League News: 2015.08.17

Update Regarding League Structure for the Coming Season

What’s Needed From the Clubs & Organizers

In order for us to proceed:

1. Evergreen and VRC need to determine whether or not they can field at least 3 Division 4 teams. Perhaps with help from Hollyburn and/or Lawn. Without at least 3 teams, the division is not realistically viable. There appears to be space for 4 teams, but no more.
2. If Division 4 is a go, the clubs need to decide whether or not to use a draft system to produce potentially more balanced and competitive teams. If draft chosen, determine captains, interested players and hold draft.
3. Evergreen needs to make a final determination of how many teams they are fielding, and in what probable divisions.
4. All clubs need to confirm players for each of their teams (see Rule 2 below).
5. League organizers need to confirm teams and players at each club. Ensure players are in the appropriate division (see Rule 2 below). Then build a workable schedule. And, work with SportyHQ to ensure we can use their system to host the league this season.

If you are interested in the reasoning leading to the above requests, please continue reading.

Our Goals

It has always been our primary goal to ensure league matches are competitive, and as challenging as possible for both teams involved (aka Rule 1). As such we have never followed the singles league practice of bottom team going down a division and top team going up a division in the following season. We rely on previous season results for teams, as well as individuals, to evaluate teams for the coming season. We are beginning to use doubles rankings as well but recognize that though the rankings are a reasonable reflection of skill level for many, there is a significant number of players who have inappropriate ranking points.

There is some correlation between doubles ranking and performance in VDSL. That should improve with time and improvements to the ranking system. Club VDSL administrators should be using similar information along with club experience from the previous season to assemble rosters that do not have misappropriated players. Each team should have players of relatively equal ability.

So, in keeping with our primary goal, and the above comments we are adding a second goal, aka Rule 2: everyone should be playing in an appropriate division. That is, no one who shouldn't be playing up a division. And no one playing below their level. Each division should have as evenly matched teams as possible.

Initial Thoughts

Based on the club submissions for teams for the coming season and the absence of Vancouver Lawn from the league we had to make some decisions. Firstly, we felt that with only 2 teams requested for Division 4 (Division 3 last mini season) that said division was not viable. Looking at the remaining teams requested, or likely to be requested, we felt that we would only be able to field 2 divisions this coming season. We split the teams based on their performance last season: Division 1 with 5 teams, and Division 2 with the remainder.

See Alternative 3.1, Alternative 3.2 and Alternative 4.1

See also draft update of August 3rd.

Minor Rethink

Unfortunately, this still meant that there would be some significant difference in calibre between the top and bottom teams in Division 2. Perhaps enough to preclude competitive, balanced, and fun matches each week.

In an effort to get more competitive matches, Lynn suggested we look at 3 divisions of 4 teams each, feeling this would reduce the talent gap in Division 2. To ensure we would have no scheduling issues, we added a rolling week off. That is, each week 1 division would not play. That did extend the season well into April. See Alternative 5.1.

Is Division 4 Possible?

The rolling week off ended up having the effect of opening up court time. Essentially 2 free court sessions every week. Given that both Evergreen and VRC had indicated they wanted to have the Division 4 players playing this season, we looked at what would happen if we added in a 4th Division of 4 teams. Well, really 3 teams, because we don't believe Evergreen and VRC can field 4 Division 4 teams. But, since we already have 2 (last season's Maunder & Whitworth) interested in playing this season, we thought between the 2 clubs, perhaps with help from Hollyburn and Lawn, they might be able to field a 3rd team for the division. This arrangement utilized the available court time more fully, and, perhaps counter-intuitively, made the season a little shorter than Alternative 5.1. See Alternative 5.2

However, if the clubs field the same 3 Division 4 teams as last season, or something similar, we believe there will be a talent gap between the top team and the bottom team. So, we are suggesting that Division 4 use a draft mechanism to build 3 teams made up of interested players from all clubs. This will hopefully create more balanced and competitive teams.

Another Team in Division 1?

There was also some suggestion that Evergreen was interested in fielding a 2nd Division 1 team. This also appears viable. See Alternative 5.3

Note Regarding Schedules as Presented

Please note that the schedules have not been balanced. Too much work for something still in flux. That is, matches shifted to open courts in order to fully utilize available court time. And, some weeks we may not be able to do so, since we can't put two non-member teams into a slot at Hollyburn. So, we will utilize make-up weeks where possible, and/or possibly drop some matches. We also don't know, at this time, whether or not SportyHQ's league scheduling software can handle the rolling week off.