First of all I have to say I appreciate all the advice given in this forum by ashamael and other expert owners. But what's the deal with the playoffs? I have been able to field many teams that win 60+ games (thanks again, ash), have the most wins in the league, and then....they get blown away in the first round of the playoffs, generally by teams they dominated during the regular season. I get a bye, they get their starters down below 100% efficiency in their previous round--and yet I get crushed. The owners play the same lineups, the same strategies, the same everything as in regular season--only the results are drastically different.

Sometimes it's like the sim has pre-determined my team is going to be upset--and I'm powerless against it. I'm starting to think the game is just screwing with me! Funny (not to me) example: in a recent playoff game, I gave Shaq 40 target minutes. The sim played him just 29, and no, he did NOT foul out (and I had the foul trouble setting on "aggressive." ) I mean, seriously? Please help stem my paranoia: what is different in the playoffs?

Been playing this game for almost 14 years and the SIM has had ZERO updates in about the last 10, yet I still have all those same questions / feelings about the Playoffs. Heck, I'm not even 100% convinced they don't use a totally different SIM. I've been swept by teams I went 8-0 against in the regular season, and vice-versa. Just gotta write it off to being SIM'd.

Would have to see the boxscore(s) in question to be able to get into specifics but a lot of times playoffs can seem different than the regular seasons for a lot of reasons. Playing a team 2-3 times in the regular season is too small a sample size to really know how teams match up and for that matter a seven game playoff series is too small a sample size to definitely decide the better team. Also, many owners pay more attention and time in the playoffs and some owners have much different playing strategies than in the regular season.

Posted by all3 on 12/26/2016 5:15:00 PM (view original):
Been playing this game for almost 14 years and the SIM has had ZERO updates in about the last 10, yet I still have all those same questions / feelings about the Playoffs. Heck, I'm not even 100% convinced they don't use a totally different SIM. I've been swept by teams I went 8-0 against in the regular season, and vice-versa. Just gotta write it off to being SIM'd.

Thanks for confirming this! And the idea of a totally different SIM in the playoffs sounds quite plausible to me.

Posted by benhoidal on 12/26/2016 5:54:00 PM (view original):
Would have to see the boxscore(s) in question to be able to get into specifics but a lot of times playoffs can seem different than the regular seasons for a lot of reasons. Playing a team 2-3 times in the regular season is too small a sample size to really know how teams match up and for that matter a seven game playoff series is too small a sample size to definitely decide the better team. Also, many owners pay more attention and time in the playoffs and some owners have much different playing strategies than in the regular season.

Ben, in my most recent example I played my opponent 8 times in the regular season and won 7. I finished 17 games ahead of him in the division. And in the playoffs we both used the same strategies and lineups as in th regular season. Yet......%&$#@! I'm going with all3's theory--WIS is using a different sim in the playoffs LOL

For me I dont use any +/- on defense until the playoffs. It just might be people are trying different things

Did he play people the same minutes? I tend to play my starters/key players way more minutes in the playoffs in addition to other tweaks (things you might not see at first glance, like the ______ at the end of the game settings).

Also, you need your foul settings on Very Aggressive to ignore foul trouble. It's the first thing I do with a new team.

also it's aways good to remember that **** is random and that Scott has said that 10+ games is not nearly enough sampling to hope for normalization so with just 7 games in a series what's a boy to do?

Postscript: the sim just completed making its point on me. Down 3-2 in game 6, I played all my star starters 40+ minutes (all at 100% efficiency, BTW) --Lebron, Shaq, Stockton. "Only" 36 minutes for Rodman and 34 for Paul. My opponent played a lineup with Walton at 90%, Rodman at 95%, Durant at 90%, Stockton at 95%. . . .you get the picture. The end result: this team that lost 7 of 8 to us during the regular season crushed my team by 24 points to win the series 4-2. Can't say I was surprised anymore at this point. It all seemed predetermined from game one....

As much as I claim to hate the current (unchanged for a decade) SIM, other than maybe pigging-out at Wendy's, I still can't think of a better way to spend $10. Certainly not a way that lasts as long as a SIM season.

Yup, all3, it's definitely a love-hate relationship. It's fun to build a team. But you bust your hump to put together a winning team, you manipulate your minutes and lineups through a season to get the best record in the league, and then...whoops--the sim brings down the hammer on it.. Funny thing, I have one other active team going now in an open league. It's pretty mediocre, barely above .500 and fighting for the last playoff spot. Maybe if I do make the playoffs the sim will have pity and put me at the other end of the algorithm and I'll win a championship with a .500 team! A boy can dream, can't he? LOL

I just had a team that was 42-26 and in 3rd place in the conference that finished the season 44-38 in 7th place in the conference and no, fatigue was not an issue

Postscript: that 50-win 4th seed that beat my team in 6 games went on to sweep a #2 seed for the conference title, and then swept a #3 seed for the championship--all with half its players under 100% efficiency. I guess when you're anointed by the sim, there is simply no stopping you.