FF Rules '09: Playoff Bracket

[Zeradul]

4 Team championship makes the regular season relevant for much longer, as every game matters to ensure you make the playoffs....  6 Team bracket often sees teams at or very near 0.500 in the playoffs.

4 team also means:
the regular season is one week longer
the top 8 teams get to "keep playing" during the playoffs, instead of just the top 6 teams

6 team does have two big advantages:
no team is mathematically out until they have lost their 8th game of the year (even chew was not mathematically eliminated until the last week of the regular season this year)
byes are given to the #1 and #2 seeds, which is a very valuable, because they have one fewer game to win in the playoffs

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If anyone has any other ideas, post 'em!

[Mnementh]

I like the 6 team bracket, as it is more inclusive.  This year's playoff race came right now to the very last week of regular season games, with teams that even had non-winning records in the hunt!  I think that made it much more exciting, even for teams who had no chance to make the playoffs cause they could play spoiler.  I believe the more people that make it into the actual playoffs the funner it is.

[Zeradul]

I believe the more people that make it into the actual playoffs the funner it is.

I agree.  (2) 4 team brackets includes 8 teams for both weeks of the playoffs.

The 6 team bracket has 3 playoff weeks.  Week1 sees only 4 teams participate (2 on byes), Week2 of the playoffs sees all 6 play, and Week 3 sees just the championship, and 3rd place contest.  Compared with (2) 4 team brackets that include 8 teams for the entirety of the playoffs.

The only problem with a 6 team bracket is that once you win 8 games, you're in, no matter what, and it kind of makes the regular season less relevant, because in the typical year you only have to go 1 game above 0.500 to get into the playoffs.

Yes, chew would have been mathematically eliminated from a 4 team bracket sooner, but he's still be gunning for 8th place, in order to ensure himself a spot in the consolation bracket, and if he'd have made it, he'd still be playing now.

And lets also remember that last year, Ruck and I placed first and second respectively overall when everything was said and done, despite each of us having relatively poor years.  I went 6-6-1, and I think he went 7-6, but we were both right at 0.500 and barely got it.  We both got lucky to beat DD, and Qbert who had outscored us by 200+ that season, and arguably we shouldn't have even been in the playoffs.  The (2) 4 team brackets makes the regular season games far more important, and it decreases the odds that a poor team getting lucky and sneaking into the playoffs.

[Mnementh]

You're completely missing my point because, as usual, you can't see past your own.  A 6-team bracket gives many more players a chance to win the entire thing.  I don't know about you, but I wouldn't give a shit about the lower bracket in the 4-team bracket, I wouldn't put much effort into that.  With the 6-team bracket, as we have it now, almost the entire league was playing it's hardest all the way until the end...minus Ruck and Spec, who were still making a sport of it, of course.  To me, that is just much more fun. 

So you are not agreeing with me, you just think you are.  A 4-team bracket is lame, as it really only includes the top 4 teams...even with the lower bracket, which as I already stated, just isn't really worth the time.  I loved the down-to-the-wire nature of this years league and that would be completely lost in a 4-team bracket.

[joel]

I definitely prefer 6. Makes for a more interesting playoffs and the playoff race is usually better.

[mystic]

4, because I had no business in any playoff at 7-6!