league playoff format

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encore

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I play in a 14 team vnea handicapped league where an individual can score a max of 85 points for 5 rounds. The first 6 or so teams are all full of master rated players and pretty stacked, the rest are all A rated and its pretty good pool. The LD decided to structure the brackets so the top teams all play each other right away to give the weaker teams a chance, it is a double elimination format.

Now my team finished third and we had to play the first place team tonight in the second round! (we sent the first place team to the one loss side and they weren't to happy about that lol) Is this BS or what, I cant believe the LD did this?
 
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Nope good job maybe the LD should toss in a rule for having stacked teams ? That's why I like playing in the singles event. We have an awesome LD here.
 
JoseV said:
Nope good job maybe the LD should toss in a rule for having stacked teams ? That's why I like playing in the singles event. We have an awesome LD here.
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Stacked team, now there is a loaded statement.

If a league allows people to choose their own team (which I think all do) you are always going to have teams that try and get the best players for their team.
I have came up against this several times. Personally I can't fault someone for trying to put together the best team possible. I don't think it is really in the spirit of what league is supposed to be about but that is what the handicapping is for. Granted it doesn't really level the playing field though.

Our team has still been able to compete without having all premium players. We have a 8 players, 2 strong, 4 middle of the road and 2 weaker players and we are consistently in the top 3. There have been people that have tried to get me on their "stacked team" but I prefer the atmosphere of our team better. For me it's more about the game than placing first at all costs. We enjoy ourselves and play well at the same time.
 
The VNEA singles division is handicapped Im always giving up 12 or 24 balls got to say I like the challenge tho.

But when the State tourney rolls around its all even no handicaps in none of the events.

I'm not sure how the teams work in VNEA but I know the APA Allows you a certain cap on players skill level. But like I said maybe the LD might want to something thing along those lines, funny thing is I seen a lot of lower seed pool teams upset stronger teams.
 
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encore said:
I play in a 14 team vnea handicapped league where an individual can score a max of 85 points for 5 rounds. The first 6 or so teams are all full of master rated players and pretty stacked, the rest are all A rated and its pretty good pool. The LD decided to structure the brackets so the top teams all play each other right away to give the weaker teams a chance, it is a double elimination format.

Now my team finished third and we had to play the first place team tonight in the second round! (we sent the first place team to the one loss side and they weren't to happy about that lol) Is this BS or what, I cant believe the LD did this?
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If it's handicapped properly, having top players on one team should not be much of an issue. The idea to have the top teams play each other does not sound that bad actually, but it does seem to not reward the top teams for their good play during the season. If you finish as the #1 team, you should have something for that, easy playoff match, or maybe even a bye.

In the league I play in, the top team gets a bye in the first round, and the matches are seeded, so 2nd team plays last place team, etc...

My team was in first place for the first 5 weeks, we are about in the middle now, and will end up probably mid-pack at the end of the season, which is probably the best spot to be at if you are not the first few top teams because you are playing another team close to your level, at least in standings for the season.
 
DoubleD said:
Wow, this is the first time I have ever heard of reverse-seeding a tourney.

How utterly ridiculous. I can make arguments for and against random drawing tourneys and real seeding of tourneys. This is utterly stupid.

Almost as stupid as playing handicapped pool. Oh, wait...maybe this makes perfect sense, due to the fact that it is a handicapped league. Handicapping is supposed to give everybody a chance to win, this format does exactly that.

I think a better way to play a handicapped league tourney is to simply put everybody's names in a hat and draw for winner--that is fair, right?

I really do find it funny that someone would play in a handicapped league, give or take points every week to determine the 'outcome' of the match and then complain that because they finished high in the ranking that they should have an advantage over other teams. These seem to be contradictory scenarios.

dld
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I kind of go back and forth on this. On one hand I agree, why should a person be penalized for being better. You should aspire to be better. On the other hand the most common answer I hear when someone new is asked why they haven't joined a league team is "I'm not good enough for that."

That statement speaks volumes about the whole league issue. If leagues were designed to give people of every skill level a chance to compete they shouldn't be afraid to join. But the handicap system really doesn't equal things out as much as some would like.

I joined league to compete, so I don't mind having to try to beat someone 6 games to 2. I also concern myself more with my performance than whether or not I won. Sounds odd I know, but if I feel I played well as was just simply beaten by another player I don't let it bother me. But if I beat myself it's a little different story, then I feel like I have let my team down.

I think most people that play in leagues and hate it should rethink why they are doing it in the first place.
 
I play in a BCA league and you can only have one master per team. This keeps teams from stacking the deck. I would guess that from sixth place to first there is only a difference of 7 games ahead/behind. It's very competitive.

We have 3 position rounds in the season. First is about a third of the way in the season, second position round is about 2/3 in the season, and the last week is a position round. The position round is where the 1st place team plays the 2nd place, 3rd plays 4th, and so on. I really like this format as it makes for some intense competition.

As far as the format of yours, that is a little crazy.
 
Our local 14 team league is a straight up no handicap . There are 2 teams that have won the championship for the last 10 years . This year we finished the regular season in 3ed . In the playoffs we beat the 2ed place teanm and had to play the 1st place team , they had us down 4-zip , then we cam back with 8 straight , we play a race to 8 double elimination , 8 ball , call pocket , no ball in hand . start at 9 am Saterday . We finished our last match with my team winning the championship at 3 am Sunday . The 1st place team came out of the loosers section and had to beat us twice . The got us once but not twice .
 
In this hall, the tuesday night league is when the best players play. There are a couple apa league nights and another vnea league night but with weaker players. The weaker teams/players like to play on this tuesday night because its the best pool available to them and I even here them brag often that "they play in the tuesday night league because thats when the best players play". The weaker players or teams/player have a choice of the level of the league they want to play in. If you play tuesday night your going to be playing stacked teams and all the better players are ok with this. The weaker teams have an option to add anyone they want to there team also.
 
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