For the WDL's first season, the league has decided to take a different approach to the way team standings are determined. In the past, Doom CTF leagues such as the IDL have used a win/loss percentage ratio to rank playoff seeding. This system mimics popular sports leagues like the NFL, NBA, and MLB. However, those three sports share one thing in common: ties are either rarely seen or an impossibility. As you may have noticed, this is not the case in Doom CTF.
When putting together our point system, we looked to team sports that may resemble our model more closely. The NHL and professional soccer leagues in particular shared a number of traits with the structure of our game: Games commonly go past regulation and ties at the final buzzer are frequent. Due to this, these leagues have found that ranking teams by a pure win percentage is not necessarily the best way to determine standings. To better represent a team's strength, these leagues have implemented a system where points are awarded based on the results of the game. At the end of the season, these points are added up to determine the teams' standings.
Our Point System Implementation
The standard league CTF game is played in a best 2-out-of-3 structure. When coming up with this model, we considered that the third round is basically Doom CTF's "overtime" as it pushes the game past the 2-round minimum. We decided to design a point system that is simple, makes sense, and awards teams on their in-game performance. Here is the breakdown of how points will be awarded to teams:
2 Round Win = 4 Points
3 Round Win = 3 Points
Tie Game = 2 Points
3 Round Loss = 1 Point
2 Round Loss = 0 Points
Under this system, a total of 4 points are split between both teams no matter what the consequences of the game. This ensures that at the end of the season there will always be the same number of points that teams have received (for this season, there will be a total of 60 points awarded at the end of the regular season). In the event that two teams have an equal amount of points at the end of the season, the typical tie-breaking scenarios will still apply.
Examples
- The Flag Steelers defeat the Killing Browns in a two round game. The Flag Steelers receive 4 points. The Killing Browns receive none.
- The Super Chargers defeat the Berserker Packers in a three round game. The Super Chargers receive 3 points. The Berserker Packers receive 1 point.
- The Doom Raiders and Spread Eagles end three rounds with a tied game. Both teams receive two points.
Your Thoughts
The new point systems should offer incentive for every team to play hard until the end of every round - their playoff lives will depend on it. We'd love to hear your thoughts on the new system. Do you like it or dislike it? How do you expect it to affect the first season?