2020 Players Championship Rules

the official tournament of SOM Baseball 20xx

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Mr Baseball World

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2020 Players Championship Rules

PostSun Apr 19, 2020 2:22 am

2020 Players Championship Rules

The 2020 tournament will consist of five events and a two round playoff. In the playoff, the top 36 managers will compete in three 12 team leagues. The playoff teams from those three leagues will become eligible for the Championship Finals. The winner from that final league is recognized as the 2020 Tour Champion.

The score for the qualifying events will be the sum of the best four scores out of the five events. This provides several benefits for the members of the tournament:

-If someone misses Event I, but they still want to join up for Event II, they can do that, and still have a chance of making the playoffs assuming they do not miss any additional events.

-If someone joins for Event I, but misses only one of Events II-V, they are still eligible for the playoffs (assuming they make the cutoff score).

-If someone enters all five events, they benefit from being able to drop their lowest score.

Commissioner

For the 2020 Tour Championship, I will be your commissioner. This year I will also have a board to assist me. The Board members will all be permitted to participate in the tour. I will also be eligible to participate.

As a reminder from JPav’s and keyzick's preamble from past years: I am not an employee of Strat-O-Matic, and while they are generously kicking in prizes for our informal competition, this has nothing to do with the folks at OnlineGameSupport. Do not call, write, email, or telegram them to complain about anything that goes on regarding this tournament. This is not “officially sanctioned” if you will, and Strat-O-Matic is not to be held responsible for anything that we voluntarily organize among ourselves.

Secondly, I am a volunteer. I want to do everything possible to see the Tour Championship succeed. I promise to do everything in my power to see that you have not only a fun experience but an absolutely fair experience. But please try to remember that in the end, I’m doing this in my free time and I ask for just a little bit of understanding when it comes to addressing the individual difficulties that will inevitably arise.

Thirdly, and maybe unfortunately, that means you, personally, might have issues with how this year’s tournament is run. That’s because this is where the “no exceptions” problems meet the “just this once” problems. This is where the one loud screeching voice meets the quiet contentedness of the majority. Having participated in a lot of tour events over the years, I have come to recognize that someone needs to lead. It’s just the way it has to be. This is not a democracy and there will be no votes. I sincerely believe that by trying to please everybody, you end up pleasing nobody. So know ahead of time, I am perfectly comfortable being blamed for decisions some might perceive as unpopular.

Moving forward, now…

Entering Your Teams

This year we will be entering leagues without league assignments. The initial leagues will open typically on a Saturday and I will open new leagues through roughly an 11 day period. At 6 pm EST on the Wednesday deadline to enter leagues, whatever league is open at that point will be the last league. Generally there will only be one league open at that time. The name of the game is to get your teams in early to avoid getting shut out. It is my expectation that no league assignments will result in leagues filling quicker, less waiting for you and less work for me.


Events

Event I: Choice of options ranging from 60M to 120M??
Start Date: May 4 - May18
Deadline to enter team: Wednesday May 13th at 6pm EST(after which time fillers will be employed to close out last league and no new leagues will be formed)
Salary Cap: choice
DH Rule: Yes/No
Free Agent Drop Penalty: 5/10/20

Event II: $80M, DH
DEADLINE FOR TOUR ENTRY
Start Date: June 1 - June 15
Deadline to enter team: Wednesday June 10th at 6pm EST(after which time fillers will be employed to close out last league and no new leagues will be formed)
Salary Cap: $80,000,000
DH Rule: Yes
Free Agent Drop Penalty: 5/10/20

Event III: $60M, no DH
Start Date: July 6 - July 13
Deadline to enter team: Wednesday July 8th at 6pm EST(after which time fillers will be employed to close out last league and no new leagues will be formed)
Salary Cap: $60,000,000
DH Rule: No
Free Agent Drop Penalty: 5/10/20

Event IV: $100M, DH
Start Date: July 27 - August 3
Deadline to enter team: Wednesday July 29th at 6pm EST(after which time fillers will be employed to close out last league and no new leagues will be formed)
Salary Cap: $100,000,000
DH Rule: Yes
Free Agent Drop Penalty: 5/10/20

Event V: $80M, No DH
Start Date: August 24
Deadline to enter team: Wednesday August 19th at 6pm EST(after which time fillers will be employed to close out last league and no new leagues will be formed)
Salary Cap: $80,000,000
DH Rule: No
Free Agent Drop Penalty: 5/10/20



Players are expected to enter one team, and one team only in each event. Each "Event" will have many leagues, to accommodate the large number of players. So Event I will have Leagues 1 through XX (typically seven or so). But you only enter JUST ONE team in each “Event” - not one team in each “League”.

Entry deadlines will be strictly imposed as I’ve outlined. I will retain the right to invoke closure on event entries. I intend to avoid fillers as much as possible, although some fillers obviously will be necessary. Leagues will be set-up as private leagues with password protection. To keep things simple and moving along, the passwords will be posted in the discussion thread set up for each league. The main idea is to prevent accidental team entries for players who are not participating in the tournament. If someone has difficulty entering a password protected private league, please send me a PM or post openly in the forum threads and I will find a solution for you that works.

Point System / Tiebreakers

The point system will be identical to last year’s simplified point system. One regular season win equals one point and one post-season win equals one point. There will be no “bonus” points for this season.

Tiebreakers
1. Championships won
2. Finals made
3. Playoffs made
4. Run differential (four best teams for each manager totaled together)
5. Pick three winner

NOTE: The points accumulated in the semi-finals round will be added to the manager's point total in order to produce the final standings.

Ballpark Requirement

A player must not re-use a ballpark. For example, if he used Fenway in Event I, he may not use Fenway in Events II-V, nor may he use Fenway in any playoff round.

There can be more than one player using the same ballpark in the same event and/or league. For example, player X and player Y may both use Fenway in Event I, League 1 (In theory, the same ballpark could be used by all 12 teams in any league or event). The prohibition relates to the same player using the same ballpark twice during the Tour Championship.

A player who is acting as a "filler" for any particular event and league may use whatever ballpark he wants to use. You cannot impose a “penalty” on a team that does not count in the official standings anyway.

If a player re-uses a ballpark in the qualifying events, there will be a 20 point penalty.


There will be no use of the unleashed player set in any event this year.
The new optional injury system with pitchers also will not be used in any event this year.

Playoffs

Semi-Finals
Top 36 Managers play in three leagues of 12
(All 12 playoff qualifiers advance to Tour Champions League)
Start Date: November 9
Salary Cap: $80,000,000 (standard)
DH Rule: Yes (standard)
Free Agent Drop Penalty: 5/10/20

There will be a one round draft for unique ballparks to be done on the forum boards. The draft order will be the order of finish in tour points. Since each semi-finalist will have already used five different ballparks in Events I-V, they may not re-use those ballparks in the semi-finals. So, if a manager is picking 12th for the live ballpark draft in the semi-finals, he will have to choose from one of the 14 remaining ballparks (30 minus 5, minus 11 ballparks already drafted in that semi-final event).

Champions League
The 12 Semi-Finals playoffs qualifiers in a single 12-team league
Start Date January 25 or February 1
Salary Cap: $80,000,000 (standard)
DH Rule: Yes (standard)
Free Agent Drop Penalty: 5/10/20

There will be an eight pick live draft for the Tour Championship, consisting of seven players and a ballpark, to be done on the forum boards. The draft will NOT be serpentine for the finals - i.e., the draft order will be repeated in each round. These "seeding" rules for the draft order provide an incentive and a reward for the managers who finish with the highest scores in Events I-V.

Reference is made to the slight change in the point system, adding points accumulated in the semi-finals round to the manager's points total from the qualifying rounds. This will effect the final overall standings, impacting the order of picks in the live draft for the Champions League.

Penalties

Salary Dumping: If a manager drops his team salary below 90 percent of the original starting salary, please report this to me immediately. I will ask OnlineGameSupport to return the team to its previous state above 90 percent and lock the manager out. If this situation occurs with the same manager twice, that manager will be disqualified and prohibited from participating in any future 2016 Tour events.

Once official play begins, failure to observe the rules against re-using ballparks in the playoffs will result in disqualification from the tournament. However, if the error is detected early enough to be corrected by OnlineGameSupport before the beginning of official play, then the manager will not be disqualified. He may, however, be publicly shamed and/or ridiculed.

There is no "super reliever" penalty. For those new to the tour, there was a time when we imposed a 200 inning maximum on any relief pitcher. That penalty is no longer pertinent.

Other

Communication

Most of our communication, signups, etc. will be held on the Players Championship forum, and by occasional private messages. For transparency on overall league matters, let’s discuss things in the forums. For matters pertaining to an individual situation, question, or problem, please use the PM button (personal message).

Money

The only monetary requirement for the 2016 Tour Championship is to purchase your required number of teams (no less than four, no more than possibly seven). Buying the five-pack option would be a good value purchase.

Use of Fillers

Some qualifying leagues for an event will need "fillers" due to the fact that we won't have an even numbered membership (divisible by 12) and we will probably have some "dropouts" during the season. "Fillers" are generally non-tournament players who will play in the qualifying leagues solely for the experience of playing against tour-level competition. "Fillers" can also be tournament players who will play in an extra league just to fill out the league, but whose score for that league will not count toward their official tournament standings. For such filler managers, only their first team entered in an event will count for points. I intend to NOT use tour participants as fillers, if at all possible.

Further clarification:

In Event One, "Fillers" are actually "replacement managers". Anybody who has a team in Event One is entitled to the points they earn, even the replacements. They are now part of the tour and may continue to play as if they entered via the sign up page, although they are not obligated to continue (as in fact, no one actually is). The risk of entering as a filler is that if all managers who signed up would have entered their teams on time, the managers acting as fillers would not be eligible to be put into a league and would miss out on that event. However, if they get their team entered when requested, they are now for all intents and purposes, tour participants.

The same situation is basically in effect for Event Two. I will simply replace the missing managers names on the sign up sheet with the replacement managers, and I will recruit a new batch of "fillers". I will run the randomizer and make league assignments, and any no-show managers will again be replaced, and any replacements then become eligible tour participants.

After Event Two, because you need scores from four qualifying events to advance to the semis, any "fillers" who are participating for the first time are true "fillers" only and are not eligible to reach the semi-finals.

There is always a bit of attrition during the course of the tour. There will not always be a number of managers cleanly divisible by 12. The league has to be filled somehow, so in the end, yes, a manager with no ability to reach the Tour playoffs can siphon off wins from the qualified managers. However, that doesn't prevent any manager from the opportunity to notch his own wins.

I have no control over who wants to be a filler and my singular goal is simply to see the leagues filled in a timely fashion.

Catastrophic Events

In the event there is some malfunction with the game, the official SOM Online results will be final. If OnlineGameSupport remedies a situation with some sort of re-play, again, the official SOM Online results will be final.


PRIZES


To be determined.


*************************************************************
Please post your questions here, on this thread!

Welcome to the official 2018 Player's Championship Tournament!


A big thank you to GBrookes, JPav and keyzick for not only running a great tournament , but also for providing a solid foundation.
Last edited by Mr Baseball World on Wed May 19, 2021 8:01 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Mike1241

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Re: 2020 GrimmPlayers Championship Rules

PostTue May 19, 2020 5:53 pm

Barbara 1957
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Mr Baseball World

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  • Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2012 4:17 pm

Re: 2020 Players Championship Rules

PostWed May 20, 2020 1:35 pm

Jump into a league if you haven’t already
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STEVEPONEDAL

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Re: 2020 Players Championship Rules

PostSun May 24, 2020 5:39 am

Mr Baseball World, Are any of the events have a live draft? Thanks
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Mr Baseball World

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Re: 2020 Players Championship Rules

PostSun May 24, 2020 9:21 am

I am setting up a couple of live drafts with 90 second time limit for the next event. Not sure if they will fill or not. One will be for Tuesday night and one for Wednesday night. They would be done in roughly 2 hours. If both fill I will set up at least one more. After I see how that goes I may do some for other events.
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DaHummer

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Re: 2020 Players Championship Rules

PostWed Sep 02, 2020 5:15 pm

Can we get a rule clarification?

Is it required that we have 5 pure relievers on our roster?

If yes, where was this stated? I couldn’t find it?

Thank you,

Sam
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ScumbyJr

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  • Joined: Wed Dec 11, 2013 11:55 am

Re: 2020 Players Championship Rules

PostWed Sep 02, 2020 9:00 pm

DaHummer wrote:Can we get a rule clarification?

Is it required that we have 5 pure relievers on our roster?

If yes, where was this stated? I couldn’t find it?

Thank you,

Sam





It is a DRAFT requirement, not a final roster rule.
https://365.strat-o-matic.com/help/rules/baseball

"Draft requirements

Your draft requirements vary slightly depending on which Player Set you're playing. Click on your Player Set below to show your requirements. Note that these are the same as the requirements for your roster during the season.

Notable changes for 2018 Season and beyond

- Starting with the 2018 season, the minimum roster size during the season has been raised to 25 players (formerly 24), and the valid range of the number of pitchers you can/must carry during the season has been changed to 11-14 (formerly 10-12).

- Shohei Ohtani (2018) and Michael Lorenzen (2019, Baseball Daily 2020)) have two separate cards - one as a pitcher, and one as a hitter. Only one of them may be owned and played at a time. However, if you own one of their cards, you have the exclusive option of dropping it and picking up the other one, though it would count as a regular free agent transaction, including drop penalty.

2019

You must have at least 25 players and no more than 28 players.
You must have at least 13 and no more than 17 hitters.
- At least two of those hitters must have catcher as their primary position.
You must have at least 11 and no more than 14 pitchers.
You must have at least 5 pitchers who have starting pitcher Endurance ratings (e.g. S7).
You must have at least 5 "pure" relievers (i.e. a relief rating (e.g. R2) but no starter rating).
You must have at least 1 pitcher who has a closer Endurance rating (e.g. C4)."
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Apollo 21

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Re: 2020 Players Championship Rules

PostSat Sep 05, 2020 7:07 pm

"Draft requirements

Your draft requirements vary slightly depending on which Player Set you're playing. Click on your Player Set below to show your requirements. Note that these are the same as the requirements for your roster during the season."

There is a second section of the rules that lays out the in-season roster requirements (separately from the draft requirements), and it states that 5 pure relievers are required at all times.

Also, https://stratomatic365.fandom.com/wiki/Bullpen_v3 says that "The Pure Reliever requirement has been raised by 1 (from 4 to 5 for modern seasons beginning with 2019; from 3 to 4 for ATG 9 and beyond)."

This clearly was intended to be a rule that would apply throughout the entire season. It wouldn't make sense to distinguish between the draft and the regular season for this purpose. I can't find it now, but I swear that shortly after the 2019 card set was released, someone contacted SOM about this issue (teams ending up with only 4 pure relievers), and it was supposedly fixed. But it seems the bug that allows teams to roster only 4 has persisted...

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