MB 2013 Playoff Primer

Posted: April 16, 2013 | Author: bristol | Filed under: MB 2013 |Leave a comment »

The second edition (and first with a 16-person field) of MegaBracket playoffs will commence on Sunday and run through the end of June. The 2013 MB champion will have to navigate through four rounds of head-to-head action in order to be crowned ruler of the MB universe for the 2013 season. Let’s take an in-depth look at the 2013 MegaBracket playoffs…

Format

The playoffs will consist of a standard 16-person bracket with the winner of each matchup advancing to the next round. There will be consolation rounds that play out to all 16 places.

Schedule

The four rounds will adhere to the following schedule:

• Round 1 (Block 15) begins Sunday, April 21st and ends Friday, May 10th
• Round 2 (Block 16) begins Saturday, May 11th and ends Saturday, May 18th
• Round 3 (Block 17) beings Sunday, May 19th and ends Sunday, May 26th
• Round 4 (Block 18) begins Monday, May 27th and ends Sunday, June 30th

How to Qualify

The champion of each regular season block qualifies for the playoffs, taking up 14 of the 16 spots. If a block champion has already qualified, then the highest finishing user who has not qualified earns the playoff spot for that block. The champion gets credit for the block win which counts for seeding purposes. The other two spots are filled by the two users with the highest point totals who have not already qualified for the playoffs.

Who’s In

There isn’t any suspense in the final blocks of this year’s regular season as we have not yet expanded past the playoff field. There are 14 users competing with recent regularity and all 14 will claim playoff spots. The final two spots will go to people who were active earlier in the season but have dropped off. If they do not return within the next week there will, for all intents and purposes, be a couple of byes in the first round. The following users have clinched playoff spots:

• Bristol (Block 1 champion)
• Danny (Block 2 champion)
• Doug (Block 3 playoff spot)
• Greg (Block 4 playoff spot)
• mxknkl (Block 5 playoff spot)
• skizzow (Block 6 champion)
• tonewil (Block 7 playoff spot)
• abittner (Block 8 playoff spot)
• Jimmy (Block 9 playoff spot)
• Ryan (Block 10 playoff spot)
• JP (Block 11 playoff spot)
• Bred (Block 12 playoff spot)
• Chris (Men’s D-I Basketball champion)

The final 3 spots will be claimed by the following users:

• MegaBot (Block 13 playoff spot)
• Mattyb22 (Overall standings playoff spot #1)
• NicCage (Overall standings playoff spot #2)

Seeding

Playoff seeding is determined in the following manner:

1. Most block wins
2. Overall points

If the regular season ended right now (as of 4/17 @ 9:11 am CDT)…

1. Bristol (9 block wins, 14,691 points)
2. Danny (2 block wins, 11,748 points)
3. skizzow (1 block win, 9,825 points)
4. Chris (1 block win, 7,915 points)
5. abittner (12,629 points)
6. Ryan (12,598 points)
7. Doug (12,583 points)
8. Jimmy (12,311 points)
9. Greg (11,331 points)
10. tonewil (9,751 points)
11. mxknkl (9,053 points)
12. JP (7,991 points)
13. Bred (4,720 points)
14. Mattyb22 (3,133 points)
15. MegaBot (3,087 points)
16. NicCage (2,356 points)

Matchups

According to the above projected seeding, here are your projected first round matchups…

1 Bristol vs. 16 NicCage

8 Jimmy vs. 9 Greg

5 abittner vs. 12 JP

4 Chris vs. 13 Bred

3 skizzow vs. 14 Mattyb22

6 Ryan vs. 11 mxknkl

7 Doug vs. 10 tonewil

2 Danny vs. 15 MegaBot

Playoff Scoring

Points in non-user vs. user events will be compiled in the same way as the regular season. Points are awarded for correct picks and count towards the round in which the game or series ends. User vs. user events are handled differently since the playoffs are head-to-head rather than all users competing against each other. The playoffs user vs. user events begin with a draft among the two users. Each user submits their draft order and once the pick deadline has passed, the teams are drafted by alternating picks with the higher seeded user earning the first pick. This method ensures no duplicate picks. The head-to-winner earns 16 points and a bonus of 1 point per margin of victory, with a maximum of 16 margin of victory points. The user that selects the champion also earns 16 points. Thus, the head-to-head winner is guaranteed more points, gaining anywhere from 1-48 points on their opponent.

Things to Watch

1. Will MegaBot rack up 47 more points and pass Mattyb22 for the #14 seed?
2. abittner leads Ryan by 31 and Doug by 46 as the #5-7 (or perhaps 6-8) seeds are up in the air.
3. Who will claim the Block 14 title and the succeeding seed bump?
4. Here is the seed bump each user would earn by winning Block 14 (in order of their current place in Block 14):
   1. mxknkl #11 -> #4
   2. Greg #9 -> #3
   3. JP #12 -> #4
   4. Jimmy #8 -> #3
   5. Danny – no bump
   6. skizzow – no bump
   7. abittner #5 -> #3
   8. Bristol – no bump
   9. Doug #7 -> #3
   10. Ryan #6 -> #3
   11. tonewil #10 -> #4
   12. Bred #13 -> #5
   13. MegaBot #15 -> #5
   14. Chris #4 -> #3

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