The WDL's point system is one of the league's flagship features, having done a good job at ranking teams' performances since its beginning, but after much reflection, I believe it has some room for improvement.
Proposal:
Winning points are increased by 1. That would mean 3-round wins award you 4 points, whereas 2-round wins award you 5 points. The points awarded in other case scenarios remain the same.
2W: 4 pts -> 5 pts
3W: 3 pts -> 4 pts
T: 2 pts
3L: 1 pt
2L: 0 pts
Rationale:
Wins in the WDL aren't rewarded enough. Conversely, you could say ties and losses are rewarded too much, but since those are already the lowest possible integers, it's more intuitive to work with the winning numbers instead. Here is a couple of examples to illustrate my point:
Team A wins a match on 3 rounds, but then loses two other games on 2 rounds, ending up at 1-2-0 (3 points). Team B loses all three games on 3 rounds each, ending up at 0-3-0 (3 points). Anyone would say that Team A deserves to be ahead of Team B because they won one game while Team B lost all three, but they are both tied thanks to the point system as it is right now.
Team A wins 3 matches on 3 rounds, but then loses 2 matches on 2 rounds, ending their season at 3-2-0 (9 points). Team B ties all five matches, ending at 0-0-5 (10 points). You can say Team B didn't lose any matches, but they haven't won any either. Team A, on the other hand, worked their way to win more games than they lost. However, because of the current point system, Team B actually pulls ahead of Team A, because wins aren't valued as much as they should be!
Pros:
- Teams on the upper echelon don't have to worry as much about lower teams using points from ties and 3-round losses to catch up to them;
- Lower teams have accentuated focus on nothing short of winning to pull through;
- Two ties still equal a victory, but not a flawless 2-round win, accruing more value to 2-round wins in general, and rendering ties slightly less valuable and desirable (but not too much).
Cons:
- Games would provide 5 points in total, but ties would still only provide 4. That's not uncommon in certain sports, though.
Feedback is much appreciated, of course.
