The MICPS could crown two champions each year. One for the points leader, one for the Grand Finale Tournament winner. Professional Hockey does this. One team gets a trophy for most points ( best regular season record) and one trophy for the Playoffs (the Stanley Cup). So one player could be crowned State League Points Champ while another could be crowned State League Playoff Champ, (unless one player won both).
The motivation behind this idea is attract players to the Finals. Because some good players play so many league rounds at well attended leagues, a handful of those players are beyond the reach of a players from less populace areas of the State, even if they were equally skilled. But if the Finals were a more wide open opportunity it might draw more geographically diverse interest.
Since we want to continue to encourage league participation, The Finals could work with this formula. Each player starts with their ranking in points ( points leader gets 1 point, 100th place in points gets 100 points). Following the Finale each player gets points equal to their tournament finish ( 1st place gets 1 point, 10th place gets 10 points). Add the two categories together and lowest score is the League Playoff Champ.
At the moment Raley leads the points race by hundreds, thus assuring he cannot lose the points race in this year's Finale. If we used the above formula in the future then the points leader still has to play well to win the Playoffs ( 2nd place points leader only has to beat the points leader by two places to leapfrog him). The chance for a player to move into the top ten (final 9 skins) is even more wide open.
This approach might open up the competition more than is obvious. The best players typically play tournaments and place tournaments over Leagues in priority (greater payouts, etc). When a points leader takes weekends off League play to go to tournaments (or fly across the country to their second home in California) they open up chances for others.
Just tossing out an idea...
The MICPS could crown two champions each year. One for the points leader, one for the Grand Finale Tournament winner. Professional Hockey does this. One team gets a trophy for most points ( best regular season record) and one trophy for the Playoffs (the Stanley Cup). So one player could be crowned State League Points Champ while another could be crowned State League Playoff Champ, (unless one player won both).
The motivation behind this idea is attract players to the Finals. Because some good players play so many league rounds at well attended leagues, a handful of those players are beyond the reach of a players from less populace areas of the State, even if they were equally skilled. But if the Finals were a more wide open opportunity it might draw more geographically diverse interest.
Since we want to continue to encourage league participation, The Finals could work with this formula. Each player starts with their ranking in points ( points leader gets 1 point, 100th place in points gets 100 points). Following the Finale each player gets points equal to their tournament finish ( 1st place gets 1 point, 10th place gets 10 points). Add the two categories together and lowest score is the League Playoff Champ.
At the moment Raley leads the points race by hundreds, thus assuring he cannot lose the points race in this year's Finale. If we used the above formula in the future then the points leader still has to play well to win the Playoffs ( 2nd place points leader only has to beat the points leader by two places to leapfrog him). The chance for a player to move into the top ten (final 9 skins) is even more wide open.
This approach might open up the competition more than is obvious. The best players typically play tournaments and place tournaments over Leagues in priority (greater payouts, etc). When a points leader takes weekends off League play to go to tournaments (or fly across the country to their second home in California) they open up chances for others.