Strat-o-matic 2016 Player Championship - Official Rules

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keyzick

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Strat-o-matic 2016 Player Championship - Official Rules

PostSun Mar 13, 2016 2:46 pm

The 2016 tournament will consist of five events and a two round playoff. In the playoff, the top 36 managers will compete in three 12 team leagues. The playoff teams from those three leagues will become eligible for the Championship Finals. The winner from that final league is recognized as the 2016 Tour Champion.

The score for the qualifying events will be the sum of the best four scores out of the five events. This provides several benefits for the members of the tournament:

-If someone misses Event I, but they still want to join up for Event II, they can do that, and still have a chance of making the playoffs assuming they do not miss any additional events.

-If someone joins for Event I, but misses only one of Events II-V, they are still eligible for the playoffs (assuming they make the cutoff score).

-If someone enters all five events, they benefit from being able to drop their lowest score.

Commissioner

For the 2016 Tour Championship, I will be your commissioner. As the Tour Commissioner, I will NOT be participating in the tour and will not be eligible for prizes; however, I reserve the right to provide a “filler” team if necessary.

As a reminder from JPav’s preamble last year: I am not an employee of Strat-O-Matic, and while they are generously kicking in prizes for our informal competition, this has nothing to do with the folks at OnlineGameSupport. Do not call, write, email, or telegram them to complain about anything that goes on regarding this tournament. This is not “officially sanctioned” if you will, and Strat-O-Matic is not to be held responsible for anything that we voluntarily organize among ourselves.

Secondly, I am a volunteer. I want to do everything possible to see the Tour Championship succeed. I promise to do everything in my power to see that you have not only a fun experience but an absolutely fair experience. But please try to remember that in the end, I’m doing this in my free time and I ask for just a little bit of understanding when it comes to addressing the individual difficulties that will inevitably arise.

Thirdly, and maybe unfortunately, that means you, personally, might have issues with how this year’s tournament is run. That’s because this is where the “no exceptions” problems meet the “just this once” problems. This is where the one loud screeching voice meets the quiet contentedness of the majority. Having participated in a lot of tour events over the years, I have come to recognize that someone needs to lead. It’s just the way it has to be. This is not a democracy and there will be no votes. I sincerely believe that by trying to please everybody, you end up pleasing nobody. So know ahead of time, I am perfectly comfortable being blamed for decisions some might perceive as unpopular.


Moving forward, now…

Entering Your Teams

One of the ongoing problems of the 20XX Tour Championship has been the overly flexible scheduling, and managers trying to avoid leagues they perceive as “very competitive” by seeking out leagues with newer managers and fillers that form later and later in the process. Unfortunately too often, this has led to the tour season dragging out over longer and longer amounts of time. This will be addressed in the following way:

When you sign up on the official 2016 Tour Championship sign-up sheet, you are now automatically entered in the first week events (April 25, May 30, June 27, July 25 and August 22). However, there will still be a second opportunity to join a league in each event for the following week (if you are unable to play during the first week). Although you do not need to declare a start date for your team because you are already officially entered, you must declare if you want to switch to the following week, and you must do so by the deadline for PM-ing the Commissioner as outlined below.

For instance:

In order to participate in Event I, the deadline for emailing is midnight (EDT) on Friday, April 15. On or about April 16, I will post the league assignments for leagues beginning either APRIL 25 or MAY 2. You must have your team entered by the corresponding Wednesday. This will give me some time to find fillers, if necessary, on Thursday and Friday before the leagues close Friday night (April 22 for the first leagues, April 29 for the second offerings).

Example #1: I signed the Official 2016 Tour Championship sign-up sheet. On April 16, I will receive my league assignment and I will have my team in by EOD Wednesday, April 20. The league fills and officially closes before Friday, April 22. League play begins on Monday, April 25.

Example #2: I signed the Official 2016 Tour Championship sign-up sheet, but I now want to enter my team for the second available date. Before midnight on April 15, I PM the commissioner and report “keyzick switching to May 2”. On April 16, I will receive my league assignment and I will have my team in by EOD Wednesday, April 27. The league fills and officially closes Friday, April 29. League play begins on Monday, May 2.


A brief word on tardiness: If you have signed up appropriately and have a league assignment, you will not be immediately removed if you fail to enter your team by Wednesday. You may still enter your team Thursday (or possibly even Friday), late though it may be. HOWEVER, if I am able to close the league with fillers after the Wednesday deadline, you have then forfeited the event, no exceptions. You will not be reassigned to another league (or to another league the following week) under any circumstances. So if your Wednesday beer league hockey game goes late and you forget to enter your team, you will likely still be able to get in the next morning, knowing the sooner the better. Just recognize that each minute you are late, you are that much more likely to lose your spot in the event.

Event Summary

Event I: Your start date is April 25. Deadline for PM-ing is midnight (EDT) on Friday, April 15 if want to change your start date to May 2. Enter your team either by EOD Wednesday, April 20 or EOD Wednesday, April 27. Leagues close on Friday, April 22 and 29.

Event II: Your start date is May 30. Deadline for PM-ing is midnight (EDT) on Friday, May 20 if want to change your start date to June 6. Enter your team either by Wednesday, May 25 or June 1. Leagues close on Friday, May 27 and June 3.

Event III: Your start date is June 27. Deadline for PM-ing is midnight (EDT) on Friday, June 17, if want to change your start date to July 4. Enter your team either by Wednesday, June 22 or 29. Leagues close on Friday, June 24 and July 1.

Event IV: Your start date is July 25. Deadline for PM-ing is midnight (EDT) on Friday, July 15 if want to change your start date to August 1. Enter your team either by Wednesday, July 20 or 27. Leagues close on Friday, July 22 and 29.

Event V: Your start date is August 22. Deadline for PM-ing is midnight (EDT) on Friday, August 12 if want to change your start date to August 29. Enter your team either by Wednesday, August 17 or 24. Leagues close on Friday, August 19 and 26.


Players are expected to enter one team, and one team only in each event. Each "Event" will have many leagues, to accommodate the large number of players. So Event I will have Leagues 1 through XX (typically seven or so). But you only enter JUST ONE team in each “Event” - not one team in each “League”.

Entry deadlines will be strictly imposed as I’ve outlined. I will retain the right to invoke closure on event entries. I intend to avoid fillers as much as possible, although some fillers obviously will be necessary. Leagues will be set-up as private leagues with password protection. To keep things simple and moving along, the passwords will be posted in the discussion thread set up for each league. The main idea is to prevent accidental team entries for players who are not participating in the tournament. If someone has difficulty entering a password protected private league, please send me a PM or post openly in the forum threads and I will find a solution for you that works.

Point System / Tiebreakers

The point system will be identical to last year’s simplified point system. One regular season win equals one point and one post-season win equals one point. There will be no “bonus” points for this season.

Tiebreakers
1. Championships won
2. Finals made
3. Playoffs made
4. Run differential (four best teams for each manager totaled together)
5. Pick three winner

NOTE: The points accumulated in the semi-finals round will be added to the manager's point total in order to produce the final standings.

Ballpark Requirement

A player must not re-use a ballpark. For example, if he used Fenway in Event I, he may not use Fenway in Events II-V, nor may he use Fenway in any playoff round.

There can be more than one player using the same ballpark in the same event and/or league. For example, player X and player Y may both use Fenway in Event I, League 1 (In theory, the same ballpark could be used by all 12 teams in any league or event). The prohibition relates to the same player using the same ballpark twice during the Tour Championship.

A player who is acting as a "filler" for any particular event and league may use whatever ballpark he wants to use. You cannot impose a “penalty” on a team that does not count in the official standings anyway.

If a player re-uses a ballpark in the qualifying events, there will be a 20 point penalty.

Events

Event I: $80M, DH #1
Salary Cap: $80,000,000 (standard)
DH Rule: Yes (standard)
Free Agent Drop Penalty: 5/10/20

Event II: $60M, No DH
Salary Cap: $60,000,000
DH Rule: No
Free Agent Drop Penalty: 5/10/20

Event III: $80M, no DH
Salary Cap: $80,000,000 (standard)
DH Rule: No
Free Agent Drop Penalty: 5/10/20

Event IV: $100M, DH
Salary Cap: $100,000,000 (standard)
DH Rule: Yes (standard)
Free Agent Drop Penalty: 5/10/20

Event V: $80M, DH#2
Salary Cap: $80,000,000 (standard)
DH Rule: Yes (standard)
Free Agent Drop Penalty: 5/10/20

There will be no use of the unleashed player set in any event this year.
The new optional injury system with pitchers also will not be used in any event this year.

Playoffs

Semi-Finals
Top 36 Managers play in three leagues of 12
(All 12 playoff qualifiers advance to Tour Champions League)

Salary Cap: $80,000,000 (standard)
DH Rule: Yes (standard)
Free Agent Drop Penalty: 5/10/20

There will be a one round draft for unique ballparks to be done on the forum boards. The draft order will be the order of finish in tour points. Since each semi-finalist will have already used five different ballparks in Events I-V, they may not re-use those ballparks in the semi-finals. So, if a manager is picking 12th for the live ballpark draft in the semi-finals, he will have to choose from one of the 14 remaining ballparks (30 minus 5, minus 11 ballparks already drafted in that semi-final event).

Champions League
The 12 Semi-Finals playoffs qualifiers in a single 12-team league

Salary Cap: $80,000,000 (standard)
DH Rule: Yes (standard)
Free Agent Drop Penalty: 5/10/20

There will be an eight pick live draft for the Tour Championship, consisting of seven players and a ballpark, to be done on the forum boards. The draft will NOT be serpentine for the finals - i.e., the draft order will be repeated in each round. These "seeding" rules for the draft order provide an incentive and a reward for the managers who finish with the highest scores in Events I-V.

Reference is made to the slight change in the point system, adding points accumulated in the semi-finals round to the manager's points total from the qualifying rounds. This will effect the final overall standings, impacting the order of picks in the live draft for the Champions League.

Penalties

Salary Dumping: If a manager drops his team salary below 90 percent of the original starting salary, please report this to me immediately. I will ask OnlineGameSupport to return the team to its previous state above 90 percent and lock the manager out. If this situation occurs with the same manager twice, that manager will be disqualified and prohibited from participating in any future 2016 Tour events.

Once official play begins, failure to observe the rules against re-using ballparks in the playoffs will result in disqualification from the tournament. However, if the error is detected early enough to be corrected by OnlineGameSupport before the beginning of official play, then the manager will not be disqualified. He may, however, be publicly shamed and/or ridiculed.

There is no "super reliever" penalty. For those new to the tour, there was a time when we imposed a 200 inning maximum on any relief pitcher. That penalty is no longer pertinent.

Other

Communication

Most of our communication, signups, etc. will be held on the Players Championship forum, and by occasional private messages. For transparency on overall league matters, let’s discuss things in the forums. For matters pertaining to an individual situation, question, or problem, please use the PM button (personal message).

Money

The only monetary requirement for the 2016 Tour Championship is to purchase your required number of teams (no less than four, no more than possibly seven). Buying the five-pack option would be a good value purchase.

Use of Fillers

Some qualifying leagues for an event will need "fillers" due to the fact that we won't have an even numbered membership (divisible by 12) and we will probably have some "dropouts" during the season. "Fillers" are generally non-tournament players who will play in the qualifying leagues solely for the experience of playing against tour-level competition. "Fillers" can also be tournament players who will play in an extra league just to fill out the league, but whose score for that league will not count toward their official tournament standings. For such filler managers, only their first team entered in an event will count for points. I intend to NOT use tour participants as fillers, if at all possible.

Further clarification:

In Event One, "Fillers" are actually "replacement managers". Anybody who has a team in Event One is entitled to the points they earn, even the replacements. They are now part of the tour and may continue to play as if they entered via the sign up page, although they are not obligated to continue (as in fact, no one actually is). The risk of entering as a filler is that if all managers who signed up would have entered their teams on time, the managers acting as fillers would not be eligible to be put into a league and would miss out on that event. However, if they get their team entered when requested, they are now for all intents and purposes, tour participants.

The same situation is basically in effect for Event Two. I will simply replace the missing managers names on the sign up sheet with the replacement managers, and I will recruit a new batch of "fillers". I will run the randomizer and make league assignments, and any no-show managers will again be replaced, and any replacements then become eligible tour participants.

After Event Two, because you need scores from four qualifying events to advance to the semis, any "fillers" who are participating for the first time are true "fillers" only and are not eligible to reach the semi-finals.

There is always a bit of attrition during the course of the tour. There will not always be a number of managers cleanly divisible by 12. The league has to be filled somehow, so in the end, yes, a manager with no ability to reach the Tour playoffs can siphon off wins from the qualified managers. However, that doesn't prevent any manager from the opportunity to notch his own wins.

I have no control over who wants to be a filler and my singular goal is simply to see the leagues filled in a timely fashion.

Catastrophic Events

In the event there is some malfunction with the game, the official SOM Online results will be final. If OnlineGameSupport remedies a situation with some sort of re-play, again, the official SOM Online results will be final.


PRIZES

See tournament main page for prizes!


*************************************************************
Please post your questions here, on this thread!

Welcome to the official 2016 Player's Championship Tournament!


As JPav thanked GBrookes for running the Tour Championship the year before him, I would like to sincerely thank JPav for not only running last year’s tournament, but for providing a solid foundation to build from (which is obvious by my blatant copying of just about every aspect of JPav’s rules and documentation from last year!!)
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GoDucks

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Re: Strat-o-matic 2016 Player Championship - Official Rules

PostFri Mar 25, 2016 1:48 am

Question about injuries for this year's Player Championship:

The rules state: "The new optional injury system with pitchers also will not be used in any event this year."

Does that also apply to position players? Will position players be subject to the same injury formula as in the past (the most severe injury being 15 games) or will it be possible for some position players to be injured for 30 or 60 games as outlined in the new advanced rules?
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keyzick

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Re: Strat-o-matic 2016 Player Championship - Official Rules

PostFri Mar 25, 2016 6:38 am

We'll use the same Standard Injury System that has been used I the past, not the new Advanced system.
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dmanwon

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Re: Strat-o-matic 2016 Player Championship - Official Rules

PostWed Jun 08, 2016 10:23 am

I haven't done the PC in a few years, but am reading the rules now. I'm assuming its too late to join leagues 1 and 2?
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keyzick

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Re: Strat-o-matic 2016 Player Championship - Official Rules

PostThu Jun 09, 2016 10:03 am

dmanwon wrote:I haven't done the PC in a few years, but am reading the rules now. I'm assuming its too late to join leagues 1 and 2?


Yes, too late to join the tourney at this point, but if you check in here during the assigning of future events, we often need fillers for no shows, should you be interested
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teamnasty

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Re: Strat-o-matic 2016 Player Championship - Official Rules

PostWed Oct 05, 2016 5:12 pm

Question about the Finals league (and no I'm not being presumptuous, just curious).

It says that there will be an 8 round non serpentine draft where each team will pick 7 players plus 1 (unique, non-repeated) ballpark.

Can one choose the ballpark any time during the 8 rounds, or will that be settled with a forced ballpark pick in Round 1?

thanks,

TN
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keyzick

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Re: Strat-o-matic 2016 Player Championship - Official Rules

PostSat Oct 08, 2016 7:27 am

teamnasty wrote:Question about the Finals league (and no I'm not being presumptuous, just curious).

It says that there will be an 8 round non serpentine draft where each team will pick 7 players plus 1 (unique, non-repeated) ballpark.

Can one choose the ballpark any time during the 8 rounds, or will that be settled with a forced ballpark pick in Round 1?

thanks,

TN


Ballpark at any point
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teamnasty

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Re: Strat-o-matic 2016 Player Championship - Official Rules

PostSat Oct 08, 2016 11:51 pm

Thanks Key.

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