Tanking?
 

Let's get some opinions...

I call this tanking.

Vote yes or no

Yes on both

Obviously yes.

How can they even have so many good players?

It is 19, so they could have been playing a long time and accumulated enough points to get those players. Or, they could have put real money into the game.

Don't begrudge them the players...but they aren't attempting to win. They're trying to get relegated so they can win a WS. That's a TOS violation.

i think the tanking teams want to move down so they can dominate at the lower level. and pick up PP. but if they win the WS they are back up a level. and then what? tank again to move back down? mostly i think its a frustration move for these teams. can't compete at perfect so they want to go back to diamond.



whatever the case is, the developers need to weigh in with clear rules.

Both teams are clearly trying to win fewer games than they are capable of. If this is the definition of tanking we are working with, then obviously they are tanking.

However, I do not believe either team meets a strict definition of the term tanking. This is especially true of the first team, where 15 of their 25 man roster is Silver (not counting the one Diamond player they retained). The second team is much closer to being a tanker, but even then, they are only utilizing 8 iron players, in addition to 3 Silvers and 2 Golds. Both teams include some very highly regarded silver and bronze players - Andrelton Simmons appears on both, and the 2nd team is still fielding Aparicio, Belanger, and McReynolds.

Neither team is significantly disrupting the competitive balance of D375. Neither team is giving an extreme unfair advantage to their competition.

I’d be curious to see your definition of tanking.

Two teams in D.375 are obviously tanking.

Team 1 is now 26-107 with an active roster of 2 Gold, 3 Silver, 12 Bronze and 8 Iron Cards with a reserve roster of 2 Perfect, 16 Diamond, and 7 Gold. The reserve roster contains 96 Cobb, 93 Maddux, 100 Betts, 100 Trout, 95 Harvey, 96 Brown, 94 Clemens, 92 Connor, 91 Sisler (You get the picture).

Team 2 is now 43-90 with an active roster of 12 Silver, 10 Bronze, 3 Iron and a reserve roster of 1 Perfect, 14 Gold, and 12 Silver. His reserve roster is more modest but he's not starting his 1 Perfect or any of his gold cards.

Better question -- should we care? The clear answer would seem to be "No."

Until there's an option to voluntarily have your team demoted, teams have to do what they can to get where they want to be. I had to "tank" with one team after I changed it from a standard "best players I have team" to a Mariners-themed squad. The Mariners squad couldn't compete at Perfect/Diamond, so I had to get myself demoted to Gold. I wish there was an option to just stay put. Better yet, why can't each account have multiple teams that they can enter in different themed leagues? It'd kind of ridiculous that I have to run three different accounts in order to have the different teams I want (currently have a standard team, a Mariners team, and a 1990s team in v19).

When you miss the wild card because two teams in their division got to beat those teams 17 out of 19 times along with handing them tens of thousands of free PP, you should care. That season is ruined for all 29 other teams in the league.

It's even likely that a team gets promoted that doesn't deserve it and possibly puts that team in the same situation because they're in a league they can't compete in.

Then ask the devs for a "volunteer for demotion" feature. Otherwise, you'll have to make do.

Or you can just get banned.

Were they reported?

Can someone point me to the section in the rules where "tanking" is clearly defined and prohibited? Players are free to setup their team however they choose in order to meet the competitive goals they have set for themselves. If I'm at the Perfect Level and I decide that I want to switch to an entirely "One Hit Wonder" squad (which will have a ton of bronze cards), then that's my prerogative. Similarly, if I decide that I want to drop down from Perfect or Diamond to Gold in order to generate more favorable results from a theme squad (which are at an inherent disadvantage due to the roster limitations), then there shouldn't be anything preventing me from doing so.

license.txt in your installation folder. Just because you didn't read it, doesn't mean that you can make up your own rules.

This doesn't preclude a team from doing anything, really. I can always make the argument that I am intending to win over the long-term -- taking a step back in order to take two+ steps forward. You'd need to establish a pattern of behavior over multiple season in order to make the case you're trying to make. Furthermore, I don't see where the devs would want to deliberately discourage players from having fun. If I want to see how a team comprised entirely of players named "Tom" would do in PT, then so be it. If a "whale" got banned for fielding a less-than-stellar team for a season, I think they'd have a nice little case in small claims court (depending on how much they spent). The "intended operation of the game" is a pretty nebulous clause.

There is no f'ing argument that you can make that when you're playing a terrible team with far superior cards on reserve that you are not deliberately trying to lose.

You're being completely selfish and not thinking about anyone else in your league when you try to lose. It literally ruins the entire season for that league. No one will know who had the best team, because some teams got huge advantages with free wins.