Forum

The thing is. We do want playoffs, to give everyone a chance to play where he is supposed to be playing next season. You agree with that.

The problem lies here: every season is different regarding dropped teams.
I agree that the skill level of a team ending 7th in div Xa might be totally different from that of a team ending 7th in div Xb, due to a lot of factors. That’s inevitable.

But we can not, and will not, hand pick teams at that stage and say: “You’re a better team than your opponent in the other div, you get a different playoff opponent, or no playoff at all.”

Having that said, we’ll have to treat everyone who ended 7th as equal. The same applies to the top of the division below that ofcourse. So those 4 matchups (talking about div 2-3) will be between a random team from each div.

The one thing that we can do, is hold in account the place you ended when on a promotion spot. An example:
the 7th and 8th of div 4 fight against the 3rd and 4th of div 5 for a div 4 spot. What we’ll do is match a #7 against a #4, and a #8 against a #3.

When a team drops, and there is an open spot, we have to find a way to fit that in the promotion system. (which is the isue you are addressing.)
Now, let’s say we’re missing a #8 from div 2. What i would probably do is (note: just an example): have the #7 from div 2 play a match, the winner stays there, the loser gets into the real promotion/relegation. Those 2 remaining div 2 teams play a div 3 team as planned. the other 2 div 3 teams play eachother for the last promotion spot. (which would be a theoretically easier match than against a div 2 team).

This results in: everyone who deserved a playoff is getting one, noone is getting a free ride or anything. Sure, it would leave a gap in div 3, but im not bothered by that, we will have gaps in any case. More important is that everyone who deserved a playoff will get one.

Now, this is just 1 example of 1 condition. There are many combinations possible of dropped teams for playoff spots. I personally am not willing to think of a system to make that even, as there would be just too much conditions to consider. (several divisions, with possibly uneven amounts of teams dropped). In div 2 this is still overseeable, but as you get lower, it’ll become more of a problem.

I’d much rather think of making playoffs when we get to it. See how much teams dropped, how much are left, and based on that, make the promotion amtch ups. Ofcourse i will still keep in mind as much as possible everything mentioned above. (like the top from div 4 plays the lowest from div 5 etcetera.)

And to add this: Sometimes we need to make a decision: like in the above example of the 1 div 2 team missing we need to decide which 2 div 3 teams get to play eachother. Such decisions will ALLWAYS be done randomly, as we won’t pick our favourites, so to speak. (you can thank random.org for the randomness)

A final note: Yes, once again, this can cause unbalance, better teams in div 3 than in div 2, because they had a bad promotion matchup. But there will always be teams not returning for the next season, and gaps from drops in this season. IF you truly belong in a higher div by the start of next season, the option is always still available.
The one thing we will not do, is deny someone a spot they earned from last season (unless they request it).

EDIT: ow, i wanted this to be shorter, i got a bit carried away :(

div 5/ div 6 was nothing more than an estimated guess for a lot of teams. We did what we could, but having that balanced was an impossibility. Teams there are usually just starting out, so some may improve very fast, while other’s don’t. Also they have no history, so we don’t know how good they are off the bat. The only think we have is the skill level they entered when signing up, and that doesn’t tell us much really :)

That is the reason why we have a bit more aggressive promotion/relegation scheme there. To get the good teams out of the lower divisions quickly.

nono, you misunderstood, there will be MORE playoffs there. Look at the division tables. The green ones are going up a division, the red ones going down. The blue ones are gonna play a playoff match for promotion/relegation.

That’s the reasoning behind it indeed.