Why do we need playoffs?

[Cult of Dionysus]

I have no issues for H2H. I’m just saying it be interesting to do a regular season only league.

[sloth8u]

there are a few around here that would be game for this, but the reality is....it would be tough to play a dynasty league this way.

why would top teams ever rebuild? why would bottom teams continue to play when they are that far off the pace of the league leaders? you get the idea here....when your playing for total points, things look alot different when you go team to team in a league.

there has been some chatter every now and then about a league with no trades or limited time for trades....i think this would be a perfect format for something like that....but again, getting owners to commit that long would be the challenge.

[Cult of Dionysus]

Um, not sure what you all may have thought I said, but I’m not talking about a points league here. Just that there’s no playoffs. Meaning you play your 17 H2H matchups, and whatever team ends up with the best record, gets the championship. Total points brake any tie. Kinda similar to how Europeans soccer leagues do it, except of course Champios League.

[jimmy jr.]

Yes, playing the game is what makes it fun. Back in the day , 27 or so years ago , in the infancy of our dynasty league , we played for point total at the end of the year , yes, usually the best overall team ( aside from injuries ) won , BUT , we wanted to be more like the NFL with a field goal , ect. wins it in the end for the underdog team. It all depends on what the league owners decide & what you are happy with in the end I guess. OK , just saw what you mean 17 games , well , still I think most leagues are trying to mimic NFL as much as possible . Lots of different ways to do it & try something new if you want.

[DLF3000]

Um, not sure what you all may have thought I said, but I’m not talking about a points league here. Just that there’s no playoffs. Meaning you play your 17 H2H matchups, and whatever team ends up with the best record, gets the championship. Total points brake any tie. Kinda similar to how Europeans soccer leagues do it, except of course Champios League.

Then this is basically a H2H/roto hybrid. You just skip the high unpredictability of the playoffs, deferring to the somewhat more predictable standings (a roto-style thing) for the champion.

I'm sure it would work fine if everyone was on board, like most alternative formats.

[M-Dub]

This really isn’t as much of an “all or nothing” situation as a lot of people make it out to be. In my league, I think we’ve found a pretty great middle ground between the fluky, “any given Sunday” element of a traditional fantasy schedule and the boring, clinical nature of an all-play/total points type of schedule.

We play 11 weeks of double-headers, so all 12 teams play each other exactly twice, for a balanced, 22-game regular season schedule. This leaves us five weeks for the playoffs, where we have a one-week quarterfinal, followed by a two-week semifinal and a two-week championship.

This model has reduced fluky outcomes enough to satisfy the owners who were frustrated by the randomness of the traditional model, while retaining enough of the “any given Sunday” H2H vibe to satisfy owners who prefer that model.

It seems like whenever this topic comes up, the defenders of the traditional model always run out to the opposite extreme with arguments like “well, if you hate flukiness and luck so much, just do an all-play league or a 17-week accumulation of points.” While that would indeed bring us as close as possible to completely eliminating luck/flukiness/random chance, that’s not really the outcome we’re looking for. The goal is to try to reduce flukiness (not eliminate it altogether at the expense of fun) so that this game feels a little more skill-based.

[Walter W.]

When we set ours up we wanted H2H matchups and playoffs, but wanted to try and take some of the luck out of three weeks of playoffs deciding it all. We went with a hybrid approach: regular season is normal set your roster play, and then for the playoffs it's best ball. Still allows for everyone to have a shot at the playoffs and keep more teams interested longer. When the playoffs roll around, teams with deeper/better rosters have an advantage. But even then the stronger team on paper can lose if the other team has a great week, or the stronger team falters. Also promotes building a better/deeper roster instead of just trying to have the best starting lineup.

Seems to have worked well for us and the owners like it.

[Friction]

We do it in my big redraft league and I like it A lot, but think for Dynasty I prefer keeping the playoffs. In my redraft, we pay weekly top 3 scores, so it keeps everyone engaged thru week 17. Then, top 6 regular season teams hold a NFL playoff snake draft among actual NFL playoff teams and we play with the transaction money from the year ($5 a pop), which is usually a very large number too. It is my only redraft league and I like the variety of it.

[jordanzs]

I would like to see a playoff system with a “virtual home field advantage”:

Meaning once the regular season is over, you take your average points per week and divide that by 2. That’s your adjusted home field advantage bonus. And in each playoff matchup, it’s added to your score of the week.

And in round 2 of the playoffs (or round 1 if it’s a 4 team playoff), the #1 seed gets to choose which 2 of the lower seeded teams he will face. And the #2 seed gets to play the other team.

This is what I ABSOLUTELY HATE in 4 team playoff leagues:

The 2 best teams are in 1 conference. Meanwhile conference #3 sucks donkey balls. The #1 seed team is penalized by having to play the 2nd best team who was the wildcard. Meanwhile the 2 seed gets a cakewalk.

[ajmyk]

It's not really about the fun, you will need to think about incentives for the remainder of the league falling quickly out of contention. In a 18 teams league, you'll probably be down to a top 3-4 teams contending half the way, and 14-15 teams already with no interest in the game.
Even if everyone is keeping a good faith, they won't really be motivated.

Yeah soccer leagues in Europe use this system, but they fight for European spots in the upper part of the league, and for avoiding relegation in the second half.
USA sports leagues are closed so they need at least a play-offs system to keep most of the teams in the game.

And fantasy leagues are more of the US model

[theone]

I played in a league where half the pot went to regular season and half to the playoffs. Really liked it a lot. Rewards having a really good team as well as giving people a chance to cash in if somebody is running away with it.

This is my favorite type of solution. Best teams rewarded for great season with chance for big portion of prize pool. Mid-level teams have motivation until end of year to shoot for playoffs.