Regular Season: Meaningles??

[Guest cr0ssbar94]

I think too many teams make the post season. It's 16 this year right? Wow. I think that should be cut right in half. 4 top teams from the East make it, and 4 top from the West.

Its kinda like the wild (welfare) card of baseball where a team that 'gets hot at the end' can win it all when they shouldnt have even made the playoffs to begin with.

Of course only my opinion please dont be mad at me Evan LOL.

[Evan]

Sorry I can't give more of a response on this right now... but basically we don't have time to change the code to make it 8 teams instead of 16.

Just take this season as a pretty easy time into the playoffs. Yes, the regular season doesn't mean much except some good practice.

Next season will be half the teams.

-Evan

[kinglakerfan]

I also believe 16 out of 20 is too many, however I also think 8 out of 20 is too few. In my opinion there should be 5 or 6 from each side with the top 1 or 2 getting a bye. This would then accomodate situations like in the GENS B Campbell Conference where the conference is stacked compared to the Wales Conference. The disparity is obvious and the rules should accomodate this. Everything is great otherwise!

[Guest BSDaemon]

I also believe 16 out of 20 is too many, however I also think 8 out of 20 is too few. In my opinion there should be 5 or 6 from each side with the top 1 or 2 getting a bye. This would then accomodate situations like in the GENS B Campbell Conference where the conference is stacked compared to the Wales Conference. The disparity is obvious and the rules should accomodate this. Everything is great otherwise!

I like this idea. Unless we manage to get a full league (all what... 28 teams?) next season, 6 from each side, with top two getting a bye is a good idea.

[Guest cr0ssbar94]

I also believe 16 out of 20 is too many, however I also think 8 out of 20 is too few. In my opinion there should be 5 or 6 from each side with the top 1 or 2 getting a bye. This would then accomodate situations like in the GENS B Campbell Conference where the conference is stacked compared to the Wales Conference. The disparity is obvious and the rules should accomodate this. Everything is great otherwise!

Nah I think 2 teams per division is PLENTY enough.

Anymore than that is welfare, imo.

Just watch how many great races we'll have once this happens.

Honestly I'm not a fan of the "bye" idea. This isn't football!!

Sorry I can't give more of a response on this right now... but basically we don't have time to change the code to make it 8 teams instead of 16.

Just take this season as a pretty easy time into the playoffs. Yes, the regular season doesn't mean much except some good practice.

Next season will be half the teams.

-Evan

Hey thats great news. I understand man. Wasnt sure what your plan was is all. Good to hear next season there will be less teams in.

[kinglakerfan]

Nah I think 2 teams per division is PLENTY enough.

Anymore than that is welfare, imo.

Just watch how many great races we'll have once this happens.

Honestly I'm not a fan of the "bye" idea. This isn't football!!

Hey thats great news. I understand man. Wasnt sure what your plan was is all. Good to hear next season there will be less teams in.

I see your point but how do you address the problem of unbalanced conferences? Look at the GENS B league. There is only one team over .500 who has played more than 10 games in the Wales conf. In the Campbell conf. there are 5 teams over .500. It is unfair IMO to limit the number of teams to 4 per conference. Of course the placement of coaches and teams is mostly random, so not much can be done before the season starts to solve this problem.

In the current NHL 16 out of 30 teams make the playoffs, slightly more than 50%. Is the regular season meaningless? No. So having at least 10 teams make the NHL94 playoffs is not unreasonable. Plus, back in actual 1994, 16 out of 24 teams made the playoffs, that's 2/3! So no, I do not think the regular season is meaningless if one of the following occurs:

1. League expanded to fit all teams, and still take 8 from both sides. The season would probably be longer but many people here would welcome that.

2. Keep same number of teams but go with the "bye" plan to accomodate for conference discrepancies and to not discourage participation halfway through the season because 4 teams are running away with the playoff spots. (This would irritate many people)

3. Keep it the same way.

4. (Fill in the blank with your own idea)

Discuss

[addisonbr]

As this league tries to build itself into an ongoing concern, I don't think it's a disaster to include more teams in the playoffs. From what I've seen in some of the forum posts, it can be hard even with the current format to get people to play their games in a timely fashion. The more people are essentially eliminated from playoff contention, the harder it may be to get them to complete their schedule.

My fantasy football league used to include 60-80% of the teams in the playoffs to keep everyone interested, and as the league matured and we developed a stable, dedicated membership, we cut that number back to about 40% and it worked pretty well.

A smaller playoffs would be good in the long run, I just don't think it's a disaster to keep it at 16 teams for now.

[Guest BSDaemon]

Nah I think 2 teams per division is PLENTY enough.

Anymore than that is welfare, imo.

Just watch how many great races we'll have once this happens.

Honestly I'm not a fan of the "bye" idea. This isn't football!!

Hey thats great news. I understand man. Wasnt sure what your plan was is all. Good to hear next season there will be less teams in.

Who cares? So we may have a couple in the playoffs who just squeak in. Isn't that what the NHL has now? And ESPECIALLY then....

Now, the ideal solution would be 8 from each conference, however in order to do that, we would need a full league. That's not something under anyone's control. They have to decide league and playoff format every season, because its impossible to pick one standard method and stick with it, due to the changing # of teams every season.

[The Deer]

The regular season has some meaning right now, as in theory the better you do the more favourable your playoff schedule is going to be. In a league that's pretty much just for fun, that's enough meaning for me in the regular season. It's nice to have lots of people in the playoffs, what's wrong with a few extra guys getting to participate in a few more games? Besides, in a league with as much parity as the Gens A League, a #7 or 8 seed can take down a #1 or 2 seed......... in fact it happened all over the place in that league last year.

It's not perfect to have 16/18 teams make it, but if it was 16/20 I think it'd be close to perfect. Overall I think it's fine the way it is, but I don't REALLY care, I just wanna play.

[Guest cr0ssbar94]

The regular season has some meaning right now, as in theory the better you do the more favourable your playoff schedule is going to be. In a league that's pretty much just for fun, that's enough meaning for me in the regular season. It's nice to have lots of people in the playoffs, what's wrong with a few extra guys getting to participate in a few more games? Besides, in a league with as much parity as the Gens A League, a #7 or 8 seed can take down a #1 or 2 seed......... in fact it happened all over the place in that league last year.

It's not perfect to have 16/18 teams make it, but if it was 16/20 I think it'd be close to perfect. Overall I think it's fine the way it is, but I don't REALLY care, I just wanna play.

Well if you're gonna have every team make the playoffs, might as well do away with the regular season and just start from the playoffs.

[Guest BSDaemon]

Well if you're gonna have every team make the playoffs, might as well do away with the regular season and just start from the playoffs.

First, not every team makes it. Nor did he say they should.

Second, stop making ridiculous suggestions. How do you determine the standings for the playoffs without a regular season? Thats what it comes down to. You play the season to earn your spot. Also, you need to play a decent amount of games in order for it to be fair, as far as who makes it.

[Guest cr0ssbar94]

First, not every team makes it. Nor did he say they should.

Second, stop making ridiculous suggestions. How do you determine the standings for the playoffs without a regular season? Thats what it comes down to. You play the season to earn your spot. Also, you need to play a decent amount of games in order for it to be fair, as far as who makes it.

See, there's an example of that "lashing out" for no apparent reason which you're so against.

Take a chill pill, buddy.

[pokrchamp]

I posted this before the season started!!!

Might as well just finish this season as planned & maybe make changes to next season.

For me I love playin meanful games. I also like pressure & tension and all that so I'm definately in

favour of a schedule and playoff format where games down the stretch become important.

I have an idea of how the sched should go next season & I think everyone will like it.

But I'll post it after the season is over!!

For now lets focus on playin some games or there won't be a next season!!

I posted this before the season started!!!

Might as well just finish this season as planned & maybe make changes to next season.

For me I love playin meanful games. I also like pressure & tension and all that so I'm definately in

favour of a schedule and playoff format where games down the stretch become important.

I have an idea of how the sched should go next season & I think everyone will like it.

But I'll post it after the season is over!!

For now lets focus on playin some games or there won't be a next season!!

don't know how that happend

[Guest BSDaemon]

See, there's an example of that "lashing out" for no apparent reason which you're so against.

Take a chill pill, buddy.

Nobody lashed out at anyone. I can't disagree with you?

[Guest cr0ssbar94]

Nobody lashed out at anyone. I can't disagree with you?

LOL ok.

[Guest BSDaemon]

LOL ok.

ok!

[gesundheit39]

First, not every team makes it. Nor did he say they should.

Second, stop making ridiculous suggestions. How do you determine the standings for the playoffs without a regular season? Thats what it comes down to. You play the season to earn your spot. Also, you need to play a decent amount of games in order for it to be fair, as far as who makes it.

See, there's an example of that "lashing out" for no apparent reason which you're so against.

Take a chill pill, buddy.

Ummmm, when you call someone's suggestions ridiculous, it's safe to say that unless they know you real well they will likely assume you are being mean and "lashing out" at them.

[smozoma]

We can't do a full league -- no one wants to play as ottawa, san jose, anaheim, florida, or tampa bay.

8/20 is no fun because so few people make the playoffs. I'm doing terribly in the Gens A league, but I still have a shot at the playoffs, so I still have a reason to play each game. If I were eliminated already, I might not be too eager to play the rest of my games.

The regular season is fun and decides the playoff rankings. What's wrong with that? Also, if you're in the B league, you want to do well in the regular season in order to move up to the A league. I need to keep working in order to stay in the A league.

--

Next season will be half the teams? Are we having A,B,C,D leagues?

[Guest BSDaemon]

Ummmm, when you call someone's suggestions ridiculous, it's safe to say that unless they know you real well they will likely assume you are being mean and "lashing out" at them.

Why is it safe to say that, exactly?

[Tickenest]

addison and smozoma hit upon the key issue here, which is that having larger playoffs reduces the number of players who will end up having games to play after they've been eliminated from playoff contention, and it lessens the number of those meaningless games they'll have on their schedule.

Since there aren't tens of thousands of fans buying tickets to watch these games, there's no way to fine a player millions of dollars for forfeiting games, and we can't *shoot* people for not playing, the next best thing is to keep as many people vested in the outcome of their games as long as possible. The most extreme solution is to have everyone in the playoffs, but I think most people would agree that that format is best for rec leagues where the level of competitiveness and play is lower than it is in this league (i.e. we play for fun but this is the best concentration of NHL '94 talent in North America (largely because we're just about the only concentration of NHL '94 talent in North America), as opposed to your plain old Sunday beer league which is played for fun and participation more than anything else.)

So having 16 out of 20 teams make the playoffs is the best solution in a setting where we can't force people to play all of their games and care all the way to the end, even when they're out of playoff contention.

Or we could just declare kgman the champ and be done with it.

[matthurray]

i vote for cancelling the playoffs, and giving kgman the cup back.

all hail the reigning champ!

[Guest BSDaemon]

addison and smozoma hit upon the key issue here, which is that having larger playoffs reduces the number of players who will end up having games to play after they've been eliminated from playoff contention, and it lessens the number of those meaningless games they'll have on their schedule.

Since there aren't tens of thousands of fans buying tickets to watch these games, there's no way to fine a player millions of dollars for forfeiting games, and we can't *shoot* people for not playing, the next best thing is to keep as many people vested in the outcome of their games as long as possible. The most extreme solution is to have everyone in the playoffs, but I think most people would agree that that format is best for rec leagues where the level of competitiveness and play is lower than it is in this league (i.e. we play for fun but this is the best concentration of NHL '94 talent in North America (largely because we're just about the only concentration of NHL '94 talent in North America), as opposed to your plain old Sunday beer league which is played for fun and participation more than anything else.)

So having 16 out of 20 teams make the playoffs is the best solution in a setting where we can't force people to play all of their games and care all the way to the end, even when they're out of playoff contention.

Or we could just declare kgman the champ and be done with it.

Well said. I agree. If you know you're out of it with a month left, wheres the motivation to keep playing? That's when you start losing guys.

I think we need to concentrate on keeping interest, above all else, since there is no motivation once you're out of the race.

You mentioned letting everyone into the playoffs, and while i agree that would keep people around, i think in a fun league such as this, a small number of teams missing the playoffs is just enough to make people actually care about not missing the playoffs as well. Plus, if everyone makes the playoffs, then DNPs and forefits don't hurt anyone, other then for standings.

I think it should be more of a balancing act, keeping the ratio of people who are really into it, and people who arent, to be about equal to the number that make the playoffs. For example, if the number of teams that slack off is usually around 4, then it should be 4 teams that miss the playoffs.