The Pool Play Ranking Criteria determines the order in which the teams are seeded for Bracket Play.
The PlayFPN seeding and tie-breaker criteria:
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Total Number of Wins, followed by
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Winning Percentage, followed by
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Average Runs Allowed (total runs allowed / games played), followed by
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Average Runs Scored (total runs scored / games played), followed by
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Season Points that are earned prior to the event being played, followed by
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Date/time the team registered in the system for the season (Ascending).
Head-to-Head is used only in situations where only two teams are tied at any level in the tiebreaker chain. If more than 2 teams are tied in any criteria, then head-to-head is ignored.
Common Example:
- Teams A, B, and C are tied for the Total Number of Wins. No Head-to-Head is used and the system moves to Winning Percentage.
- Teams A, B, and C are still tied at Winning Percentage. No Head-to-Head is used and the system moves to Average Runs Allowed.
- Team C allowed an average of 2 runs. Teams A and B are tied allowing an average of 3 runs. Team C is seeded ahead of teams A and B.
- Since teams A and B are the only 2 teams remaining and are tied at Average Runs Allowed, Head-to-Head is looked at between those two teams only.
- If teams A and B never played each other, the system moves on to the next criteria in the tiebreaker chain, Average Runs Scored.
- However, if teams A and B played each other, Head-to-Head is used and the winner of the Head-to-Head game is advanced ahead of the loser of the Head-to-Head game in the final seedings.
- Teams that move ahead via Head-to-Head are noted in the seeding table with an asterisk.
In the case of teams that play an unequal number of pool games due to a situation such as weather, each criterion is always an average (ex: total runs allowed divided by the number of games played). This is how we can most fairly deal with a situation where the weather does not allow all teams to play the same number of games. However, the first criterion is important as teams with a higher number of wins, but an identical winning percentage, will be placed ahead in the seedings.
In the case where a team plays an extra pool game above the norm due to an uneven number of teams in 3-game pool play, their worst result is removed from the standings. The game will count for the opponent but not for the team that had its result removed. Head-to-head will be nullified for a team whose results were removed.