CPL General

[shorty]

This is a clever ploy to help Canadian curling fans understand soccer.

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

Not a fan of the new format.

I like my brackets classic.

[ATM]

2 hours ago, Aird25 said:

The top 4 were well ahead of the pack, and only 3 points separated them. With this format Valour would have been a playoff team last season, with a record below .500. Why is this change needed?

Seems like the CPL have hired baboons from the MLS.....8 yeams in the league and like the MLS, almost every team makes the playoffs.????

[Watchmen]

3 hours ago, Pottsy3 said:

Playoffs seem to be a rather sore topic for anything football-related, but I rather like this format.

The biggest issue with an 8 team league with no pro/rel imo is keeping games competitive and entertaining until the end. In European tiers, you see bottom dwellers fighting to stay promoted, top teams fighting for champions league, europa league and conference league.

 

It's why I thought the Apertura/Clausura format in year 1 was maybe the way to go. If you're out of it in the first half of the season, the standings reset and you have a fresh start in the 2nd half.

[RJB]

2 hours ago, Pottsy3 said:

except it does because then you need to win another match to get into the finals? when the 5-8th teams were out of the playoffs with weeks left in the season, now those games actually counted for nothing.

 

if you let every team into the playoffs, the regular season games have no stakes besides seeding.

The games start to all mean nothing the more teams you let in.  Under the new system (applied retroactively to 2022), Valour could conceivably have been champions after going 10-7-11 (.357 win percentage!) after winning a few games on penalties.  That's insulting to me if I'm an Ottawa or Forge fan.  I don't care if the last few weeks of the season don't count for anything: maybe if your team was better they would!

This is turning into MLS where too many teams make it and it makes the season meaningless.  There becomes less push to win games and more about peaking at the right time.  I don't like it.  

Granted, I don't like playoffs at all.  They're stupid, and devalue the hard work teams put in, and take away from the true champion who wins the league.  Especially with a balanced schedule like CPL has there is no good reason for them.  If we want a "Cup Final" to end the year, then perhaps the Voyageurs Cup should be rescheduled to be the last game of the season.  Imagine that!

[RJB]

2 hours ago, Pottsy3 said:

That's exactly why this is needed. We don't want the bottom four teams having absolutely nothing to play for in their last ten games. Gives more teams, more competitive games while at the same time giving a much greater benefit to the better performing teams.

Make your team better and then you have lots to play for.  Your logic can now be applied to the bottom three: they need something to play for.  And then the bottom two... and so on.  The solution is that if your team is in the bottom half of the league make them better and challenge.  

[RJB]

2 hours ago, Big_M said:

In 2021 and 2022, 7th and 8th had nothing to play for at the end and were far from even 5th place

In 2021, teams 4th 5th and 6th fought for the last spot until the end

In 2022, 5th and 6th were out of it

With this new format there is the possibility of a cinderella story but at the same time you are rewarding a team that had a simply bad record

Why are we trying to manufacture a cinderella story?  How about the best team is rewarded with the championship after proving it over the course of a season?  

[jonovision]

IF the league continues to place emphasis on the importance of topping the table in regular season (trophy? prize money?) then I think this is a fine development.

5 of 8 teams getting into a post season tournament (63%) is well within North American standards.

NFL is 14 of 32 teams (44%). NHL 16/32 (50%). NBA is 20/30, CFL is 6 of 9 (66%).

While we'd all like to think we're smarter than the average NA sports fan, can we at least admit that the European view of playoffs (which itself has more exceptions than you'd think) is the minority view. And at least this format provides a real reward for finishing high in the table.

And in a new league with many teams on an unsure footing, is it such a bad thing to give a few teams and their fans the chance to experience their first ever important match?

 

[CanadaFan123]

1 hour ago, RJB said:

Why are we trying to manufacture a cinderella story?  How about the best team is rewarded with the championship after proving it over the course of a season?  

They arguably are with this format. The reward for winning the regular season is greater and it’s almost like the playoffs are a supplemental trophy. If fans put more emphasis on the regular season win then it’s clear cut. 
 

I like the playoff format btw. I think it’s incredibly clever. 

[Aird25]

5 hours ago, Pottsy3 said:

We don't want the bottom four teams having absolutely nothing to play for in their last ten games. Gives more teams, more competitive games while at the same time giving a much greater benefit to the better performing teams.

I’ve never played a game, be it competitive sports or I Spy, that I found meaningless. I want to win every single game, and as a fan I want my team to do the same. I’ll never understand the tank mentality that’s so common in American sports. 

[red card]

Reaction here seems more balanced but they hate it on twitter & discord channels.

 

[RJB]

For the record, I think it's a positive format.  I wish there was no playoffs at all, and given that they seem insistent, I think at most the top three should get in.  If they used the same format but only the top three I would find that far more palatable. 

[Pottsy3]

29 minutes ago, Aird25 said:

I’ve never played a game, be it competitive sports or I Spy, that I found meaningless. I want to win every single game, and as a fan I want my team to do the same. I’ll never understand the tank mentality that’s so common in American sports. 

Sure, but at the same time have you played games where you need to win to stay alive or move on to the next round? There’s surely a next gear that players go into, and the same can be said about there being added entertainment value. A “must-win” game is more marketable than regular game 19 of a 28 game schedule.
 

This will give the league more games with a bit extra on the line, and across more teams.

[Bison44]

Just think back to last year...even us Valour fans were thinking we might make the playoffs, these are important games.  You cut it to top 2 or 3 and thats it, you have more fanbases packing it in with a lot of games left.  I dont really care for this format, but having a bunch of teams get a playoff game is generally a good thing.  

[jonovision]

Also remember that in most European leagues with pro/rel, there are important fixtures right through to the end of the calendar, with relegation battles and promotion/continental places to play for. There are very few true dead rubbers, but the last few weeks of a CPL season where only 3 or even 4 teams qualify for the playoffs will be full of them.

[toontownman]

Late to the party. 

On first knee jerk view its a clusterfuck farce that makes the league look like a joke. Confused the heck out of me when it popped up as I was heading home, but said to myself I would take a better look later tonight. Taking the time read the explanations and reasoning for the changes by those attached to the league, it makes much more sense. Definitely a madness but definitely a method to the madness.

[Kingston]

I don't like the new playoff format.  There was absolutely nothing wrong with the top four teams going into the semi-finals.  They should have left it alone.

[ATM]

11 minutes ago, Kingston said:

I don't like the new playoff format.  There was absolutely nothing wrong with the top four teams going into the semi-finals.  They should have left it alone.

1000% AGREE !!

[dyslexic nam]

7 hours ago, toontownman said:

Late to the party. 

On first knee jerk view its a clusterfuck farce that makes the league look like a joke. Confused the heck out of me when it popped up as I was heading home, but said to myself I would take a better look later tonight. Taking the time read the explanations and reasoning for the changes by those attached to the league, it makes much more sense. Definitely a madness but definitely a method to the madness.

That's where I am at.  Seems to be unnecessarily complicated but once you get past the visual barrier, it has some positive aspects.  It rewards the top 2 teams by making their path to the finals very direct for the team that wins the 1v2, and giving the losing team a second chance that should still see them with a doable path to the finals.  That gives that much more importance to the regular season standings.  Team 3 enters in basically a normal quarter finals stage.  And teams 4 and 5 have to duke it out just to get to that "QF" game.   

On paper it does look a bit like a creative writing exercise but in terms of functionality it really does seem to have some upside.  And as others said, the overall effect is to make the regular season games important  with very little dead rubber (unless there is a complete dog in the league). 

[jonovision]

43 minutes ago, dyslexic nam said:

On paper it does look a bit like a creative writing exercise but in terms of functionality it really does seem to have some upside.  And as others said, the overall effect is to make the regular season games important  with very little dead rubber (unless there is a complete dog in the league). 

It may only look that way to people who have no experience with one of Canada's most successful television sports properties.

[Metro]

At the end of the day, if it brings in more ticket revenue, I'm in.

[Cheeta]

Don't like it.   Not at all. 

But I also don't like Celtic losing there way into Europa League every damn year but i still watch.  So....GO VALOUR!

[Cicero]

Don't think it's terrible, but it still devalues the regular season when everyone is playing for the tournament, and we only really celebrate the tournament winner. Do away teams get any cut of the revenue from a game? 4th-5th could have twice as many games. Just as a fan who enjoys watching the game, is it a reward to have your team play potentially fewer games?

[narduch]

Well the regular season winner does get a CCL spot.

[jonovision]

IMO it values the regular season more than 2022's playoff format. I have a hard time seeing how you could argue any differently. 

Edited March 16, 2023 by jonovision