Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom the Fish
The *** playoffs seem the change year to year. Last year I think the PL had a four-team playoff series (I don't pay any attention to the PL so I could be wrong) and the CL had three teams. The 2nd and 3rd seed teams play a best-of-three series at the 2nd seed's home field.
The winner of that series plays the 1st seed team at the 1st seed team's home field. It's a best of seven series but only six games are played. The 1st seed team is awarded one win, so the 1st seed team only needs to win 3 games while the other team must win 4.
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The 2013 schedule was all screwed up. While the first round of the PL Climax Series was going on, Rakuten and Orix were playing make up games for rain outs.
The format is geared to try and give the regular season champions as much of an advantage as possible. Teams have a 40 man roster limit for the playoffs. To further complicate matters, if the 2nd and 3rd place teams have the same record at the end of the season, the team with a better record the PREVIOUS season gets the spot.
Climax Series Stage 1
3rd place vs 2nd place. Best of 3, all games played at 2nd place teams stadium. 12 innings max. If tied after three games (1-1-1 or 0-0-3) the 2nd place team advances to Stage 2.
Climax Series Stage 2
Stage 1 winners vs 1st place teams. Best of 6, all games at 1st place teams stadium. 1st place team begins the series with a 1-0 advantage. 12 innings max. If the 1st place team is up 2-0 and the third game ends in a tie, the 1st place team is credited with the win.
If any of the Climax Series series ends in a tie the the team with the better regular season record advances to the Japan Series.
Japan Series
Best of 7. 2-3-2. 15 innings max. If after the 7 games it is a tie (3-3-1 for example), then an 8th game will be played with no maximum on the innings played.
Quite the headache IMHO.
While on the topic of OOTP, might be a good time to mention there are three all-star games played during the all-star break. One at a Pacific League stadium, one at a Central League stadium and one at a neutral stadium. There are many games played during the season at neutral stadiums so fans all around Japan can have a chance to see the *** teams in action.