2015 Tour Debrief

I saw this dead horse sitting over here and thought I'd get out the stick...

My filler teams have now accomplished both sides of the equation. After sampling the sour grapes in Event 3, where my 97 win team lost in the finals (6 playoff wins for 103 points), I tasted the sweet grapes of victory when my negative pythag 85 win wildcard team won the ring in Event 4 (8 playoff wins for 93 points).

So I don't even have to compare competitor's teams, I can just compare my own. If I had to submit one of the two rosters for a semi-finals or finals series, I would submit the 97 win team. It's not about coulda, woulda, shoulda, elite or plebeian, superior or inferior, it's about objective results. The first team stepped on the field 175 times and won 103 times (58.8%). The other team stepped on the field 172 times and won ten less games (54.1%).

The tour has just two weeks to go before playoffs. The difference between 1st place and 36th place is currently 58 points. Those same 58 points encompass 37th place almost through the rest of the eligible field (99th place). Spots 31 to 51 are separated by only 15 wins. To me, that's as competitive as things could possibly be.

And since it appears the last team to reach the semis might do so on a tie breaker, I couldn't bear the thought that even one assigned "bonus" point would tip that scale. The first assigned tiebreaker is rings won, followed by finals made and playoffs made. So two equally performing managers might just be sorted by rings eventually anyway.

Now that the boards are active again, I wanted to open this up again for any additional input, criticism, suggestions or miscellaneous reflections on the tour and how we might make it better for next year...

If it's all been said already, then I'll see you next year...!

A special mention....

Here's a shout out to Marc for his qualifying events first place performance.

Also, a nod to jmoore1966, who, after missing the deadline for Event 2 now has three qualifying rings and has moved from beyond 100th place to second place just in the last few weeks with only four eligible teams. Can he win a fourth qualifying ring???

Lastly, a tip of the cap to gbrookes, last year's commish. He began as a filler team in Event 2. He won the ring in that event and followed up with a second ring in Event 3. In the battle of league commissioners, it was he who served me the plate of unsweetened grapes, defeating my 97 win team in six games. Well played, sir!