[as5680]

I could do that for next season - but will also try to provide that information for the past seasons where it has happened. My play-off settings are shown in the screenshot below.

My league was set up in OOTP 13, beginning in 2012. I have four divisions, South, Midland, North and Celtic. I played five seasons in OOTP 13 and upgraded to 14 after the 2016 season. In 2012 and 2013, I had no wild cards and the four-team playoffs proceeded as expected.

In 2014, I added two wild cards and used the same settings as now except that the top two seeds had a bye, and the first round was set to be seed 3v6 and 4v5.

2014 seeds:
1. Plymouth (1st South, 124-38)
2. Liverpool (1st North, 103-59)
3. Derby (1st Midland, 97-65)
4. Glasgow (1st Celtic, 95-67)
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5. Hull (2nd North, 98-64)
6. Stoke (2nd Midland/won tiebreaker, 95-68)

In the first round, Derby beat Stoke but Glasgow lost to Hull. As the lowest surviving seed, Hull should have faced Plymouth next but were instead matched with Liverpool (notably, a division rival). Instead, #3 Derby were paired with Plymouth. All I could think of was that Hull had a better regular season record than Derby, but with the option for wild cards always to be seeded lowest selected, that should not have been a problem.

In 2015 and 2016, the first round matchups were won by the #3 and #4 seeds, and the second round matchups were as expected - 1v4 and 2v3, so clearly no problem if the first round goes with seeding.

For 2017, I added the third wildcard and started using the settings in the screenshot. I also, as stated, moved the game to OOTP 14.

2017 seeds:
1. Southampton (1st South, 115-53)
2. Newcastle (1st North, 105-63)
3. Nottingham (1st Midland, 102-66)
4. Edinburgh (1st Celtic, 102-66)
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5. Plymouth (2nd South, 105-63)
6. Sheffield (2nd North, 101-67)
7. Leicester (2nd Midland, 101-67)

I have no idea on what bases Nottingham were seeded above Edinburgh, or Sheffield above Leicester, but those must have been the seedings on the basis of the first round matchups (Newcastle v Leicester, Nottingham v Sheffield, Edinburgh v Plymouth).

In that round, the only matchup which did not go to seeding was Plymouth beating Edinburgh. That left me with seeds 1, 2, 3 and 5 but in the next round, #5 Plymouth was paired with #2 Newcastle, while #1 Southampton played #3 Nottingham. Here I wondered whether teams in the same division (Plymouth and Southampton, the highest and lowest remaining seeds) were being kept apart but that doesn't fit with what happened in 2014.

The only pattern I could see was that as in 2014, the surviving wild card team had a better regular season record than a division champion, but wild cards are still set to be seeded lowest.

In 2018 and 2019, all three first round matchups were won by the division champions (seeds 2, 3 and 4) and the second round was set as expected - 1v4, 2v3.

In 2020 (season just finished), I saw for the first time the issue of the homefield advantage - that had always seemed correct in the previous examples.

2020 seeds:
1. Plymouth (1st South, 116-52)
2. Newcastle (1st North, 109-59)
3. Glasgow (1st Celtic, 103-65)
4. Birmingham (1st Midland, 98-70)
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5. Cork (2nd Celtic, 99-69)
6. Stoke (2nd Midland, 96-72)
7. Leicester (3rd Midland, 96-72)

Again, I don't know the basis on which Stoke was seeded above Leicester, it did fit the head to head but I don't think that is used? It must have been seeded that way though as the first round matchups were Birmingham v Cork, Glasgow v Stoke, Newcastle v Leicester.

For the first time, all three wildcards won their first round series - leaving seeds 1, 5, 6 and 7 to contest the next round. In the next round, it was #6 Stoke that was matched with #1 Plymouth, while #5 Cork played #7 Leicester. I was expecting Plymouth to play Leicester - I wonder whether the issue here is that Leicester and Stoke had the same record?

Bizarrely, Leicester was awarded homefield advantage against Cork despite having a worse regular season record. That was what made me wonder about teams taking the place of the higher seed they had beaten, but again that didn't fit with the previous examples.

I switched the homefield advantage by manually changing the schedule, and Cork won that series. However, Stoke shocked Plymouth in the other matchup so Cork faced Stoke for the title. Again, Cork should have had homefield advantage having had the better regular season record but it was instead given to Stoke - again, I changed it manually!

I can't see any pattern in terms of division rivals being kept apart, or of wild cards taking the place of the higher seed they had beaten in the bracket. In 2014 and 2017, there was the issue of a wildcard team having a better record than a division champion, but that wasn't an issue in 2020 when all three first round winners were wildcards.

The only thing I can think of is that I am misunderstanding what is meant by 're-seed prior to each round' and I have my play-offs set up wrong.