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Home-Grown League (HGL) Season 3 Official Thread

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This Post:
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328546.121 in reply to 328546.117
Date: 12/6/2025 8:55:27 AM
Wagner College
II.2
Overall Posts Rated:
386386
Hello all HGL managers! League tables have just been updated after 14 Rounds of play, for example here: (328546.5)!
Very thrilling end of Regular Season number 3 is getting closer to an end, last round (Round 15) is being played in just 2 days!

As you can see, theoretically there could be 3-way or even 4-way tie situations (equal amount of wins-teams) after Regular Season.

As conversation about ranking teams in equal wins-situations has halted/taken break recently, to make it more clear and fair upfront before last Round (Round 15) has been played I wanted to let you guys know that I think we should use ranking system rule that I presented in previous posts, starting from this compilation message (here: (328546.113)), and finally ending to this post here: (328546.118), so total of 4 post from myself.

Also in post (328546.120) I've explained a bit further why this "only all wins or losses"-system has been selected.

Unless someone strongly opposes that decision, that is team ranking/classification system that we'll use for ranking teams after Regular Season on Season 3 (ORSR-rankings for Playoffs).

But please note there's not lots of time to solve this (before Round 15 takes place), so if you do oppose my "equal wins teams-rule proposition" presented in previous message, please give as strong basis as possible on why you'd like some other ranking system to be used.



********** Rule compilation: **********
In a very brief compilation, most important points of my aforementioned rule addition are, that:


1. in the case of 3 or more teams tied in wins-situations, Regular Season +/- point differential is not the first and foremost comparison method, but team reduction (reduction of compared teams that have similar number of wins in Regular Season) is first attempted by comparing how their Regular Season game results against comparison group teams have been this Season.

2. Please note, that only by winning all or losing all Regular Season games against all comparison group teams your team will be positioned higher or lower, than the rest of teams in that comparison group.

3. If still 3 or more teams remain in a comparison group (that haven't won or lost all matches against comparison group teams) after previously mentioned comparison (see "2."), then we will proceed next to comparing full Regular Season +/- point differential (RS PD).

4. However, if the comparison group can be reduced to two teams with this attempt (at stage "2.", see above), then these remaining two teams will be ranked based on their Regular Season match result (this Season, of course).

As you guys know, this is already existing comparison rule ("winner of Regular Season match will be ranked higher of two teams"-rule) and it is being applied at first place, and comparison is not made based on their full Regular Season +/- point differential (RS PD) if there are only two teams that remain to be compared with each other (after that reduction attempt, see "2." above).
********** End of compilation **********



It is also a possibility, that if nobody objects this (rule proposition by me) by, say, 24 hours for now (original publication of this post), we will use this ranking method on Season 3 equal wins situations for 3 or more teams, and then, if many enough managers see it necessary to change current system, arrange a voting on how teams ought to be ranked in the future seasons (again, in 3 or more teams at tied wins-situations).

However, from my point of view, I personally see this as a best choice in a situation, in where perfect solution doesn't seem to exist.
(This is of course perfectly objectional - one could take any view/position really, and claim it's perfect solution, but personally I think perfect in every sense of the word hardly ever exists).

Last edited by Wagner at 12/6/2025 9:10:43 AM

From: Wagner

This Post:
00
328546.122 in reply to 328546.121
Date: 12/7/2025 9:24:14 AM
Wagner College
II.2
Overall Posts Rated:
386386

As you can see, theoretically there could be 3-way or even 4-way tie situations (equal amount of wins-teams) after Regular Season.

As conversation about ranking teams in equal wins-situations has halted/taken break recently, to make it more clear and fair upfront before last Round (Round 15) has been played I wanted to let you guys know that I think we should use ranking system rule that I presented in previous posts, starting from this compilation message (here: (328546.113)), and finally ending to this post here: (328546.118), so total of 4 post from myself.

Also in post (328546.120) I've explained a bit further why this "only all wins or losses"-system has been selected.

[....]

It is also a possibility, that if nobody objects this (rule proposition by me) by, say, 24 hours for now (original publication of this post), we will use this ranking method on Season 3 equal wins situations for 3 or more teams [...]


To quote myself above, no messages within 24 hours of the publication, so we'll use this ranking system in 3 or more teams in tied wins-situations, to create Official Regular Season Rankings (a.k.a. ORSR) for HGL Season 3 Playoffs.


Good luck to everyone on Round 15!

I'll try to create First Round Playoff matchups soon after last Round of Regular Season has been played tomorrow.

Please also arrange your Playoff matches as soon as possible (after schedule has been published), and please provide a link for First Round Playoff match to your teams´own box score post!

Nothing has changed in terms of Playoff practices, so note for example that:
- matches are always played in home or away court, not on neutral court (absolutely no exceptions!)
- Official match times will be used in Playoffs (3.30 PM EET normal time), a.k.a. 15.30
- home team is responsible for sending PU match challenge, etc.

You know how it goes by experience, and as for those who haven't got lots of experience on Playoffs/HGL yet, for me they seem/feel like they'd be well informed/knowledgeable of Playoff practices so I expect everything to go smoothly.

Don't hesitate to ask though, if there's anything you're unsure of.

Please note:
Official HGL Playoff match time on Season 3 will be 3.30 PM EET (Eastern European Time) normal time
(which is same time that you can now see your HGL matches being played when you look at your BB match schedule page).


3.30PM of course means same as 15.30 in European time format.

Last edited by Wagner at 12/7/2025 9:50:43 AM

From: Wagner

This Post:
00
328546.123 in reply to 328546.122
Date: 12/8/2025 6:20:02 PM
Wagner College
II.2
Overall Posts Rated:
386386
@ all HGL managers:
Last Regular Season Round has now been played, and Official Regular Season Rankings (ORSR) have now been cemented for the Season 3 Playoffs.

I have corrected league tables (on both Scores and Main threads) to reflect correct standings between teams.

Actual ORSR table is found from the Season 3 Playoff post, here: (328547.7).

Please note, that now it's time for teams that ranked from 5th to 12th to start organizing Playoff matches; please do that as soon as possible, because First Round of Playoffs is played already on this Sunday, 14th of December!

Official match time will be your local equivalent of 3.30PM EET (which is the same time that you see your HGL matches being played this Season when you take a look at your Buzzerbeater schedule).



It's also important to remember, that:

A) All matches are played either on home or away court, so no neutral court matches in Playoffs!

B) home team (higher ranked team) is responsible for sending PU match challenge, and lower ranked team is responsible for accepting challenge with correct match details
Match details means that match day, time and court balance are appropriate, which in this case means that better ranked team will play on their home court; if these match details are not correct, do not accept match challenge, but instead contact manager in question (and me if it seems necessary/preferred by you) by BBMail, and we'll solve the situation together.

C) Please keep on adding your Playoff match links as soon as match has been organized (so that I can verify it and copy-paste it to official HGL schedule), and scores of matches to your team's own Season box score post.


So let's get started with this match organizing process for HGL Season 3 First Round of Playoffs,
here is the schedule (home team name is in bold text):

Rank #5 ED vs. #12 SUM *Waiting for a match link!*

Rank #6 HB vs. #11 WAG (137635189)

Rank #7 WMO vs. #10 LGM (137634158)

Rank #8 LMS vs. #9 VIV (137633938)

Last edited by Wagner at 12/12/2025 4:23:39 AM

From: Wagner

This Post:
11
328546.124 in reply to 328546.123
Date: 12/9/2025 6:24:05 AM
Wagner College
II.2
Overall Posts Rated:
386386
Interesting Playoffs ahead on Season 3 for sure!

As an additional motivation and challenge (in this case especially to all underdogs, including myself!) I'd like to mention, that so far in 2 seasons we've played 24 Playoff contests, and only in 1 (!) occasion away teams have been able to break the home court magic (Rajdersi beat Hårdboll on Season 2 Bronze match on away court)!

So it'll be interesting to see, if this Season in HGL continues the home court trend, or if more than one of us underdogs are able to cause an upset to home fans!
(Maybe some of us underdogs just need to take a part of next years´ team budget and rent, say, 20-30 buses or rent few charter aircrafts, fill them with our away team fans and make them make some noise on away court, yes)? ;)


So here's a further breakdown on wins on different Playoff Rounds (to compare home/away team success on each Round of Playoffs) on different Seasons:

First Round point differences in HGL Playoffs from the view point of a higher ranked team=home team
(number of upsets in this Playoff Round/average home team win in points in all Rounds´matches):

Season 1: 17, 29, 13, 11 (0 upsets/average home team win: 17,5 points)
Season 2: 16, 14, 31, 14 (0/18,75p)


Second Round (quarter-finals) point differences in HGL Playoffs from the view point of a higher ranked team=home team
(number of upsets in this Playoff Round/average home team win in points in all Rounds´matches):

Season 1: 20, 36, 16, 3 (0 upsets/18,75 points)
Season 2: 36, 31, 13, 19 (0/24,75p)


Third Round (semi-finals) point differences in HGL Playoffs from the view point of a higher ranked team=home team
(number of upsets in this Playoff Round/average home team win in points in all Rounds´matches):

Season 1: 18, 26 (0 upsets/22 points)
Season 2: 15, 35 (0/25p)


Fourth Round (Medal games) point differences in HGL Playoffs from the view point of a higher ranked team=home team
(number of upsets in this Playoff Round/average home team win in points in all Rounds´matches):

Season 1: 6, 12 (0 upsets/9 points)
Season 2: 15, -12 (1 upset/1,5 points)


As we can see from that compilation, it's been a rocky road for away teams for sure!

In these 2 Seasons, 1 upset win only and in the case of matches in where higher ranked teams have won, only in 2 occassions in 24 Playoff match attempts (which equals to 8,3% of matches), away teams have been able to lose by less than 11 points (Elan Demars by 3 in Season 1 semis´, and Santa Eufemia Ducks by 6 in Season 1 Bronze match), so I feel like for away teams there's still lots of room to improve on that.

Anyway, good luck for everybody on First Round Playoff matches, and let's get them organized as soon as possible (and don't forget to provide match link as well when you have organized it)!

Last edited by Wagner at 12/9/2025 6:33:12 AM

From: Wagner

This Post:
00
328546.125 in reply to 328546.124
Date: 12/13/2025 10:24:03 AM
Wagner College
II.2
Overall Posts Rated:
386386
Suuret Muinaiset has not logged in since 5th of Dec.
ED-SUM hasn't been organized yet due to that.
I hope SUM logs in very quickly so that we don't have to deal with very problematic scenario.
Ultimately, of course, penalties haven't been determined for this.
But if SUM doesn't log in soon and arrange match, then it's easy to give forfeit win to ED.

I don't have other contact information of SUM. If anyone has seen him in Discord, if he uses it, please alert him.

We´ll have to keep on dealing with this situation soon, probably today and tomorrow...

demars, please be aware that you need to set your lineups at the last minute in a worst case.

From: demars

This Post:
00
328546.126 in reply to 328546.125
Date: 12/13/2025 4:14:32 PM
Elan Demars
II.2
Overall Posts Rated:
249249
I'm aware, but...

What would be easier to log at the last moment and make his lineup, but I couldn't...

I think I'm gonna change my automatic lineup...

From: Wagner

This Post:
00
328546.127 in reply to 328546.126
Date: 12/13/2025 7:09:01 PM
Wagner College
II.2
Overall Posts Rated:
386386
I'm aware, but...

What would be easier to log at the last moment and make his lineup, but I couldn't...

I think I'm gonna change my automatic lineup...

That is a strong point demars and I totally understand it, and while I'm perfectly aware of that possibility, it doesn't reduce your frustration on this, which is understandable. While that wouldn't likely bring you comfort either, I'll still let you know that I have been writing him so to me he isn't at all that kind of person who would do it on purpose (should he log in at the last minute and be able to set up a lineup, and you wouldn't) - however, even knowing that is not something that would bring you to a fair position, so I definitely see your point.

These kind of situations are frustrating to me as well (even though my team isn't affected, and even though that might not bring you any comfort). There is enough going on in my life (and are running late in some HGL related tasks as well), so that I don't find it amusing to use time and energy for tasks of this kind.

These kind of situations are the kind of ones that we still not have an easy solution (often time it could be word against word), however, like I said if he doesn't log in at all and accept match, it's a no brainer (forfeit, and you get to proceed to Second Round automatically).

However, if SUM does log in and does accept your PU match offer in time, we are also in tricky situation, as technically you don't have as much time to set up your custom lineup as you should (as stated in the rules). (Problem with rules is, that the penalty for it currently is more or less "please don't do this, or we have to try to figure out if we need to start enforcing penalties to stop it").

As it stands, I'm a bit in between the tree and the bark (if he logs in and accepts in time), given that clear penalties haven't been determined. (As far as that goes, we can discuss and if needed, vote, if we'd for example change rule so that if team hasn't even logged in during the period between previous match day and the moment they ought to send/accept challenge, then they'd suffer a forfeit loss - however, I do not necessarily enjoy the idea to babysit details like this daily as that's exactly the opposite what I'm trying to achieve in the future as repeated later).

So in a way this lies partly on your hands, demars, if you´re willing to be the gentleman who accepts his mistake in not accepting PU on time(?). Say, if you'd lose this match and claim it was due to this lineup thing, then we'd have big dilemma.

One of the partial solutions, just as you well pointed out, is that you change your "automatic/default lineup", so that it'll be used if you don't set another lineup.
This is actually a great "pro-tip" from you for future situations like this
(should they occur), but as we all agree, we shouldn't be facing such situations at all in the first place.

It could be necessary to evaluate this rule again in a light of possible penalties forced in the future, in the case it can be clearly seen that for instance manager hasn't even logged in until it's already too late to accept (or send, if they'd be home team) a PU match challenge. This, on the other hand, provides couple of irritating/frustrating side effects:
A) It´s up to me to check out managers´team pages more or less daily to see if they´ve logged in (just opposite what I'm trying to achieve, as for the longevity it´s important to be able to have trust that things roll as they should roll, almost without intervention from Commissioners´part)
B) It could be the case, that manager has logged in, and that there are two words against each other. This is already mentioned in rules as one of the possible problematic scenarios, and even before establishing HGL nobody was able to provide perfect (or even truly workable) solution for this, despite multiple attempts to ask about managers´opinion on this dilemma.

Last edited by Wagner at 12/13/2025 7:19:37 PM

This Post:
00
328546.128 in reply to 328546.127
Date: 12/14/2025 3:44:35 AM
BC Eos
III.15
Overall Posts Rated:
307307
Second Team:
Köplased
That's an unfortunate situation, especially as SUM are not continuing in the HGL from the coming season. I think the easiest would be to set a time frame deadline, e.g., a challenge has to be sent and accepted 24h before the match, otherwise it's a forfeit to the manager not challenging/accepting the match. Currently it is a really tedious situation with this particular PO match, as you described Wagner, and I believe we should introduce a stronger rule beginning from next season. I think a 24-hour-before deadline is quite reasonable too, as managers have an entire week to complete the match planning in this case.

This Post:
00
328546.129 in reply to 328546.128
Date: 12/14/2025 5:39:44 AM
Elan Demars
II.2
Overall Posts Rated:
249249
Well, I've just modified my default line-up. I just hope that I won't forget to change it for my next (league) game ^^

This Post:
00
328546.130 in reply to 328546.128
Date: 12/14/2025 8:24:28 AM
Wagner College
II.2
Overall Posts Rated:
386386
That's an unfortunate situation, especially as SUM are not continuing in the HGL from the coming season. I think the easiest would be to set a time frame deadline, e.g., a challenge has to be sent and accepted 24h before the match, otherwise it's a forfeit to the manager not challenging/accepting the match. Currently it is a really tedious situation with this particular PO match, as you described Wagner, and I believe we should introduce a stronger rule beginning from next season. I think a 24-hour-before deadline is quite reasonable too, as managers have an entire week to complete the match planning in this case.

We can consider adding a more strict rule for these situations.

The problem with clear 24h guideline is though, that while people are for the most part (maybe not for the First Round of Playoff) being able to conclude themselves who they are supposed to meet/challenge on the next Round of Playoffs, the official Playoff matchup post won't be updated at the certain interval each and every time.

So for instance, if official Playoff schedule would be published on one occassion on Sunday at 8PM, and on another occassion on Monday 11AM, then where would the clock start running? People would never know the exact time when this "timer" would be started (and I wouldn't prefer to tie myself to HGL in a way that I have to be around at certain time on every given occassion, but rather make it so that there´s certain amount of flexibility, as there are already lots of tasks that I can't flexibly schedule out during Playoffs - if we take today as an exceptional example, I had to change my whole day of plans due to this unorganized match issue).

So it would be easier to start, say, a 24h, 48h, etc. counter from one given moment that always happens at the same time, but now it doesn't. So as you all know, now the rule goes like this:


- Due to the need to arrange match every week during playoffs, it is important that managers send challenge at the latest on Thursday (note: this time frame could be changed during Season 2), so that team accepting challenge has enough time to accept it.
Remember: last regular season match will take place on Monday at 14.30, or 02.30PM EET Normal Time, (15.30, or 03.30PM EET DST, Daylight Savings Time, a.k.a. Summer Time), so after that match:
A) during rest of season there will be 3 days time to send the Playoff match challenge (Mon->Thu; during Playoffs Sun->Wed)
B) there´s (about) 2 days time to accept match challenge (if it's been sent at the latest possible time, on Wednesday, it needs to be accepted on Friday at the latest, before your designated HGL match time).[..]

What did you exactly mean by "a challenge has to be sent and accepted 24h before the match, otherwise it's a forfeit to the manager not challenging/accepting the match"?
So that challenging and accepting is finished 24h before match?
Who would be there always exactly 24h before the match to report? It could be word vs. word.. And I wouldn't want to make this a "prove by screenshot"-league, also because theoretically those could also be modified.

So the thing is, while I theoretically agree that 24 could be enough time, I've tried to stretch this organizing window as wide as possible for the both participants, as I've seen in practice that we still sometimes have occassional problems with even with these (lot wider than 24h) time frames given for both teams currently.

Solving this by delivering a lot more forfeits is one way, but so far I've tried to stay away from that as much as possible...

But again, we could often be in a situation where there could be word against word (as for instance BB doesn't give us any login data information in addition to "recent login" data, and even with that data, it doesn´t give time of clock when that happened, and of course doesn´t let us know what actions manager took or didn't take).


From: Wagner

This Post:
00
328546.131 in reply to 328546.130
Date: 12/14/2025 8:47:41 AM
Wagner College
II.2
Overall Posts Rated:
386386

Solving this by delivering a lot more forfeits is one way, but so far I've tried to stay away from that as much as possible...


To quote myself, this could sometimes be needed to discourage an unwanted behavior, to make league fair for all, and also to make league more manageable in terms of Commissioner duties (restrict the need of being around at exact given times, to prove if something did exist/happen, or whether it didn't).

However, I believe we already would've had one (more) forfeit last Season, should we have been implementing a clear, strict rule with that (and surely more would be coming in future Seasons, given that often times history is the best predictor of likelyhood of future events). Having said that, I don't say implementing stricter rules on this would be bad thing, but we just need to find a proper balance, and figure out how to solve this so that there aren't word against word-situations.

While "clear as a day"-sort of rule set (including penalties) hasn't been yet determined for this exact case (for previously mentioned, good reasons), I think it's necessary for me to say this now:

As it's now 3.30PM EET, and HGL Season 3 First Round Playoff matches have started, and neither of ED or SUM have provided a match link, I have an unfortunate obligation/duty to inform that Elan Demars (ED) will be given "a free ticket" to Second Round of Season 3 Playoffs due to SUM being handed a 0-50 forfeit loss in their First Round match against ED on Season 3 Playoffs.
This is because in this case it's easy to determine, that it's due to SUM not being logged in since 5th of December. Yes, I couldn´t prove that ED had sent a challenge (for the record though, I believe he has, just as he said he had done). However, as we can see, even that is irrelevant in this decision, as match couldn't have been accepted by SUM due to not logging in, so this is the ultimate reason for this decision.

I know these are never nice decisions, especially given the fact that I mentioned, that I've been writing with SUM manager throughout these HGL seasons and he seems like a very good, friendly, and considerate person. We need to remember, that while this would've been the most important match of his Season, and while I have been "complaining" about consequences of this unorganized match, it´s not the end of the world (and we don't know what's happening in anyones´ life at any given time), and after end of the day, Buzzerbeater is just a game and real life is something that matters most.

Having said that doesn't of course mean that I'd downplay the importance of BB and HGL, they are important to me as well just as I'm sure they're important to many of us HGL managers, but it's good to keep the big picture in mind when discussing BB/HGL related topics, when considering what's genuinely important and what's not.

There's no doubt in my mind, that conversation over this (possible rule change, and different aspects that are related to it) will be continued...

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