Season 4 ended with a great finals battle between two long-time rivals in PFN and FR. The two teams finished off on top of their respective divisions, but it was FR who took home the title after winning the series in Games 2 and 3. Congrats again to FR and a nice showing by PFN.
Here are the final standings for Season 4:
Eastern PFN 9-1 (39-21) BNR 7-3 (34-26) SPS 1-9 (22-38) UO 1-9 (19-41) | Western FR 9-1 (39-21) 8BC 6-4 (32-28) SS 5-5 (32-28) SP 2-8 (23-37) |
In my opinion (and hopefully it's obvious to others as well), these standings are beyond lopsided.
Before the season even started, I (and I'm sure others) knew exactly how the standings were going to be by the end of the season. The best teams in the division rise to the top, while the lesser-talented teams naturally fall to the bottom as anyone would expect barring some luck.
I'm not trying to discredit the near-perfect records for PFN and FR; both were well-deserved due to nearly flawless game play. But, it was pretty much smooth sailing for the top teams to reach playoffs because the lesser teams in the division just couldn't compete.
And that, in my eyes, doesn't make it very entertaining or exciting not only for me to predict the games, but to watch as well. Wouldn't you rather watch a close divisional match between PFN and FR than watch PFN walk all over UO with ease? (Just using those teams as examples, sorry UO).
Anyways, what I'm trying to say is a heightened level of competition is better for an interleague. For previous seasons, divisions were formed by splitting up the top teams and mix in the lesser teams to fill the slots. Well, this time it's different obviously. I decided to introduce this idea of splitting the teams into divisions based on past-season records and overall ability.
This idea is taking a page right out of UIC's book basically. We have an upper division and a lower division. The returning teams were split based on their Season 4 records: FR (9-1), BNR (7-3), 8BC (6-4), SS (5-5) were all placed in the upper division and UO (1-9), SPS (1-9), SP (2-8) were all placed in the lower division.
This split left one more spot in the upper and two more spots in the lower and DS, EC, REG still had to be placed. Out of those three, I took what I predict would be the best team out of those (EC) and placed them in the upper with DS and REG going to the lower. I mainly chose EC based on how well they fared in the most recent season of PRO with a respectable 7-6 record.
(I don't know the following for fact, but just anticipating the negatives)
Now I understand that this new split is a little controversial and likely might upset a few of the top teams claiming it to be unfair that their team has been put up against the best. To that I would say to be the best you ought to fight against the best in order to claim a spot in the playoffs.
On the other hand, the not-as-talented teams in the upper division (say 8BC and perhaps EC) might be upset because their already counting themselves out and see their is a big hill to climb to make it up to the top of the division. And to that I would say take it as a compliment that I'm thinking you're good enough to compete against the best.
But don't fret, because although we will be keeping this new split idea in place for the next few seasons to see if my theory of heightened competition does hold up, the divisions for the next season will change slightly based on the final standings as follows:
The two upper teams which don't make playoffs will go into the lower division, and the two top lower teams based on record will move into the upper division.
So to wrap this up, I'm not trying to be unfair to the bigger teams and belittle the smaller teams. This new split idea will hopefully bring a sense of excitement within the divisions while evening the playing fields quite a bit. Two 1-9 records in the East and a 2-8 records in the West last season; surely no team wants to go through the experience of a bad season like that.
Please leave your comments here on the post. I'd like to hear all feedback: you're either for or against the idea. Just know that I don't mind any criticism, so let it all out. I'll further explain the reasoning if that's what you need. Thanks.
Welcome back 8BC, BNR, DS, FR, SP, SPS, SP, UO and welcome to WSOP EC and REG.
I won't be doing pre-season rankings, just because I don't really like doing them. I'll try to do predictions every week, but just know that they're not always posted at the same time. I might do all matches a few days ahead, or I might posted 30 min before the game. Either way, they will be done :)
We're looking forward to another successful season. Best of luck everyone!
0 comments:
Post a Comment