BuzzerBeater Forums

@all HGL managers:
As mentioned, LennuK. helped to create a new schedule for 17 teams, using AI to create that.
He has told me he has checked/verified it, that matchups should be fine on each Regular Season Round.

There is plenty of work in establishing a new season and finishing some Season 3 related tasks, so personally I don't think I have time to verify it myself.
LennuK., as far as I've seen it, has been very helpful and thorough in his approach in subjects he has been helping out, so while I don't have much trust on AI on important subjects (yes, 100% correct schedule is very important for league), I tend to trust LennuK.

However, as I don't have time to double-verify it, it is possible for me to send Season 4 schedule (randomly created by LennuK.'s AI prompt) to this thread, so that someone can take a look at it with another pair of eyes so that everything is fine with it (?), such as:
- every team has 16 matches and face each other correctly during each round exept for one team per round, and that
- no duplicate matches (facing one opponent two times) or missing matches (some team apart from "bye-team" of the round doesn't play on that round) exist during whole Regular Season, or that
- bye-teams are correct (again, no duplicates/missing teams per season),
- etc.?

Having said this doesn't mean I wouldn't trust LennuK. or expect that there would be errors - it's rather due to a surprisingly deeply rooted suspicion towards trustworthiness of AI (due to recent attempts to utilize it - possibly I'm not especially good at using prompts then..), and attempt to be on the safe side, because for instance while I consider being careful and thorough in many aspects, I have spotted many small errors in my messages throughout the seasons (after getting back to them later on).

Also, I guess some of us are more experienced with playing around with these schedule issues - me, not so much, so I'm thankful of any help I have received (and will receive). :)

Another, fine option is, that we simply use this schedule. As mentioned, LennuK. has appeared to me as a careful and thorough person, so I´d have a high level of trust that he has managed to spot any errors AI had possibly left in that schedule..

EDIT:
New schedule also doesn't have any Pickup match challenge responsibilities marked on it, and as it's totally shuffled from last seasons, it's not possible to reuse/transfer last seasons challenge responsibility-data easily from Season 3 schedule.

I have contacted LennuK. about this to see if he has time to add those markings to the schedule, or that shall I do it.

I don't have exact amount of challenges used per team-data from previous seasons (apart from couple of exeptions), so that's another layer of work that's still waiting before new schedule can be published.

Having said that, I can send that afore mentioned Season 4 schedule here without those bolded names, if someone wants to take a second look at it.


Last edited by Wagner at 1/11/2026 8:43:41 AM

Hello Wagner,

i think that 3 games / week is too much. In the 7 first weeks of the seasons we all have cup/friendly + BBM games + 2 League Games + 2 HGL games.

We could change almost nothing but :
- 2 games /week
- first week of PO : playing the 17th game AND Pre-PO game the same week
- then, as usual for 1/4, 1/2 and Final, 1 game/week.

What do you thing about it ?

Hello Wagner,

i think that 3 games / week is too much. In the 7 first weeks of the seasons we all have cup/friendly + BBM games + 2 League Games + 2 HGL games.

We could change almost nothing but :
- 2 games /week
- first week of PO : playing the 17th game AND Pre-PO game the same week
- then, as usual for 1/4, 1/2 and Final, 1 game/week.

What do you thing about it ?

Bonjour demars,
There would be 3 matches in only one week, so there's not much to worry.

And it wouldn't overlap our other games, because I purposely planned it on Sunday (to not have any potential problems with overlapping with Wednesdays' BBM matches). I really wanted to reserve Sundays only for Playoffs, but it seems that's the only day left with no other BB matches, and it's already established HGL game day of the week, so hence that selection (instead of Wednesday, for instance).

(As a one feedback, I have heard that manager thought one HGL game per week would be enough, but on the other hand we've had other opinions on this, stating that to them it's only positive there are more than 1 match per week).

This is how schedule would look like with this arrangement, please correct me if there are clear mistakes present:

RS Round 1: Monday, January 26th, 2026
RS Round 2: Friday, January 30th, 2026
RS Round 3: Monday, February 2nd, 2026

RS Round 4: Friday, February 6th, 2026
RS Round 5: Sunday, February 8th, 2026
RS Round 6: Monday, February 9th, 2026

RS Round 7: Friday, February 13th, 2026
RS Round 8: Monday, February 16th, 2026
RS Round 9: Friday, February 20th, 2026

RS Round 10: Monday, February 23rd, 2026
RS Round 11: Friday, February 27th, 2026
RS Round 12: Monday, March 2nd, 2026

RS Round 13: Friday, March 6th, 2026
RS Round 14: Monday, March 9th, 2026
RS Round 15: Friday, March 13th, 2026

RS Round 16: Monday, March 16th, 2026


PO Round 1 (teams ranked 5th-12th; 8 play): Sunday, March 22nd, 2026
PO Round 2 (quarter-finals; 8 teams play): Sunday, March 29th, 2026
PO Round 3 (semifinals; 4 teams play): Sunday, April 5th, 2026
PO Round 4 (final and a bronze match; 4 teams play): Sunday, April 12th, 2026

***
So as we can see, typically last match of RS is played on Monday, which is the case also with this kind of schedule.

This leaves just enough time for Playoff match organizing, especially as it is required that ORSR-rankings are calculated before Playoff matchups can be determined.

We have seen in many instances, that even 6 days is sometimes tight schedule for organizing Playoff match, so I wouldn't reserve any less time for organizing a Round of Playoff matches, as we remember that there have been delays in the past (and one match has even been forfeited due to that).

But I'm not sure if I understood you correctly, because we are playing "playing the 17th game AND Pre-PO game the same week", as you mentioned, with this setup.

Did you meant that on Monday would be 16th and on Friday 17th game and then on Sundays' first Playoff Round (which would become the case if we would only have 2 matches per week during RS and wouldn't want to lengthen the season, right?)?

That would be way too short time to arrange Playoff matches I think, which I say from experience.. so the season would be lengthened by 1 week, if waiting time for First PO Round would be 9 days.

But if more teams will be added later on, lenghtening issue comes to a point where we can't tackle it anymore - I wouldn't prefer season to be lengthened anymore from this, if possible (but personally I think adding 3rd game to some weeks is ok until certain extent, to allow more teams to join, because I suppose sometimes you have to choose from two not totally optimal choices with pros and cons).


Last edited by Wagner at 1/11/2026 9:47:00 AM

I have ONE and he is right now 71 years-old. His salary is 226 $
(historically, I sold him around 32 at 110 000 $ of salary and took him back 4 seasons later with a salary of 60 000 if my memory's still effective.
He's not playing anymore for 30 seasons.

He needs to start warming up, as I received a request from my two oldies but goldies, mr. Rimpiläinen and Mönkö - both 78 years old - that they want to face Esnard on next season. xD Why do I recommend warming up? Mönkö in his first match of this (regular BB) season played 3 minutes, and got immediately an infection of back and was out for 14 days. It's tough to jump straight to a hardwood from a rocking chair, they say. :)

It'd be easy to implement, we can agree that we play them on, for instance, SF position (to make as less harm for the other teammates as possible?), do not set them highly skilled substitutes, and other than that, play our optimal lineup... It's a good offer, I have one substitute (Mönkö from bench), but you have a 7 years age advantage :D

Last edited by Wagner at 1/11/2026 10:17:55 AM

I made a mistake abiout this 17th game. I wanted to talk about the 16th (and last, if we are 17), but it takes 17 days...

I also misread your first post. Consider that your schedule is right :)

I made a mistake abiout this 17th game. I wanted to talk about the 16th (and last, if we are 17), but it takes 17 days...

I also misread your first post. Consider that your schedule is right :)

Thanks for a quick response and checking those days!

Yes, I think these days would set up correctly, but nobody (in addition to LennuK.) has yet viewed the actual match schedule, which I have here (as he sent it to me).

Do any of you guys have a foolproof and easy and quick (yes, a lot to ask) manual method which you could use to check/verify league schedule for correctness?
And does someone want to take a look at it?

If so, please let me know and I can post it on this Season 3 Thread.

My suggestion was clearly an idea, but I don't know how many teams are making trades and how many aren't.

I have a question: how many teams in HGL have at least one re-signed player on their roster and how many don't?

Now that the season 2 and 3 transfer post got published, it should give all of us better overview of that situation: (328546.14).

However, changed salary values for Season 3 (for teams trading), and Season 3 salary benefit post still haven't been corrected and published, respectively.
It would be important to get it done during this season, when it's still easier process and doesn't require reconstructing teams top8 etc., so I'd have to try to find time for that too.

But once again, does anyone want to re-check the newly AI built (and LennuK. verified) schedule (not the days I already sent, but the actual schedule with team abbreviations) for 17 teams?

Or perhaps not, meaning that we should just proceed ASAP and trust it's 100% correct?

Last edited by Wagner at 1/11/2026 12:44:24 PM

Further update on Season 4 preseason process:
As mentioned,
- possible new team joining, if we can accept him with this short notice - final decision on hold (but I'd err strongly on the positive side, in terms of being able to accept him).
For me it's totally fine and it´s great to welcome new team, as long as I can be sure AI-created schedule works as intended.

- Season 4 Threads have now been created, but content lacking due to this arduous seasonal process of "moving" to different thread, updating all data and links, etc. Please mention if you spot some faulty information, links, etc.
It is also beneficial, if not rather necessary, to try to consider how to potentially lessen the work included in season to season transitional process, as it's not on an enjoyable/optimal level in a long run.

- I have not yet started adding challenging responsibilities to this new schedule, as I'm kind of waiting to see if anyone else wants to take a look at schedule first, and also waiting for LennuK.'s answer whether or not he wants/has time to set up those challenging responsibilities ("CR") to newly built schedule.

- On the other hand, it's kind of tricky to edit any official posts properly for this season, when complete decision on 16/17 teams issue hasn't been made (again, I'd be very confident that we should be able to invite him as 17th team).

- It would ve very beneficial to be able to get started in match organizing process soon.

- As a reminder to all; now that we don't observe Daylight Savings Time, match time will change to 2.30PM EET (Eastern European Time) for Season 4 Regular Season.

Last edited by Wagner at 1/11/2026 12:59:15 PM

I made a mistake abiout this 17th game. I wanted to talk about the 16th (and last, if we are 17), but it takes 17 days...

I also misread your first post. Consider that your schedule is right :)

Now that I checked out once again schedule provided by LennuK., it appears to me that I was wrong, as there seems to be 17 Rounds. I somehow thought it's the same logic (1 game less than there are teams) when you play with even number of teams, but of course when 1 team rests per Round, it takes longer to complete whole schedule, hence 17 weeks for RS.

So I need to edit that schedule once again.. I guess it would be corrected (able to finish RS in same time frame) if we add a third match also to, say, third week of RS - right?

Last edited by Wagner at 1/11/2026 6:35:18 PM

Nobody has seemed necessary to reply to my suggestion of checking out the new schedule for Season 4 (which was triggered by very likely addition of 17th team for Season 4), so I'm still waiting for this day if someone wants to do that, as it goes well in line with LennuK.'s schedule as he mentioned he'd have time later today to undertake the marking of challenge responsibilities to new schedule-project, therefore we couldn't publish new schedule before that either, so we do not lose time here.
Having said that, unless somebody wants to look at the new schedule (which I can send here on S3 thread, like mentioned) and find out problems with it, or if LennuK. seems necessary to run a manual double-check on it today and would find problems for it), we could accept 17th team to HGL Season 4.

Practically I find it highly likely that we can add his team for Season 4, so I have made preparations having that in mind. (While Season 4 threads seem empty, content is actually mostly finished already, but there isn't much point to publish them as schedule isn't yet published and addition of 17th team isn't quite 100% confirmed).

If everything goes as planned, and no reports of faulty schedule (which again nobody but LennuK. and myself have seen so far; if you want to see it, reply to this ASAP and I'll send it here on official thread!) are made, I'm looking forward to publish new schedule with challenge responsibility markings on Season 4 Scores Thread likely tomorrow.
That of course means, that we can and should start Regular Season match organizing process as soon as schedule is published on Season 4 thread.

Here is an updated table on the countries' stats participating in the HGL after season 3. The table after season 2 is found here: (328546.57). Only regular season games are counted towards this statistic.

Rank__Country__NoT_GP__W___L___PF/G___PA/G__PD/G__WLR
1______Slovakia____1___45___43___2___112.5____86.5____+26.0___0.956
2______Argentina___1___15___14___1___117.5____80.9____+36.7___0.933
3______Poland_____1___45___33___12___107.9____98.4____+9.5___0.733
4______Sweden____1___30___22___8____99.1_____93.6____+5.5____0.733
5______Bosnia i H.__1___30___19___11____92.3_____85.5____+6.8___0.633
6______France_____3___135___79___56__103.1____96.9____+6.2____0.585
7______Italy_______2___60___32___28___89.7_____84.8____+4.9___0.533
8______Finland_____2___90___45___45___100.0____97.7____+2.3___0.500
9______Lithuania___1___15___7____8____103.9____105.9____-1.9___0.467
10______Spain_____1___45__15____30___89.1_____94.0____-4.9____0.333
11_____Latvia_____1___45___15___30___99.3_____104.5____-5.1____0.333
12_____Australia___2___45___12___33___84.8_____112.8____-28.0___0.267
13_____Estonia____1___30___6____24___97.9_____107.2____-9.4____0.200
14_____Uruguay___1___45___9____36___90.9_____105.4____-14.6___0.200
15_____USA_______3___45___8___37___85.3_____111.5___-26.2____0.178

Bosnia i H.=Bosnia and Herzegovina

NoT=Number of distinct teams, GP=Games played, W=Wins, L=Losses, PF/G=Points scored for per game, PA/G=Points scored against per game, PD/G=Scoring difference per game, WLR=Win-Loss-Ratio

Countries in italic font have currently no active teams in HGL

Last edited by LA-LennuK at 1/12/2026 6:56:31 PM