We've worked hard to make a fair and competetive schedule and championship structure while also meeting the needs of teams that 'just want to play the curling'. Review this article for info on Leagues, standings, playoffs, and subs.
The short version: Every game counts in the standings and every team gets a "post season". The top 8 teams in the standings play in a bracketed playoff to determine the league champion. Not anyone can sub and not at any position anytime too, so be sure to review the sub rules before you need to recruit one.
League Schedules
A “normal” league for Frogtown has 14 teams. There are six sheets of ice, which means two teams have byes each week. We want to make sure that every team gets a chance to play every other team in the league, and that takes 16 weeks to complete. We don’t let any open ice go unused, so during those 16 weeks, some teams will play 13 games (with 3 byes) and some will play 14 games (with 2 byes). If you have two byes, that means you’ll play one team twice during the year. It’s just the luck of the draw (literally) that determines who that team is. That’s an unbalanced schedule, and doing it this way is something decided by our club from the very beginning.
We keep track of which teams have 3 byes each year, and try hard to avoid giving them 3 byes the following year. It gets complicated when teams form and re-form, team names change from year to year, and teams move to different leagues. This is also why we can't accommodate individual requests for certain bye weeks from teams.
We’ve developed our own template that makes sure:
* Every team plays two or three times on each sheet during the year (Eh through E)
* Every team plays every other team at least once and no more than twice each season
* Every team has two or three byes
* There’s at least three weeks between any byes for each team (not counting club shutdowns)
Standings
Every game counts in the standings. Whether you have 13 or 14 games, every game counts. There are no exhibition games. Even on the last week of the season, there are still some teams that are playing each other for the first time. So please play all the games if you can, and make up the games you miss if at all possible.
There are NO ties, whether in regular season or playoffs. All games must have a winner. If your game is tied after 8 ends (or if your run out of time), then resolve the tie by a manner agreed upon by the skips, time permitting. For example: playing a short end in which each player throws a single stone (i.e. 4 total per team), or simply using skip's rocks (i.e. 1 shot per team). You can use any reasonable method as long as the skips agree, and you finish on time.
Please recognize that some teams don’t care about standings, and some teams care a lot. Which ever way you choose to think about it is perfectly fine, but please be fair and reasonable with each other.
Because teams play an unbalanced number of games, standings are determined by win percentage, not number of wins or losses. That’s also how we resolve standings when we have weather-related club shutdowns, for example.
Missed Games/Make-Up Games
If you have to miss a game, please take responsibility to contact the club manager and your opponents in advance. You can contact other teams directly through this site. Try to figure out a make-up time if at all possible.
Any make-up games must be completed prior to the final scheduled regular season game as standings are finalized on that date.
- If a team was a no-show, with no prior contact or warning, they get a loss and you get a win. If this occurs, please inform the manager so the standings can be updated appropriately.
- If games were cancelled by the club (e.g. inclement weather), by default the game is neither a win nor a loss for either team. We encourage you to make up the game if at all possible, which would allow the standings to reflect the actual results. Work with your opponents and the club managers to find a suitable time. All make-up games must be completed prior to the last scheduled regular season game for your league (at which time the standings will be frozen for the playoff seeding). We recognize that it may be impossible for some games to be rescheduled. Thus some teams may have fewer 'total games' in the win-percentage calculation used to determine the final standings.
- If a team can't make a scheduled game, by default the game will be recorded as a loss for that team and a win for the opponent (provided that the teams notify the manager which team has forfeited). This will be true regardless of whether they contact the opponents in advance or not. Again, teams are encouraged to reschedule the game, in which case standings would then be updated to reflect the actual result.
- Please be courteous by communicating in advance to your opponents and the managers. Note: If a game is missed and neither team has contacted the manager, then both teams will have a loss recorded for the game until the teams provide updated information or the game is rescheduled and played later.
Standings Tie-Break Procedure
If win percentage is exactly tied (down to the decimal point), tie-breakers (in order) are:
- If two teams are tied
- Best head-to-head record against each other
- If still tied, coin flip
- If three or more teams are tied:
- best record against other tied teams
- this may eliminate one or more teams or resolve to two teams being tied, per above
- if this gets it down to two teams left, use head-to-head record of those two teams
- if multiple teams still tied, coin flips
- best record against other tied teams
League Playoffs and Club Championship
Every competitive team has a postseason following their last regular season game. At the end of the regular season, the top eight teams in the league standings play in the Championship Bracket to determine the league champion. The other six teams will continue to play as well, in their own bracketed playoff called the Biter Bracket.
This league playoffs take 3 weeks. At the end of those three weeks, the eleven league champions will have been determined. Those eleven will be joined by five other wildcards to play in the Club Championship, a 16-team tournament. The wildcards will all come from the pool of runners-up in the league playoffs. That is, they will be teams that made it all the way to their league championship game, but lost that game. Among those teams, the five teams with the best overall record (via win-percentage) throughout the year will be chosen as wildcards.
The winners of each Biter Bracket (one from each league) will also be invited to participate in a separate event called King of the Lily Pad, to be held on the Saturday of the Club Championship.
Examples:
- Your team finished the regular season undefeated and atop your league after the regular season. In our league playoffs, you win your first two weeks but lose in the league championship final. You finished second, and your record makes it almost certain that you will be chosen as a wildcard and will participate in the club championship.
- Your team finished with a great regular season record. But you lose your first game in the league playoffs and end up finishing in 7th place. Since you were not a league playoff runner-up, you will not be considered for a wildcard spot regardless of your record.
How Opting Out Works
If you know in advance that you’ll have to miss games in your League Playoffs or the Club Championship, we request that you opt out by immediately notifying the manager of the dates you cannot make. This will allow us to adjust the games in the fairest manner possible, and to avoid forfeits when possible.
Examples:
- A team finishes in the top 8 in the standings but knows they cannot make one or more of the League Playoff games. When they opt out, we’ll move them into the Biter Bracket in order to give the 9th place team an opportunity to move up to the Championship Bracket. This also avoids forfeits in the Championship Bracket. For the opting-out team moving into the Biter Bracket, what seed they’ll move into depends upon what date(s) they’ll have to miss. If they’ll only miss the first week of League Playoffs, they’ll move into the 9th spot (which has a bye on the first week of playoffs). Again, this will avoid any forfeits. However, if they’ll miss other playoff games (week 2 and/or week 3), they’ll be moved to the 14th spot and will have to forfeit a game.
- A team finishes in the bottom 6 in the standings but must miss a League Playoff game. They’ll be moved to the bottom seed and will have to forfeit a game.
- A team wins all of the League Playoff games, including their League Championship game, but cannot make the Club Championship weekend. In that case, the 2nd place finisher (i.e. loser of the League Playoff Championship game) will advance to the Club Championship to represent the league. They’ll be seeded in the top 11, by record.
- A team wins the League Biter Bracket, but cannot make the King of the Lily Pad event. In that case, the 2nd place finisher (i.e. loser of the Biter Bracket Championship game) will advance to the King of the Lily Pad event.
Subs
Each team generally has 4, 5, or 6 regular team members (officially registered and paid) on its roster. Any of those regular team members may play in any game, and may play any position (lead, second, third, skip). Teams are allowed to play with three players; you are not required to use a sub and play with four. If you play with three players, the first and second players must throw three rocks each, and the skip must throw two rocks. The skip cannot throw three rocks.
Important: When you are missing a regular player and need to bring in someone from outside your official roster, think about the position that your missing player normally or most frequently plays. This will determine what position your sub can play (see below). This is an honor system, so please be fair to your opponents. Note that this does not apply in the playoffs.
For Regular League Games
- You may use a maximum of two subs in a game
- Minimum of two regular team members
- Your sub can play at or below the normal position of your missing player.
- Example: You are missing your normal third. Your sub may play third, second, or lead.
- Your sub can be another Frogtown member from another team, or they can be a non-member.
- Frogtown members are preferred, but feel free to share the Frogtown experience once in a while. Please limit your team to a maximum of two games with non-member sub per year.
For League Playoffs and Club Championships
- Any team member who is officially rostered and paid on your team (listed on this website as such) may play any position in any playoff game.
- You may use a maximum of one sub in a game; minimum of two regular team members.
- All subs must be Frogtown members.
- You can play with three players; you are not required to play with four.
- As above, with three players the 1st and 2nd must throw three rocks each, while the skip throws two.
- The skip cannot throw three rocks.
- Your sub must throw lead rocks
- i.e stones numbers 1 and 2 if you have four players, or numbers 1, 2, and 3 if you have three players.
- Whether you are playing with 3 or 4 players, if you have a sub, they must throw first.
- Your sub is allowed to hold the broom and call the game (i.e. as a skip would), but cannot throw last rocks.
- If you want to do this, your sub must first throw lead rocks, then move to the house to call the rest of the end.
