt sound so bad now either though...lol..

"the odds of getting in to leagues with people that just don't care decrease, meaning the standings better reflect reality"

Seems with a top 9 bye- getting into leagues with people who don't care is a good thing. This may have impacted the BS results. A couple event 6 leagues started later than the others. Who is to say knowing the results of the other leagues in advance did not influence some managers to stop caring.

Which leads to another point -all last event leagues really need to start and end the same time.

I thought Moose started all the last barnstormers leagues the same day. I could be wrong but I thought all playoffs started the same night.

I agree that getting into leagues with people that dont care is a good thing for an individual player, but I dont think it is a good thing for the tournament overall. Its very frustrating to watch someone rack up wins against teams that have clearly thrown in the towel on the season. I know there is really no way to stop that, I just dont understand quitting anything.

I do agree that we events should start on time better, especially for event 5. That should be set to all start on the same night, and if the last league doesnt fill by then its a shame for those that didnt get in earlier. This gets to the point I made early on about actually setting deadlines and then enforcing them.

I actually like the random assignment of leagues in BS, but I also recognize thats a whole lot of work for the commissioner.

Having finished 10 and 12th in Barnstormers standings over the last 3 years, the model of the mystery tournament doesnt sound so bad now either though...lol..

On second thought I checked and saw I finished in the top 9 both 2020 & 2019, but failed to qualify for the Finals.
So a Top 9 bye doesn't look too bad to me either after all.

On second thought I checked and saw I finished in the top 9 both 2020 & 2019, but failed to qualify for the Finals.
So a Top 9 bye doesn't look too bad to me either after all.

I love when we can do these sort of good, thorough and completely objective analyses.

We’re basically running an elaborate coin flipping contest where the coins are maybe weighted .51 instead of .50.

The argument being made is that somehow the top points getters are demonstrating a skill that should be rewarded above all others. I disagree with that. I’ve always said that if you make the Top 36 in the 200x tournament, you’re a capable and deserving manager. Only a few extra lucky dice rolls put one manager ahead of another for the most part. I personally don’t see anything wrong with a 3 autodraft semis and a finals. I don’t think anything distinguishes the top points getters (beyond being a little luckier), to the point where they deserve “extra” advantages.

Trying to see things from another point of view, however, there is a line in the sand at 36 that this year came down to a third tiebreaker. That hardly seems fair, either. So I guess if we’re drawing lines in the sand anyway, if we draw one at Top 9, 36 more managers get to compete equally for three more places, which somehow seems about right to me.

Olympic races are often separated by thousandths of a second, which seems silly too, when you think about it. But faster is faster, and if the Top 9 are just a little faster, then maybe that’s enough, coin flipping contest or not.

If nothing else, it gets rid of draft picking in the semis, which proved to be less than fun this year.