Flaw in the promotion rules

daveharnett

I've thought about it a few times, but I thought it might be worth mentioning for the managers here who are in division 4 and 5. The promotion system is flawed.

Let's say you are in division 4. If you finish at the top of the promotion table, you will be promoted to League 1 of division 3, where you will meet the guy who finished top of division 4 last year. And the guy who topped division 4 the year before....

Because of this system, the top few leagues in division 3 and 4 seem to be disproportionately loaded with strong teams. For example, the team currently topping league III.15 would be battling with dreamer_ire to avoid auto-relegation if he were in league III.1

Moral of the story, if you are cruising through your league and near the top of the promotion table, reconsider. Rest a the lads for the last game or two, and aim to finish just above the auto-promotion line. It's difficult to predict quite where you land - some of the people above you could lose their final four knockouts, but it's worth a shot imo.

I think the devs really need to consider either
a mechanism to get teams moving sideways accross the leagues
or
the top team in the promotion table moves into the weakest league in the division above

Looking at my league, I am starting to wonder if my best move might be to get myself relegated, then promoted back to an easier league. I am strong enough to stay up, but I could be here for an awfully long time.

Frankiestylee

Yeah, this does strike me as quite odd and quite annoying. I finished 3rd overall in Div IV and I foolishly (because I never read the fine print) actually chased after the top position. So now I'm in league 3 which is pretty damn difficult, not as bad as league 1 appears, but ouch.

I'm currently in the position where I'm nearly definitely going to get relegated and then try my hardest not to try my hardest and end up in a nice comfy Div 3 league. Still, out of pride or something I'm still fighting for survival! Grrr :pac:

mar-z

It does seem that the promotion system is flawed but I can't think of a much better way. Unless you alternate the league the top promoted teams go into which might even things out a bit eventually.

At the moment I would consider trying to finish in the low autopromotion spots if I could (and if it was relevant to me this season:p)

I'm making a good fist of league III.5 but there are easier divisions I could have ended up in finishing lower last season (I also wish I had one bot team to take it easy against but that is probably asking too much)

Unfortunately I have too much stubborness to ever consider purposely getting relegated than promoted to a different league, although maybe it will happen next season without my help :rolleyes:

dreamer_ire

Couldn't agree with you more Dave. I got screwed by finishing in the position I did which left me in League 1. Being slaughtered and after last weekend's hiding now fully believe that being relegated is the only option for me if I'm ever gonna win a game again!

And btw I am a girl and not a guy!

Frankiestylee

dreamer_ire wrote: »

And btw I am a girl and not a guy!

You'll always be one of the guys here and like it! :P

Some sort of shuffle might be nice, but really, when I think about it... finishing high doesn't mean you're any better than someone lower on the auto promotion table, for example Bogwarriors could give me a hiding any day of the week, yet I went straight into 3 III above him as it were, so, really it doesn't mean a huge amount reeeeally. Perhaps the answer is, as mentioned above, some sort of sideways movement. I dunno how they'd work it, but spreading out the hardcore teams would definitely make for a more enjoyable Div 3. Way better than Div 4 may I add. Though. Yup.

eoferrall

daveharnett wrote:

For example, the team currently topping league III.15 would be battling with dreamer_ire to avoid auto-relegation if he were in league III.1

dreamer_ire wrote: »

And btw I am a girl and not a guy!

YES! someone else made the mistake i made!:o

Oh and yes I agree on the promotion system - oddly enough going for promotion worked for me last season as the last couple of games were against the bottom teams and thus I rested players and so did not rack up high scores (and even managed to lose one!!:eek:) so slide down the promotion table and now am in DIV 14 which i am currently in 3rd and think I will be in top for come end of season. I couldn't purposefully relegate myself if was in a tough... not in my nature!

daveharnett

dreamer_ire wrote: »

And btw I am a girl and not a guy!

Apologies dreamer:o. Boards could really use a little gender icon in the area that has people's signup date, postcount etc.

Frankiestylee wrote: »

Way better than Div 4 may I add. Though. Yup.

It certainly is. I was looking through the fixture list with frankie a while ago. Almost every game in the league has significance for both of us.

daheff

why not randomly assign the division to those promoted...pick the promo/relegation playoff matches similarily?

I agree that the way it currently is means that (for example) DIV III.1 is much tougher than DIV III.20

If the leagues were randomly assigned then it would give a more even distribution of teams across all leagues (but still have some randomly harder/easier- just not so skewed!)