Playoff Seeding
The reward for hard work during the regular league season is a high seed in the playoff tournament. This will provide home court advantage against all lower ranked opponents. Playoff seeding is based on two kinds of standings; "Divisional Standings" and "League Standings".
Divisional Standings - (ranking within your own division)
Divisional standings are ranked by highest total points earned. Ties in points are won by the team with the highest rating.
League Standings - (ranking verses all teams at your skill level)
The League standings are first ordered by a team's divisional ranking. Teams with the same divisional ranking are then ordered by highest total points for all the "automatic qualifiers". Ties in points are won by the team with the highest rating.
Example: If there are 5 divisions at a skill level, the division winners are seeded 1 through 5. Then all the #2 divisionally ranked teams are seeded 6-10. Then all the #3 divisionally ranked teams are seeded 11-15 and so on. Note: An "automatic qualifying team" with a higher divisional ranking will always be seeded higher than a team with more points and a lower divisional ranking. Example: A number #1 ranked team with 75 points will be seeded higher than a number #2 ranked team from another division with 80 points.
After the automatic qualifiers have been ordered by (division ranking / points), then all remaining teams in the standings are ranked purely based on highest points.
To find out more about our seeding methodology, read Seeding Theory
Seeding the playoff draw
Playoff seeding is determined from your team's league standings. Prior to starting the seeding process, the following teams will be removed from the draw:
- Those who failed to confirm their availability
- Those who designated themselves as unavailable
- Teams where one or both players are playing for the first season and have an inelgible rating
Wild Cards
After the automatic qualifiers have been selected, additional wild card spots are usually awarded at each skill level to the teams with the highest point totals. Your divisional rankings does not factor in to the wild card selection. Wild cards team are based purely on the highest points. Wild cards are awarded only when there are available spots in the draw and teams with sufficient points. Make sure you "confirm your teams playoff availability" so you are eligible for the tournament!
Wildcards are added to the playoff draw for two purposes.
- To balance the brackets of the draw and reduce the number of 1st-round byes.
- To include teams with high point totals that just missed the automatic playoff cut.
Wildcards are assigned after the playoff draws have been prepared. This means potential wild card qualifiers must wait until the draws are published to see if they have qualified for the tournament.
Draw Size
The size of each playoff draw is dependent on the number of teams and divisions at each skill level. A draw can contain anywhere from 2 to 128 teams. When a draw increases to a larger size it will contain numerous "byes" into the next round for the higher seeds.
Note: To maintain the 50% playoff qualifying ratio, "byes" are not free spots to be filled by interested teams but rather the normal result of a draw expanding to the next larger size. Once a draw has been published, it is almost never altered as it would affect seeding positions for the entire draw.
Maximum Draw size
Draws will never exceed 128 teams per skill level. Once these maximum draws sizes have been met no further teams will qualify for the playoffs. This supersedes all Playoff Qualifications. A 128 draw requires 7 rounds to complete which is equivalent to playing an entire new season. A maximum draw size was established to limit the number of rounds and the duration of the playoffs.
Note: Teams who are ranked #140 or more may still qualify for the tournament. Lower seeded teams will move up in the standings due to "ineligible" and "unavailable" teams being removed from the league standings.
Atlanta Women's leagues - will not exceed 64 teams per skill level. A maximum of 64 teams will be eligible from the "Day League" and 64 teams from the "Night league" producing a 128 team draw.