Playoff Format for the Spring 2024 Season

A.            Qualifying

After the regular season is complete, each player will have a total number of league points accumulated for the ten weeks.  The three lowest weekly results for each player will be dropped and the players are re-ranked from top to bottom. The top 8 players play in a PAPA-style Semifinal the Wednesday after Week 10 and the 4 players who make the Final will play the Wednesday after the Semifinal.

B.            Lateness / Absence

Play will begin at 7:30 PM.  Players who qualify for the playoffs will be given a 5-minute grace period after which the playoff rounds within that player’s group will begin without the missing player(s). If it is known that a playoff player(s) will be late then the other players in the group with the missing player(s) will wait for the late player(s) up to 5 minutes. If after a group that started play without a missing player a missing player shows up, that player can play in his/her group starting with the next game (or the current game if the group is just about to start the game or still is on ball 1 of the game) and takes last place in any game that he/she missed.

If one or more players notify the Commissioner in advance that he or she cannot attend one of the playoff nights, then a rescheduling of that group’s play (within reason) will be attempted where all players in the affected group and the Commissioner have to agree on a new date for the matches to be played. If a date can’t be agreed upon, then the matches will be played on their originally scheduled date without the player who can’t attend on that date.

C.            Format

The top 8 players after the reranking at the end of Week 10 will play in a PAPA-style Semifinal in two groups of 4 with each group playing 7 games. Group 1 will be 1, 2, 7, and 8. Group 2 will be 3, 4, 5, and 6. The top seed in each group is the bus driver for the group and always has first choice of the next game to play or position in the next game. In each group, there has to be at least 3 old games and 3 new games played. The 7th game can be either new or old. The next highest seed has the second choice of position or game if it hasn’t been chosen yet. The third highest seed has the third choice of position or game if it hasn’t been chosen yet. The remaining player in the group has the remaining position if all the other positions have been accounted for or game if it hasn’t been chosen yet. If no player wants to choose the game, the Commissioner will choose a game instead. When a game choice is made, a game that has already been played cannot be chosen again unless game breakdowns make that unavoidable (in this case, all available games must have been played first). Scoring is 4-2-1-0. The top two players from each group will go to the Final. Tiebreakers within a group will be played on one of the available games that wasn’t used by that group if there’s time to play a full game. If there isn’t time to play a tiebreaker, then the player (or players, as the case may be) having the highest seed in the group wins the tie.

The Final is played in a similar manner using 6 games. In the Final, 3 new and 3 old games are to be played. Any ties will be handled in the same manner as in the Semifinal.