How It Works

Regular season standings are sorted by win percentage. When two or more players finish tied, the site walks through the tiebreakers in this order and stops at the first one that separates them:

1. Win percentage
2. Total wins
3. Fewer losses
4. Head-to-head record between the tied players
5. Head-to-head point differential
6. Overall point differential (Points For minus Points Against)
7. Points For
8. Player name, alphabetical

The name tiebreaker exists so the #1 seed is never ambiguous. It only applies when every prior criterion is exactly equal, which is unlikely but possible.

A player clinches a playoff spot the moment it becomes mathematically impossible for enough other players to finish ahead of them. The site checks this after every final score, not just at the end of the season.

The check runs like this for each active player:

1. Assume the player loses every remaining regular season game.
2. Assume every other player wins every remaining game.
3. Count how many players could finish with more wins.
4. If fewer than the bracket size could catch them, they have clinched.

Ties are treated conservatively. If another player could match a player’s win total, they are counted as potentially ahead. A clinch is only awarded when the seat is guaranteed regardless of how any tiebreaker shakes out.

The play-in window sits four seeds below the last guaranteed playoff seed. A player is marked play-in when they have not clinched a playoff spot outright but fewer than that expanded cutoff could still finish ahead of them.

Elimination is the mirror image. A player is eliminated when the number of players already guaranteed to finish ahead meets or exceeds the play-in cutoff. At that point there is no combination of remaining results that keeps them alive.

Inactive players are checked the same way. Because they have no remaining games, they are almost always eliminated the moment enough other players have banked wins they can no longer match.

On the standings page each row is tinted to reflect this. Green means the player has clinched a playoff berth, yellow means they are still fighting for a spot through the play-in, and red means they are mathematically eliminated.

The playoff bracket builds itself as games are entered. Seeds come straight from the standings, which means the bracket updates every time a result changes the order. Nothing is set manually until the regular season is over and the field is locked.

Every qualifying player starts in the Quarterfinals. No one skips a round on the strength of their seed, and there are no first-round byes. Each conference runs its own bracket: Quarterfinals to Semifinals to the Conference Finals, and the two conference champions meet in the Finals. Round-one matchups follow standard higher-seed-versus-lower-seed pairing (#1 vs #8, #2 vs #7, #3 vs #6, #4 vs #5). The commissioner can override any matchup from the Commissioner page if the format changes.

Power rankings are separate from standings. Standings are strict win-loss order. Power rankings are a blended quality score meant to reflect who is actually playing the best basketball right now.

The score combines three inputs:

• Win percentage
• Point differential per game
• Recent form over the last five games

Only players with at least one final in the current phase appear. Preseason rankings clear the moment the first regular season game goes final, and the board rebuilds from regular season results.

Every player carries an overall rating between 60 and 99. Higher means the player is producing more across the categories the league already tracks: winning games, point differential, recent form, shooting efficiency, foul discipline, and two-way impact (steals and blocks against turnovers).

The rating is derived from the same quality score that powers rankings use, then mapped onto the 60 to 99 scale. It updates as new stats come in during the season. Until a player has logged at least two games the site holds their rating steady rather than swing it on a single result.

Ratings persist between seasons. When a new season begins, a player keeps their finishing overall as a starting point, then it begins to adjust again from the first regular season game onward. New players enter at 70 and move from there.

The league is split into two conferences: Premier and Legacy. Every player belongs to exactly one, and the assignment is permanent unless the commissioner runs a league-approved realignment.

New players are placed to keep the conferences competitive. The site assigns them to whichever conference has the smaller roster, and if the rosters are equal, to whichever has the lower combined OVR. The intent is that neither side should have a structural talent advantage over the other.

Each conference publishes three indices on the standings page:

• Average OVR across active members
• Rookie count, defined as anyone in their first or only season
• Veteran count, defined as anyone who has played in two or more seasons

To keep small sample sizes from dominating the leaderboards, players must appear in at least 80 percent of the scheduled regular season games before they qualify. Before that threshold, their per-game stats still show up on their profile but not on league leader lists.

Shooting percentages require a minimum number of attempts so that one lucky game does not top the board. Season totals count everything, qualified or not.

Head-to-head records count every regular season and playoff final between two players in the current season. Preseason games are excluded. The average margin is signed from the first player’s perspective, so a positive number means they have outscored the opponent across the series.

Preseason results are visible and tracked, but they never feed standings, seeding, clinch math, or power rankings once the regular season begins. This keeps warmup games from distorting the real race.

Every final score is stamped with its phase when it is entered, so nothing accidentally leaks between the two.

Every player has a private portal at /portal/login. The commissioner issues a username and a temporary password, which the player is required to change on first sign in.

Inside the portal, players see a personal dashboard, their own statistics and OVR breakdown, matchup previews, conference standings, the playoff bracket, awards, league history, and records. They can also update their avatar, display name, password, and notification preferences.

Announcements posted by the commissioner appear inside the portal and generate an in-app notification for every account. Competitive data, including OVR, statistics, conference, awards, rankings, records, and playoff status, is calculated by the league and cannot be modified by players.

Every player carries a status: Active, Inactive, Suspended, or Retired. Active is the default. Inactive and Suspended players are pulled from future scheduling but their history stays intact. Retired players are moved into a dedicated Retired section on the players page and can no longer be assigned to new matchups.

When the commissioner flips a player to Retired mid-season, the site handles the fallout automatically:

• Any remaining regular season games featuring that player are removed from the schedule so opponents are not credited a phantom win or forced to record a forfeit.
• Unfinished playoff games are voided, and the sync engine advances the surviving opponent to the next round automatically.
• Standings, clinch math, and power rankings recalculate against the reduced schedule on the next refresh.

Completed games are never rewritten. A retired player’s prior results still count toward the season standings that were in effect when those games were played, and their career line remains visible on their profile.

Prospective players apply through /franchise. The form collects name, email, phone, Instagram handle, gaming setup, conference preference, and the policy agreements the league requires before a roster spot is offered.

Every submission lands in the Applications tab on the Commissioner page. From there the commissioner can filter by pending, approved, or rejected, read the full application, leave private reviewer notes, and change the status. Applicants are not notified automatically — the commissioner reaches out directly once a decision is made.

Announcements are posted by the commissioner from the Commissioner page and appear in two places: the public Announcements feed and every signed-in player’s portal. Each announcement also generates an in-app notification for every player account, sorted newest first inside the portal’s Notifications tab.

Notifications are in-app only. There are no emails, no SMS, and no push. Players can dial back what they see from Settings by toggling categories such as clinch updates, elimination alerts, and OVR changes. Turning a category off hides those notifications from the feed but does not delete the underlying record.