Chase for the championship
I happened to catch a little NASCAR this past weekend and got the idea to out right steal their Chase for the Cup concept for the fantasy league. The top 16 players at the end of the regular season would be "in the chase" and would then be the only ones picking in a couple special brackets and the player with the top score is the winner.
There would be the normal 17th hall of fame bracket that would determine the points champion. Then there would be two more brackets (18 and 19). The top 16 players would have their scores reset to zero and be the only people picking in these two brackets. The rest of the players would pick the cars that would be in these last two brackets. Each non-chase player would pick any non-Hall of Fame car that they would like to see in the Chase brackets. Out of those cars, 32 would be picked randomly, 16 for each bracket and then seeding, voting and racing would be handled like normal. The player with the most points after those two brackets is series champ.
The whole point to all of this is to keep things uncertain going into the end of the season. Right now there's a point where you mathematically can't really win and this might keep things more interesting through the end, and give more people a chance to be winners as well. Just because you're 11th at the end of the regular season doesn't mean you can't get lucky. And by having everyone else pick the cars, it gives them a reason to stick around until the end of the series and hopefully the entire season.
For each season series there would be two winners:
- The points champion, most points after 17 brackets
- The series champion, most points after 2 Chase brackets
So what do you think? Sound fun enough to give it a try? .....this wouldn't get added until the 2012 season.
Discussion
Any bonus points that can be earned for those last two races, kind of what they do in NASCAR?
You get bonus points there for each race win. Perhaps 5 points for each weekly win during the season, instead of starting with zero. Won't put players too far ahead if they hit that multiple times.
Thanks for the votes of confidence!
@Iowa - I wasn't really thinking about bonus points for the Chase tournaments, since there's only 2 of them. However, the achievements are always "on" so if you happen to unlock an achievement during the Chase brackets those points would go towards your score. ....or maybe I should disable the unlocks for the Chase brackets and just have it be pure bracket pick points? Hmmm
I get it. Hmmm...I'll have to think on that and see how much impact that will have on the programming side of things. Starting at zero made things a little easier for me to create but that doesn't mean this isn't possible. We'll see but I like the idea.
I'm gonna have to disagree on this one. I don't think using an entire season as a qualifier for a two race shootout really makes sense to me. I think a good well played season should be rewarded as just that, not I got close and then got lucky.
All of the info is there to make well educated picks in most races. Granted, some races are a complete toss up, but that's the nature of the game. It all balances out over the season.
Thanks for the input, it's good to hear both sides. No matter what, the features that make it into the 2012 season may change depending on how much I get programmed and what time I have. Some things will get dropped and this could be one of them. Just dunno yet...but...
A season of good picks and a top score wouldn't go unrewarded in a Chase format. Finishing a series with the most points would still get you a trophy. Then there would also be a trophy for the Chase champ. More winners all around.
Right now scoring can be somewhat padded with achievement unlocks. I would turn off achievements during the 2 chase brackets so the scores would be based only on the picks and nothing else.
I just feel that right now by the time you're half way through the season you pretty much know if you'll be winning or even in the Top 5 by the end of the season. I think it's fair to reward those people that played enough to get some points with something a little extra, even if they don't end up winning in the shoot-out.
Even in a shoot-out it's not really about luck. There's a high probability that one of the Top 3 points finishers will end up winning a Chase anyway. A shoot-out shouldn't worry good players, it should be a welcomed challenge. And don't forget I'm hoping to have different tracks by then too, so that should spice things up as well.
A season of good picks and a top score wouldn't go unrewarded in a Chase format. Finishing a series with the most points would still get you a trophy. Then there would also be a trophy for the Chase champ. More winners all around.
That is a good idea! They still get a trophy. With their knowledge of the
racers, they are still a favorite to be Chase Champ as well so they could
win two trophies.
16 weeks (or whatever the season) is a long road to hoe for everybody to make it every race.
A couple missed races really harms ones chances for having a shot. I think it is important
to keep the game interesting for the most players to stick around.
I already started this reply and I don't want to go back and look at your formula but
if it is 16 races and the last two are the race for the chase, maybe that could be adjusted.
I can understand how somebody who is in great shape after 14 races can loose to
somebody who just does well in the last two. I checked the Nascar Chase for the Championship
and if my info is correct, they do 26 races, then the next ten are the Chase. That would be
a ratio of 26/35 or about 5/7 of the season. Maybe we can do 12 races for the top
ten rankings and have a 4 race Chase to the Championship.
I started to plan out some things this weekend and might have a hiccup with the Chase concept.
I spent some time looking over past tournament results and found that because there are so few points in each tournament, a lot of players end up getting the same number of points. Right now the ordering isn't very complicated and if there is a tie it's just alphabetical by name, but when it comes to picking the Top 16 players for a Chase (or even Top 10) the likelihood of that being more than that becomes very real, which will lead to more ties and stuff...stuff that's hard to account for in a systematic game.
I went through probably a dozen tournaments and found there were 15 people in the Top 10 on average, based on points. Maybe I'm overthinking this but it has me concerned, not only for the Chase part but for the wagering feature I'm planning too. I'm going to continue drawing out scenarios but would like your feedback on this given this new bit of data.
Why do you tease us so mister? Sounds good to me...