Top team in each division earns a first-round bye.
The Appetizer
With only two days left in the regular season, there is still very little that is guaranteed to happen. In one division, where three teams pulled away early, one of three teams has faltered losing three in a row. Another team that started 0-4 has won three in a row over that same stretch. If the steaks continue, the former divisional giant will be ousted from the playoffs on the very last week of the season by the team that started 0-4.
The Main Course
Like I said. That first division is fairly wrapped up. The other division is where the real fun is at. One team is 10-8. Three teams are 9-9. The last three others are 8-10. The two highest-scoring teams in the whole league are in this division, yet they both have losing records outside of the division.
Of the three 8-10 teams, two were statistically eliminated on tie-breakers before the week started, but one of them still had a chance to make it. They won't. They're getting killed this week, but in fifth place entering the week, the fact is that they still had a chance to make the playoffs. That, in and of itself, is interesting.
The 10-8 team is going to lose badly to one of the 9-9 teams, which will cost him the first-round bye on a tie-breaker. But what's more amazing is that a win by all three of the 9-9 teams will force the 10-8 team out of the playoffs on tie-breakers; from first to fourth in one week. Currently, two of the three 9-9 teams are winning. The other is losing their matchup by only a slim margin, which means anything is still possible.
Dessert
But of all of plot lines that have played out, the two most insane pieces of the puzzle are these:
1) If things end how they are now, those two teams that are the highest scoring in the league will both be eliminated from the playoffs.
2) The team that's about to steal the first round bye in that second division started the season 1-4 but managed to come back despite having a team built around Ben Sheets, Rich Harden, Coco Crisp, & Aubrey Huff.
Let's see a roto league come up with action like that...
Good luck with your post. You're gonna get hammered. Roto players dominate on the forum, and they don't like excitement. If the best team wasn't coronated in July then they aren't happy.
H2H is a joke. "Yeehaw, I won a championship despite placing sixth in the regular season." Now that was hard-earned, wasn't it? I would have no trophy than one more or less won because of luck. I don't get how people can justify it by saying it's like "real" baseball. This isn't real baseball. It's not even close to real baseball. How can people actually enjoy playing a "regular season" which basically determines which teams have the privilege of participating in the season-ending roulette also known as the playoffs? How are a few weeks of games a better indicator of the best team than all the games? Why don't we base the championship on games in May (rhetorical question, thank you)? A better name for H2H would be "Best Team in September Wins."
You might say, "Well, the best team is the one that pulls out the win when it counts." What? Like somehow we can step up our team's production in crunch time? I didn't even know my cheering had such effect. Just because **** happens in the real playoffs doesn't mean that should happen in fantasy. Take a good look at fantasy baseball. It in no way resembles the real game of baseball, other than the fact that it uses its stats. How does adding playoffs make it so much closer to real baseball? Life isn't fair, blah, blah, blah. Why do we want to extend this nonsense to our hobbies?
Even the regular season in H2H is a joke. How many times does one good game or poor start swing the weekly score from 8-2 to 5-5 or some such number? All wins in H2H are not equal. A team could look like it's dominating, when in reality a few numbers here and there have turned it from mediocre to great. I suppose H2H is great if you want to inject even more luck into the results. Sure, some luck adds some variation to the game, and we'll never be able to eliminate it completely (nor would we want to), but H2H takes it too far.
Everyone always gripes when teams win or lose in an undeserving fashion. Oooh, but let me go check my H2H league where I won because I started Joe Noodle-Bat since my starter had the day off, and he hit two homers. You could just as easily be losing because of similar circumstances, but you feel you earned this victory? It's mind-boggling. Roto is an elegant game for a more civilized age. It's not as clumsy or random as H2H. The winner is clear, and we have a fair indication that the owner earned at least some of that victory, which is more than I can say for the exceedingly random H2H.
And for the record, no, I'm not a bitter H2H loser.
Awesome situation JT. Thats why I love h2h as well. h2h=fun=why I play fantasy sports. In my league I'm sitting in 4th now and I have to play 3 of the other top 5 teams in the next 4 weeks. Should be interesting.
And submariner, I respectfully disagree with you. I think you are exaggerating the luck factor quite a bit. (And yes, I happened to get my tail kicked last week by the last place team. ) Luck will obviously affect your matchups, there's no refuting that. But over the full season the best teams are still at the top. Of course, the playoff system isn't a very good measure of the best team, but thats what the regular season does. Regular season of h2h is like the full season of roto, the playoffs are just icing on the cake and a possibility for a lower team to gain some bragging rights. (Which also helps keep the league more active as more teams have a great shot at winning up until the very end.) H2H leagues that play for money should either award the regular season winner more, or equal to the playoff winner.
In one of my keeper leagues, we have a real logjam as the top 8 teams are all within about 15 games. Playoff situation is still up in the air and everyone is really enjoying it.
H2H demands much more flexibility and a willingness to retool. Strategy-wise, I like the added nuances in H2H that aren't in roto. But as long as you have fun in whatever league you're in, that's the most important.
Each to their own i guess, i find H2H incredibly dull because for the majority of the time it feels no better then a coin toss game.
How can you care who wins or loses a single weeks, it's just random.
Like the original poster pointed out, a 7 team devision ranging from 10-8 to 8-10. So basically two results for any team would completely change their position. You can't have a more luck based game then that. Just hollow victories and meaningless losses, thats all H2H is.
Last edited by United_I_Stand on Sat Aug 12, 2006 3:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
United_I_Stand wrote:Each to their own i guess, i find H2H incredibly dull because for the majority of the time it feels no better then a coin toss game.
How can you care who wins or loses a single weeks, it's just random.
Like the original poster pointed out, a 7 team devision ranging from 10-8 to 8-10. So basically two results for any team would completely change their position. You can't have a more luck based game then that. Just hollow victories and meaningless losses, thats all H2H is.
H2H requires no less skill than roto. If you think it does, you'll get clobbered. The fact that one team is 10-8 and the other 8-10 has far more to do with skill than luck. Why you have a need to put down H2H and those who play it is beyond me.
Cafe Home
Fantasy Football
Fantasy Basketball
Fantasy Hockey
by JTWood » Sat Aug 12, 2006 12:17 am 
I would have no trophy than one more or less won because of luck. I don't get how people can justify it by saying it's like "real" baseball. This isn't real baseball. It's not even close to real baseball. How can people actually enjoy playing a "regular season" which basically determines which teams have the privilege of participating in the season-ending roulette also known as the playoffs? How are a few weeks of games a better indicator of the best team than all the games? Why don't we base the championship on games in May (rhetorical question, thank you)? A better name for H2H would be "Best Team in September Wins."
) Luck will obviously affect your matchups, there's no refuting that. But over the full season the best teams are still at the top. Of course, the playoff system isn't a very good measure of the best team, but thats what the regular season does. Regular season of h2h is like the full season of roto, the playoffs are just icing on the cake and a possibility for a lower team to gain some bragging rights. (Which also helps keep the league more active as more teams have a great shot at winning up until the very end.) H2H leagues that play for money should either award the regular season winner more, or equal to the playoff winner.
