THE POSTSEASON            Back to Reference Index

THE END OF THE SEASON

When the season finishes, the division winners advance to the playoffs. If your team is in a Standard League or a Custom League that has the wild card, the best second-place team in the league will make the playoffs as well. Each round of the playoffs is a best-of-seven series.

TIES. If there is a tie for a playoff spot at the end of the regular season, there is a tie-breaker system to break the tie. That system is:

1. Best head-to-head record

2. The greatest run differential for Wild Card; Division record for Division

3. Division record for Wild Card; Greatest run differential for Division 

4. Coin toss

NOTE: We do realize that real baseball uses a 1-game playoff to break ties, but this is difficult given the limitations of online automated play. At some point in the future, we hope to add this feature.

In case of a three-way tie, or greater, the first tie-break is whether one team had a winning record against each other tied team, in which case it wins the tie-break.  If not, then if the tie is for the division lead, the next tie-break is division record, then run differential; if the tie is for the wild card, the next tie-break is run differential, with coin toss to break any remaining ties.

THE PLAYOFFS!

May you need to know about this section often! 

The number of rounds depends on the number of teams in your league. In Standard Leagues, there will be 2 rounds, the LCS and the World Series. Each is best of seven in a 2-3-2 format, meaning that Team A (the one with home-field advantage) hosts games 1 and 2 and then, if necessary, games 6 and 7, while the team without home-field advantage hosts games 3 and 4 and, if necessary, game 5. Games are played one series per day (except Sunday) (Turbo leagues have the same virtual schedule but an accelerated sim schedule). 

There two virtual days off between the end of the season and the first game of the post-season; two virtual days off between the LCS and World Series; and one virtual day off between games 2 and 3 and games 5 and 6 of each series.  Successive series will always start on the virtual date they would have started had the preceding series gone seven days, regardless of whether the preceding series finish earlier. The team with the best record will have home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, except that the wild card never has home-field advantage. The team with the best record will host the wild card, unless the wild card comes from the same division, in which case the team with the best record will host the team with the worst record that is not a wild card. The team with the second-best record will play the other playoff team.

In Custom Leagues, the number of teams and whether there is a wild card determines the number of rounds.

In two-team “leagues” there is no World Series, but if the league ends in a tie, there is a one-game winner-take-all playoff. Four and six-team leagues comprise a single division, with a best-of-seven World Series between the first and second place teams. Eight-team leagues are comprised of two four-team divisions, with the winner of each division squaring off in a best-of-seven World Series. 

Home-field advantage is determined by won-loss record in the regular season. If there is a tie for home-field advantage, the tie will be broken by the same tie-breaking system as for playoff spots described above.

MANAGING DURING THE PLAYOFFS

The deadline for setting your playoff roster is 12 midnight PT on the date Game #1 is played. You cannot make any roster changes during a playoff series. However, you can make roster changes between playoff series. All of the same rules and controls for managing your team during the regular season apply during the playoffs and World Series.  Injuries, pitcher and catcher usage carry over from the regular season to the playoffs. You cannot start a pitcher on fewer than 3 days’ rest, and you should assume fatigue factors will apply to pitchers. So if you start a pitcher who’s not very durable on 3 days’ rest, you might pay a price for it in performance, perhaps a severe one. There may be injuries during the playoffs, so be prepared. 

Good luck!

In a 24-team league, the winners of the championship series in each association are awarded 1000 tokens (500 in Accelerated leagues; 250 in Turbo leagues).  If you win the World Series of any league, you get a free team (tokens to the value of a team for the type of league - custom, standard, accelerated, turbo) to try to do it again!