Schedule coming out soon?

I know you guys are busy but it's thursday. I need them to know who where playing so I can spend the next three days begging for a later start time!
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**It's not what you say it's how you say it!**

Refresh!

Refresh what?
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**It's not what you say it's how you say it!**

Ni!

You're stuck behind the fact that I'm a total Thanksgiving prep nub, mate... sorry. This is my first year out on my own, and let's just say I ain't earning high marks so far. I've still gotta prep the stuffing this morning, call my mother at least twice in a panic, and then get the bird on before I can get to East conference. Skeeve said he was doing Central this morning.
Post edited by AlmightyTDawg at 11/25/2004 8:59:48 AM

T u nooblet. Just kidding....Happy Thanksgiving. ya man.

pub* (6,1) is playing PNW (1,6)?

Happy Thanksgiving Almighty and to all others.

Give the poor guys some free time, they work so hard and deserve at least one day off :=]!

Originally posted by: Lefthand<-
pub* (6,1) is playing PNW (1,6)?

wow

nice thats pro

i noticed that too...it will have to be changed especially since its the last week.

I don't think it matters pub star is in the playoffs win or lose and they played some pretty good teams outside their division. they won their playoff berth already . by my rough estimate pubstar gets a bye even if they lost 2-0 and every other top contender won 2-0 only difference would be maybe a seeding difference between 2 or 4. which isnt that great of a difference

the xx513 match on the other hand playing an 0-7 AKT team changes them from an bubble team to an almost guartneed playoff team without playing a real playoff contender in the regular season besides pubstar and (looks like they had a bye in week 2 dont see a venice match result for them here or on etcenter?)
Post edited by OutRun at 11/25/2004 7:01:50 PM

I can't speak to Skeeve and his scheduling style or pressures, but I can give you an idea what's going through my head.

By the end of the season, I more or less want teams to not feel like they got unduly shafted by their schedules. Which means that every team has got to have some matches with lower-ranked teams in the mix to maintain a balance. There's always gonna be some float here and there in the RPI formula based on differing schedules and the interdivision and interconference matchups in particular, but the goal is to not unbalance things too much.

As you get towards the end of the season, the last two weeks are a flurry to decide the tiebreakers. It was my goal to more or less match as many teams for play-your-way-in scenarios as possible, though some teams got it rough. Since those matchups were my priority, and it gets tricky doing them without duplicating matches, I eliminate teams in the order from closest to 4-4 on down. Often, teams that have had tough schedules throughout the season are likely to get an easier matchup, and teams with light schedules should get a tougher match to finish it off.

That will mean you'll get some head scratchers, but honestly we're not trying to run the regular season like an extended playoff. The goal isn't to line up all of our best matchups for this week as much as it is to put bubble teams in control of their destiny and resolve conference championships when possible. In one case, like East/Fourth, all the top teams had already played each other so they weren't going to play each other again. Some of that is spreading around good matchups throughout the season, and some of that is just ending up with the records the way they are - a scheduler can't predict the winner all the time to plan a perfect season.

I personally do a lot of scheduling based on records and an idea of strength of scheduling - it's not like a pre-fabbed schedule at the beginning of the season. To adjust based on results is I think the only way to give most teams a fair shake at the RPI tiebreaker towards the end of the season.
Post edited by AlmightyTDawg at 11/25/2004 6:50:34 PM

anything wrong with completely random matches then? Because if the 30th ranked team is playing the 2nd ranked team with how things are now then i dont think random could be worse. Im sure PNW have enjoyed their scheduling thus far (seems they played the same team twice this season?)

i know the twl admins are awesome and are doing their best but realistically theres no way you can make it "fair" for everyone. What are the arguements against completely random? There would be no one to blame for your schedule then
Post edited by orangeh at 11/25/2004 11:44:33 PM

Originally posted by: orangeh
anything wrong with completely random matches then? Because if the 30th ranked team is playing the 2nd ranked team with how things are now then i dont think random could be worse. Im sure PNW have enjoyed their scheduling thus far (seems they played the same team twice this season?)

i know the twl admins are awesome and are doing their best but realistically theres no way you can make it "fair" for everyone. What are the arguements against completely random? There would be no one to blame for your schedule then

You can get a lot of resentment and backtalk within the community for having a light load. Example, OUF going 7-1 in Season 2 (which I was a part of). My intuition is that people would prefer someone at the reins doing their best to maintain some sort of balance to just a coin flip determining many facets of your season. I could be wrong - I just know how I would prefer it.

The west division always presents its own challenges, and most of them stem from the fact that it never ends a season in anywhere near the form it starts out. Couple that to a number of hassles that come from West teams playing against intransigent Central teams, and eventually you're going to have that matchup. I know there are folks who are used to the season playing out kind of like a playoffs where those matches happen early and the season, and the rest of the season builds up to the playoff-level matches by weekds 6 - 8, but we had resolved to try something else out this season in terms of spreading it out. And with RPI being a major indicator, just getting winnable matches against better than .500 teams is a boon to a team. For balance reasons, the schedulers should be working to get a mix in there. Considering that there are 30 other teams to juggle, all with their own fuzzy "hard" and "soft" schedules, well, sometimes you just go with your gut.

People are welcome to comment either publicly or privately about what you thought of the scheduling in Beta (Skeeve handled Central, I handled East) this season. I'm interested in the feedback for next season.

Originally posted by: orangeh
anything wrong with completely random matches then? Because if the 30th ranked team is playing the 2nd ranked team with how things are now then i dont think random could be worse. Im sure PNW have enjoyed their scheduling thus far (seems they played the same team twice this season?)

"completely random" is going to completely hose some teams, and greatly benefit others. Our policy is to give as many match-ups as possible at a "roughly equal" talent level to your team. We're adjusting it a bit this year by adding in some consideration for the top/bubble teams getting as close to the same number of "easier" and "harder" matchups as possible, for fairness sake.

Consider two 2-0 teams we match up early in the season - one could end up 7-1, and the other could have won the first two matches over very poor teams, and end the season 3-5. The only time you can identify this as a "poor matchup" is late in the season, because 2-0 vs 2-0 looks pretty good at the time.


Durinia
ET Competition Manager - ET Ladders & ET Fortress

only thing i know, we didnt get a break this whole fucking season. Well maybe this last game, but we had to play strong teams everyweek. jesus!!!
shaggy, dead penguins, left, wolfjaeger, sex pistols, rmc, RC. I think strength of schedule should be a major factor for teams on the bubble. Rounds won and loss doesnt mean shit if u only played weak teams imo. Ive noticed teams with 5 or 6 wins that have only beat 1 or 2 good teams. just my 2 cents
Post edited by es!hitman at 11/26/2004 10:30:32 PM

if you check the tie-breaker thread, strength of schedule is now higher on the tie-break list than RW-RL.

Durinia
ET Competition Manager - ET Ladders & ET Fortress