League Format

[Venomous Breath]

The league I run is about to start it's 3rd season, and it contains 16+ teams ranging from brand new TR100 to TR230 teams.

Im currently trying to decide what the best format is going to be, so I thought I'd throw it open to the forum and see what all you in BloodBowlLand think.

Season one was pretty much a clone of the Death Zone suggestion. ie play for 3 weeks (which I extended to 5). At the end put forward your best 3 results. Top 4 teams would then be randomly drawn against each other, and the 2 winners would play in the final. This was ok, but I found that some people complained that due to work commitments they could barely play 3 games, and was biased towards those people that had lots of free time. To this I had to be harsh in reply...5 weeks is a long time and if you truly want to play you find time to play.

Season Two saw the league split in 2 division. The same format then applied. Everyone put forward their best three results. The top 2 from each division would then play each other to determine who would be in the final.

The main problem I suffered is that my league is subject to many infrequent players (most games are played down the local pub when a couple of coaches suddenly get the urge to play). I have also had an influx of coaches in the last week of the season who hardly get to play any games, then have to sit back during the finals, and then lose interest.

My current solution is to greatly extend the season (probably to 8-12 weeks). This should help with the intermitent players, and allow coaches to have a game whenever they feel like it. (though I would prefer a more stringent league, it just isn't going to happen). Each coach can play another coach a maximum of two times, One home, one away (we are going to give +1FF to the home team, and allow stadium house rules, but only with proper phyiscal representation).

I'm currently going to award 3pts for a win, 1pt for a draw, 0pts for a loss. End of season most points wins, end of story. Simple, but kinda flawed as the coaches who can play more will greatly benefit.

The other idea is one suggested in BB Mag 2 by Rob Murphy. For those that do not know it the formula is Win%+TD difference + 1pt per 5 casulties. Im cautious of this because it would be possible for a 3-0 team to be better than a 20-1 team, which would put off a coach playing a lot of games, and sitting back after 3 straight wins.

Oh what a conumdrum.

So what do you guys think, and do you have any good alternatives. Please keep in mind my leagues hap-hazard nature...

Simon

[Dangerous Dave]

League Formats..... one of the most difficult topics!

There is no right answer on this since you have to use whatever works in your League - however, a few points:-


If teams can play a different number of games then I would adopt the points system Galak uses in MBBL2. This is the World Chess League Points table - where you can lose points too.

http://www.geocities.com/tanders001/MBB ... oints.html


Also with teams of widely differing TRs, I would as a minimum, let the low TR teams play each other first..... or at least prohibit teams with a TR difference of say > 75 points from playing each other for the first 2 rounds of games.


You could also split the 16 teams into 4 conferences - and the winner of each conference goes to the play offs. You could either seed teams (by TR or race) into pools like the World Cup Draw or draw each pool randomnly. If poss you could insist on at least one game being played against one of the divsion rivals - although other games could be across conferences. In order to win a conference, a team must play a minimum number of games.


Anyway just some suggestions!



Dave

[GalakStarscraper]

Man ..... Dave took most of my answer.

Anyway I agree use the WCO points system on the link he gave ... it really is just about the single best simple system that I've seen.

I also agree with Dave about divison by TR. In my league, I use a formula that weights League Points with Team Rating to help determine who plays who. League Points get more weighting than TR, so the rookies are protected from the big boys for the first couple of matches.

Galak

[Stav]

the formula is Win%+TD difference + 1pt per 5 casulties. Im cautious of this because it would be possible for a 3-0 team to be better than a 20-1 team, which would put off a coach playing a lot of games, and sitting back after 3 straight wins.
Simon :smoking:

hmmz
/me knows u don't smoke :P

anyway, just a small pointer...
19-1 = 95% wins (didn't want to get out calc for 21 matches) :P
3-0 = 100% wins (oh really?) :)

19 wins = minimum 19 points from td diff - whatever he lost by
3 wins = minimum 3 points td diff...

now
for 19 wins to be 1 td diff he's prolly a beating team, say 5 cas/3 matches?
so 6-7 points from cas

to sit back with 3 wins he must have like won them all 5-0 (+1 point from cas for good measure)

that makes : 95+19+6-lossTD = 120-lossTD
and : 100+15+1 = 116

anyway, how many teams do u know that would win 3 matches 5-0?
and how many teams that would win 19 matches with just 1 td diff.

that was a pretty poor example of stuff... but it kinda demonstrates that u can catch up if u play enough matches, at which point the person with 3 matches will be behind in TR/SPP's and have to play matches to stay ahead, and obviously win them.

Another way to keep them from sitting back is to allow challenges

Having said that, Dan's already moaning about this system because he says it disadvantages non-hitting teams (which is a bit odd considering there's 1 point/TDdiff versus 1 point/5 cas)

As I said down teh pub, I dun like teh chess one (doesn't take TR into account and it can be too much hasstle keeping up with the sequence of matches)

Anyone else with league formats they've had good/bad luck with?

Anyway, we'll see how it goes and stuff :)
cheers
[Fury]Stav

[GalakStarscraper]

The Chess system doesn't take TR into account ... neither does the formula that VB mentioned either.

As for the work involved with the formula, Dangerous Dave has a spreadsheet that does it all for me. Very little actually work involved.

Finally, the handle TR differences I do factor them into my league match-ups.

The formula I actually use to see who plays who is:

(League Points Current Season * 3) + (Lifetime League Points * 2) + Team Rating

So far its working pretty well for my league.

Galak