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Home Is Where The Hate Is
6/25/01
Email Dan
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» Game Design Dictionary |
Many people just copy a schedule out of a fantasy magazine, which
will work most of the time. The question is... when you should put
in the effort to create a customized one? The number of teams and
the limit of 13 to 15 weeks will eliminate many options from the
mix. Standards are printed everywhere so I will just touch on the
highlights and focus on a couple of variation for some added spice.
Most teams end their regular seasons in time to allow the Championship
game to be played on week 16. I strongly suggest the same philosophy.
While parity has risen its head to unprecedented heights, you still
have some players and team not putting forth the best effort on
the last week of the NFL Regular season. Let's forgo all that noise
and design the game to end on week 16. Also, the joy of sitting
in your favorite recliner, watching the last week of the regular
season without the pressure of managing a league is too sweet to
miss.
Now that we know our end date (highlighted in the rules and referenced
accordingly) we can turn our attention to how many teams do we want
to qualify for the playoffs. Some in the Assembly may crow "the
more the merrier", but does it serve your game design? I generally
qualify 4 teams into the playoff. They face off in week 15 and the
final two duke it out for the Fantasy Championship. Large leagues
sometimes qualify 8 teams and hold playoffs for three weeks (14
- 16).
If you allow half or more of your teams to qualify for post season
play, then you are reducing the importance of regular season match
ups. In a friendly low-conflict (no money) redraft situation, create
something like the NBA or NHL style where the regular season is
only for gaining seeded positions with all (or the majority of)
teams entered in a single elimination playoff. The hidden rule in
this setup is that the best team will rarely win the championship.
Instead, the "hot" team can make a run and upset the season
leaders only to open the door for a moderately strong mid-level
team to claim the championship. But I am not telling you anything
you haven't seen before. It is just you may not have thought about
the hidden relationships and reasons why this occurs.
The opposite end of this thought train is to only qualify two teams
for post season play. Those two teams have struggled all year to
attain their position. Now the reward comes in advancing to the
playoffs. The hidden rule here is that teams fall out of contention
earlier and some owner will lose interest. This can deteriorate
to the point that a franchise becomes abandoned and a team making
a run to overtake the leaders could get some unwarranted help in
playing against these ghost ships. There are lots of tricks to keep
individual team interest beyond post season qualification. It usually
revolves around money.
A House Divided
There are two main paths to follow on playoff seeding. This divergence
is based on the prominence of Divisional play in the design. Are
you using Divisions within the league? Does this concept increase
or decrease league enjoyment and participation? I would recommend
Divisional for Locals and Non-Divisional for Globals. The reason
is the Locals can build up personal rivalries which greatly outweigh
a design flaw. The best teams are not always in divisional playoffs.
We see it in the real world product and it certainly pops up in
fantasyland also. Sometimes the third or fourth best team is squeezed
out by a poor performing Divisional qualifier. In a Global, personal
rivalries do exist, but generally not near the level of an established
Local. Reward the better teams and seed by record in Globals.
In a basic 8-team league with 14 regular season games, you can use
divisions or not. Divisions would impact a seeded tournament in
that the top two division winners would automatically qualify and
then either the next best two (non-divisional) or the next runner
up (divisional records) graduate to the post season. If using the
divisional theme then the first round of the playoffs should have
the divisional winners hosting the non-divisional runner-ups. Without
divisions, the teams are seeded one through four with 1 playing
4 and 3 playing 2. The point is to keep the whole theme consistent.
If you use divisional settings, include this in the schedule, playoffs,
tiebreak rules, and even in payoffs. I have run a number of low
money fun leagues that gave a $5 or $10 prize for sweeping divisional
opponents. You could expand that in the 8 x 14 in payoffs for sweeping
any opponent. The strong teams will be raking in the sweeps anyway
so tell them to stop complaining about dilution of the pot.
My preferred design is a 12 team, three-division league with one
wild card playoff qualifier. Play your divisional opponents twice
and the rest of the league once. Arrange the schedule so that the
last five weeks go like this (Customized Schedule): Week 10 divisional
games and first attempt at sweeps, Weeks 11 and 12 non-divisional
games, and the final two weeks are the rest of the divisional sweeps
series. In a retention league, weeks 11 and 12 can be spent playing
teams that finished in similar rank of last season.
Other Scheduling Methods
Now I have gone on this long under the assumption our weekly game
schedule would be Head-to-Head. For basic league scheduling, this
is the best method. There are others designed and yet to be designed.
There is a ton of information on rotisserie leagues. This is the
preferred method in most other fantasy sports. I prefer the Head-to-Head
system, but please do go research the topic. There is another very
interesting schedule system I see popping up occasionally that I
call the Three-Headed Mother Fun League.
Each game of the regular season, teams are placed in groups of three.
The team with the highest point's total gains 2 points. The team
with the second highest score gains 1 point. The lowest scoring
team of the group scores nothing. Points won in games accumulate
through the season and are used to determine positions in the playoffs.
An unusual feature of this design is that it accommodates a 9-team
league very well. This is definitely in the realm of exotic designs.
I admit that in a couple of leagues, I have tried to recruit a league
larger than the true intent of participation. All the effort to
set up a 10 team draft board and schedule is thrown in the toilet
when you find out on the morning of the draft that one person is
backing out. What do you do then? Nope, homicide is not an option.
Instead, keep the Three-Headed Mother in mind. Other options are
to play against the average score (of the other 8 teams). This can
be a bit embarrassing as you will find the Average Team will be
in the hunt if not usually qualify for the playoffs. You can set
a static "to beat" score which is a better option if you
have played this particular scoring system/starting roster design
before.
So, think about the whole league and how you determine playoff spots
when you are deciding on schedules and seasonal formats. Don't over
recruit and if some smuck drops out on you, at least be prepared
with some basic information and plans for the Assembly to vote on.
Just a little more work on your part could create a customized schedule
that accents personal rivalries and post season hopes. You are on
the right path, grasshopper.
» Series Three Coming Soon...
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