STAR Tie Break Process - General considerations

A) Order of finish (team rank) is determined by games above or below .500.  No wins or losses are awarded for byes.

 

B) This process is only used when two or more teams are tied and not all tied teams can advance.  For example, if only two teams were tied and both teams advanced, head-to-head record followed by a roll of the 20-sider would be used to determine seeding.

 

C) This process is only used to break ties within a division.  For example, in a three-division tournament, the division winners along with one other team would advance.  How that ‘other team’ is decided will continue to be determined by the format for that tournament.

 

D) In this 4-step process, you proceed to the next step only when the step you’re on doesn’t advance or eliminate any of the tied teams.  If a team is advanced or eliminated by the process step, you go back to the top of the process to resolve the remaining ties.  It should be rare to have to go beyond step 2 in this process.

 

Tie Break Process

1) Head-to-head record is applied as follows:  The records against each other are considered.  If the schedules are not balanced, head-to-head is not applied.  Balanced means that each team played the other teams the same number of times.  Head-to-head is re-applied if it doesn’t completely determine who advances.  For example, if three teams were tied with two advancing and TeamA was 6-2 (against the other two teams) while the other two were 3-5, TeamA would advance and you would do a head-to-head with just TeamB and TeamC to see if that could determine the other advancing team.

 

2) If only two teams are tied, a 1-game play-off is used.  All pitching carries over. 

 

3) Strength-of-schedule is applied as follows:  For each tied team, the collective rank of all their opponents is calculated.  Strength-of-schedule is not immediately re-applied if it doesn’t completely determine who advances.  For example, if four teams were tied with two advancing and TeamA’s opponents had the best rank, TeamB and TeamC were tied with the next best with TeamD having the worst, TeamA advances and TeamD is eliminated.  TeamB and TeamC go back to step 1 to repeat the tie-break process.

 

4) Shootouts are applied as follows:

                        a)  It’s considered a win if you’re matched up against a non-existent seed. For example, there are three tied teams, you’re seeded 1st playing team 4 – you have a first round win.

 

                        b) The number of shootouts is equal to the difference between the number of teams advancing from the tied group and the number of teams in the tied group.  For example, if there were 5 tied teams with 2 advancing from the tied group, 3 shootout games would be required.  It’s single elimination – you lose one, you’re out.

 

                        c) The 20-sider is rolled for play-off seeding (high roll is 1, next is 2 etc.).   If there are 4 or fewer teams involved, 1 plays 4, 2 plays 3 and the winners play if necessary.

 

                        d) If there are between 5 and 8 teams tied (shootouts played in order and only if necessary):

                                    S1  -  4 vs 5

                                    S2  -  3 vs 6

                                    S3  -  2 vs 7

                                    S4  -  1 vs 8    

                                    S5  -  Winner S1 vs Winner S4

                                    S6  -  Winner S2 vs Winner S3

                                    S7 -   Winner S5 vs Winner S6