League Format - how to organize 14 teams within 3 tiers

[5000 Years Old Man]

Hello foosers,

So right now in league there are only two tiers.... 7 teams each. I was speaking with a few leaguers about that format, and it was pretty unanimous that there should be a 3rd tier... i.e. a middle tier.

Spoke with Chris Thomas, and he said, "Sure JP, just figure out how to organize it. Organizing 14 teams isn't easy."

So now we just have to figure it out. After speaking with Manny and with James and his team, I think 3-tiered play would go something like this:

Tier one - 4 teams (i.e. 2-team league sheet)
Tier two - 6 teams (i.e. 3-team league sheet)
Tier three - 4 teams (i.e. 2-team league sheet)

For a total of 14 teams...

Every 3 weeks, the top 2 and bottom 2 teams of each tier move up & move down.

I spoke to Chris about this, and he liked the premise but added 2 hurdles i haven't overcome yet:

1) According to the above breakdown, do we have enough tables to play on at Tailgators?
2) "If you play 3 weeks before teams move up & down, how do you determine who plays who in Tier #2 if there are six teams there?"

I put the problem to James and his team, who suggested to do a random draw... a "Draw Your Opponent" (DYO) as it were every wednesday for members of the middle tier.

Any other ideas on how to make a theoretical Tier Two work within a 3-week rotation schedule, given that you wouldn't be able to face each of the 5 teams in that tier?

jp

The simple responses to this are:

1) We have 6 tables and three tiers as shown needs 7 tables for smooth sailings - thus either 7 tables or there will be three-ways in tier 2 each week

2) Never mind the "Draw Your Opponent" (DYO) unnecessary way out. Here:
- At the time of the switch (N-Night) those ranked 1-4 are in tier 1, those ranked 5-10 are in tier 2, those ranked 11-14 are in tier 3.
- After N-Night and each night after just promote the top team and demote the bottom team from tier 2; that again would correspond to a virtual 5th and 10th teams in a field of 14 teams.
- After N-Night demote the 4th from tier 1 and promote the 1st from tier 3

Don’t be ensnared from a theoretical definition of who fits in which tier – “on-paper” rankings are good to get started, but actual performance will move teams around to where they really belong : if they lose ranking they go down, if they gain ranking they go up

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damn medications! each time I look at this above I spot typos and misplaced words