2021 Tour Changes??

Of the 12 teams in the finals, 4 came from the top 10 in regular standings - Moodysix- 8, Hendrix-2, and J-pav-9, Bob-7.

Out of the top 5, including myself - Me, Crisco, and scumby all finished last in our divisions. Mochadog is second, but 2g over .500 with 6 to go, so conceivably, he could also finish with a losing record. (He has an outside chance of upsetting Milleram for WC too.)

So The NUMBER 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 & 10th ranked teams who were the Best over 5 Seasons will not make the Finals! Why?

It looks like half of the teams in the finals finished 17th or lower in regular season standings!
Why is this the case? Then we give top Teams that are left a HUGE Advantage with all the top picks in the Finals - Why? It makes no sense to me...

* Why don't we reverse this or at least make the Semi's and Finals closer to the same rules?
For instance we could give the top finishers the first 3 rounds of picks if they have to disclose their stadiums before everyone else... and do something similar in the Finals.

Anyway this is how I've seen it every year I've been in this Tournament...

Gilbo,

I apologize if I misunderstood your argument. It seemed to me that this is what you were saying, but you’re right, in reading all the other posts I may have inferred something incorrectly (not intentionally, mind you) from what you were intending. Apologies, again.

Simply then, what specifically do you propose as a solution and why?

Ok, I'm going to try something different: This time I'm going to Advocate my suggestion of how I think this tournament could take place.

I would not change much at all: I would in general keep the First 5 events the way they are now. Obviously there is some slight tweaking every year and I'm not opposed to that. Then when we get to the Semi-Finals I would like to see the seeding stay the way it has been. I would encourage an Auto-Draft where each team chooses a ballpark they have not used before. In this some teams may end up with the same ballpark, but no one will know this until after the auto-draft has taken place. This is how the first 5 events work currently.

Then for the Finals I would do the same thing. Seed the Finals as they are now and let everyone do an Auto Draft where each team picks a ballpark it hasn't used before. If some teams have the same Stadium, so be it.

In this system there is nobody getting to pick ahead of someone else. There is no announcing ones Stadium to the world before others pick their stadium. Both the Semi's and Finals are operated the same way.

There is no claim in the Finals that we are giving all these special picks to give an "Incentive and reward" to the players who did the best in the first 5 events, that never happened anyway.

See - Simple! This does not have to be so complicated!

Hi J-Pav, I really appreciate your conciliatory tone and apology! Thank you! No Apology is necessary. You are a good and wise man and I'm sure there is a way to make these things work out fairly and evenly without some of the pitfalls I felt were there before.
My suggestion above is simply one way to do this and avoid the problems I thought were potentially there. I am so sorry for making this seem more complicated than it needs to be. Thank you for considering my suggestions!

You’re right! And, I agree with all your suggestions!

I’m sorry again if we got sideways, I was obviously confused by the way some of the other posts in the thread ran together. I completely misread what you were trying to say as a result.

Now if there can be something of a consensus, we can get MBW or whoever wants to be Commish to commit to some good changes for next year...

Can I suggest that next year, we use the regular season points standings as the basis for the finals draft. (Isn't this the way it used to be...?) Making this change would save us from sitting around for two weeks waiting for inconsequential playoff game results (as we are doing right now). The drafting order is probably not going to change much (if at all) as a result of the playoffs results from the semis. Let's get on with it.
Cheers.

If we do have Player Picks I see the advantage to what you are saying. I'd hope we just do a regular draft in the Semi's & Finals (or have picks in both!). But, yes you are right Steve. We can see the advantage of not adding up points from Semi's, because it makes the wait potentially longer...

In 2018, I managed to finish in a tie for 4th in the qualifying and then proceeding to get butchered in the semifinals. Would have a like to have been given a bye into the finals as one of the top six teams? Most definitely. Would have I have felt cheated watching the top three teams getting the bye while I was forced to go through the semis? Most definitely. I guess the point that I am trying to make is that if there has to be someone who loses out by a hair, then it should be someone ranked 37th or lower. I only play in championship events because I would prefer to lose to the best than be king of the flotsam.

I support offering some seeding advantages in the semifinals, but I believe that's were it should end. The format and rules for the semifinals and finals should definitely be identical. I'll play, no matter the rules, because I enjoy the competition. I would, however, prefer as much equity as possible across all levels of the competition.

I am late to this conversation, probably because I did not even make the Top 36 this year, after not having even played the previous 2 years. That being said, with the 2016 set, I did make the Championship Event,
losing a Game 7 in the semis to eventual Tour Champ Milleram (who swept the Finals series).
I am simply joining in here to offer my .02 in that, after reading the entire thread, I completely agree with Gilbo on this, and just voted that way on J-Pav's poll. Given that it's Valentines Day, his advice to KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) seems appropriate. Regardless, I do look forward to participating again this year, and appreciate the work that goes into it.

Ok, I'm going to try something different: This time I'm going to Advocate my suggestion of how I think this tournament could take place.

I would not change much at all: I would in general keep the First 5 events the way they are now. Obviously there is some slight tweaking every year and I'm not opposed to that. Then when we get to the Semi-Finals I would like to see the seeding stay the way it has been. I would encourage an Auto-Draft where each team chooses a ballpark they have not used before. In this some teams may end up with the same ballpark, but no one will know this until after the auto-draft has taken place. This is how the first 5 events work currently.

Then for the Finals I would do the same thing. Seed the Finals as they are now and let everyone do an Auto Draft where each team picks a ballpark it hasn't used before. If some teams have the same Stadium, so be it.

In this system there is nobody getting to pick ahead of someone else. There is no announcing ones Stadium to the world before others pick their stadium. Both the Semi's and Finals are operated the same way.

There is no claim in the Finals that we are giving all these special picks to give an "Incentive and reward" to the players who did the best in the first 5 events, that never happened anyway.

See - Simple! This does not have to be so complicated!

Completely new subject.

Does anyone know if next years tour is using the actual or imagined sets? I was going to get together a team when the cards drop, and was wondering which one is more relevant to the championship tournament coming up.

It seems that most prefer actual rather than imagined. Now that cards are out people may shift on that but suspect that won’t be the case and actual will be preferred