Warrior General Games

http://glb2.warriorgeneral.com/game/league/55

What a perfect microcosm

Originally posted by Laggo
http://glb2.warriorgeneral.com/game/league/55

What a perfect microcosm

I don't see anything wrong. Looks like a fun, very competitive league. That struggling division makes the other two divisions very interesting. Even the bad division has an interesting race going on for the division winner.

Originally posted by Laggo
http://glb2.warriorgeneral.com/game/league/55

What a perfect microcosm

That's how it is in real life. Some divisions suck and others have great teams. The ladder games even it out.

I'd have no issue with "re-seeding" leagues each season.

best regular season league record goes in Alpha
2nd best up goes in Beta
3rd and 4th go in gamma
5th goes in beta
6th in alpha

and continue seeding based on previous seasons league record.

I'd say: tie breaker goes by ladder ranking (if you don't care about ladder...no problem - it isn't a huge deal)

A new team added to the league who went 14-0 the previous season might get #1 rank (depending on tie breakers)

Leagues generally keep the same rivalries
Division rivalries aren't lost completely
Leagues will be somewhat balanced

And: some team who is stuck with a really, really good team in their division isn't doomed for life (which sometimes leads to re-setting) - they would have a chance at division titles (at least) each season in a sense.

Looks like everything right with leagues.

I mean, every team in the league besides the CPU teams is competing for a playoff spot.

Compared to your utopia, where half the league is just completely out, and the other half is nearly guaranteed a playoff spot without trying.

GLB2 leagues are set-up perfectly, no more sleeping through the regular season like in GLB1.

Originally posted by Corndog
I mean, every team in the league besides the CPU teams is competing for a playoff spot.

Compared to your utopia, where half the league is just completely out, and the other half is nearly guaranteed a playoff spot without trying.

This

Originally posted by Laggo
http://glb2.warriorgeneral.com/game/league/55

What a perfect microcosm

perfect example of how a league SHOULD look like

Originally posted by Laggo
http://glb2.warriorgeneral.com/game/league/55

What a perfect microcosm

It's not the first league that will have a playoff team with a losing record. It won't be the last.

Ya just kinda have to hope that attrition removes enough bad teams that by the time we get to veteran all the leagues that survive are better balanced.

but it only looks competitive by accident right? is the goal to have a smaller gap between the best teams and the worst overall and get balance in that manner? Typically the idea that any team can beat any team is what creates suspense relative to the season's outcome in an ideal state.

that league has a wide distribution between the good and the bad, and I suppose that when one considers the teams in the worst division play each other twice it's probably even more spread that the standings appear.

if all the teams were in one division and the 4 best teams emerged that would have an 8-1 team a 3 way tie for second and then two teams looking to get into the playoffs needing a loss by the best teams - the'd presumably have slightly different records if the schedules were balanced etc. but the only teams totally out of it would be the worst teams in the league. The stark dire wolves would be 'barely alive' as they are now

the only thing the current league does it give the worst teams, in this particular case, a shot at the playoffs that is considerably better than the 6-3 or 5-4 teams ... I guess it keeps the worst teams more interested and that's their reward for being lucky enough to be in the worst division I guess.

it's inherent in the divisional structure as long as you have unbalanced schedules.

but if you want only the best to be able to enjoy the playoff race then the more divisions you have the more likely this kind of distribution is likely to happen

I am all for having a 16 team league, with 4 divisions, 3 week playoff, 4 division winners and 2 wild card teams, giving the top 2 teams a bye in the 1st round. The top teams should get a reward for having such a great season. And, give them some kind of energy boost for their first playoff game because they got to rest.

Or you can keep the 12 team league and go with 4 divisions of 3.

Currently:
14 games; everybody in your division twice (6) and everybody in the other divisions once(8).

New Format:
(16 team league) 13 games; everybody in your division twice (6) and 7 random teams from the other 3 divisions.
(12 team league) 13 games; everybody in your division twice (4) and everybody in the other divisions once(9).

I have heard 2 main complaints about this structure:

1. Time/dates are already set; this would allow no changes to dates
2. You wouldn't play everybody in the league. Yeah...so what. Everybody in college or the NFL doesn't play every other team. If you are good enough, you will play the best in the playoffs and the championship game. If you keep it at 12 teams and move to 4 divisions, you would still play everybody once.

What Rom_Fox said. Uneven distribution is inevitable. Even if you make an effort to appropriately seed teams based on some previous results metric, you're still going to deal with the fact that some teams radically change in the offseason for the better or worse, or sim changes will sway the fortunes of teams. There will still be divisions that are weaker, and other divisions that look stacked.

Divisions are vastly more interesting than a single league with the top 4 records from a round-robin schedule making the playoffs. Trying to seed the divisions to get results that would compare to a single league round robin is a "no-fun" idea.

I'd go with 16 team league and NFL style playoffs. 16 teams is an NFL conference.

But the big thing is giving the top two teams a bye helps filter out the occasional bad teams so that when it comes time to seed 1-4, you're prolly looking at the 4 best team in the league.

Originally posted by Xavori
I'd go with 16 team league and NFL style playoffs. 16 teams is an NFL conference.

But the big thing is giving the top two teams a bye helps filter out the occasional bad teams so that when it comes time to seed 1-4, you're prolly looking at the 4 best team in the league.

This is how GLB1 was setup. You then played a round robin with your division and a single cross conference game against the other half of the league. The 2 game playoff instead of 3 game playoff also shortens the season, especially the part of the season that sucks if you're not in the playoffs.

They specifically used the current format to "shorten" the seasons by a couple games, and tester feedback encouraged the way it's setup now.