Who Made It To The Finals In Cutline Championship?

[Coach JP]

Well, for a $150 investment in Cutline, the point leader after 9 weeks got $250; but it wasn't abut winning $250, it was about making the lottery.

That's still almost 2x profit. Chris didn't even get his buyin back for having the most points.

[kjduke]

I would love to see this stay at 50K grand prize and load it up after that. More so than ever right now, I TOTALLY understand your issue with a MONSTER grand prize, and 2nd place being less than 10-15% of that.

My biggest issues are;

1) The NFFC is putting FAR too much into the consolation round for all it's contests. In the Cutline for example, the 4th place finisher will make MORE than the 6th place finisher in the championship round. That makes ZERO sense to me! Why shouldn't the 12 best teams (i.e the championship round) ALL make more than the BEST consolation team? Doesn't that make sense??? This goes for the Classic and Primetime as well.

2) I would like to see different prizes for EACH spot. Again, if I finish 6th or 10th (for example), I get the same amount????
Again...this is just completely illogical, IMO.

Good luck KJ.....bring it home!

Maybe it helps to think of it as a "Wildcard" bracket rather than a consolation (loser's) contest. Is the #6 of 12 in the champ round outscoring the #4 of 20 in the wildcard round? Your upside is capped in the wildcard, but a still solid pay structure with a 5-figure prize makes that bracket more interesting than a typical consolation. I like that. And being that this is survivor style, I also think it's a big plus that everyone to make the final week gets paid.

That said, you make a good argument and I would have no problem with Greg bumping the champ bracket up at a quicker rate than the wildcard as the prize pool ramps next season, so long as it doesn't get too vertical.

[Don Draper]

As someone who is considering going “ALL IN” next year on this format, I tend to agree with Billy. The Wild Card teams seem to be getting a significant amount of money seeing how they are in the “loser’s bracket”. Here is what a “reworked” payout schedule would look like: based on the same overall payout, the same number of payout spots, and the same playoff contestants (12 from Championship round and 20 from Wild Card Round). Thoughts?

Prize Schedule for Championship Round AND Wild Card Round
$50,000 – Prize is won by the highest scoring Championship Round team
$25,000 – Prize is won by the 2nd highest scoring Championship Round team
$15,000 – Prize is won by the 3rd highest scoring Championship Round team
$10,000 – Prize is won by the 4th highest scoring Championship Round team
$10,000 – Prize is won by the 5th highest scoring Championship Round team
$5,000 – Prize is won by the highest scoring Wild Card Round team
$4,000 – Prize is won by the next highest scoring team in either the Championship Round or the Wild Card Round
$2,000 – Prize is won by the next highest scoring team in either the Championship Round or the Wild Card Round
$1,500 – Prize is won by the next highest scoring team in either the Championship Round or the Wild Card Round
$1,000 – Prize is won by the next highest scoring team in either the Championship Round or the Wild Card Round
$1,000 – Prize is won by the next highest scoring team in either the Championship Round or the Wild Card Round
$1,000 – Prize is won by the next highest scoring team in either the Championship Round or the Wild Card Round
$1,000 – Prize is won by the next highest scoring team in either the Championship Round or the Wild Card Round
$1,000 – Prize is won by the next highest scoring team in either the Championship Round or the Wild Card Round
$1,000 – Prize is won by the next highest scoring team in either the Championship Round or the Wild Card Round
$1,000 – Prize is won by the next highest scoring team in either the Championship Round or the Wild Card Round
$1,000 – Prize is won by the next highest scoring team in either the Championship Round or the Wild Card Round
$500 – Prize is won by the next highest scoring team in either the Championship Round or the Wild Card Round
$500 – Prize is won by the next highest scoring team in either the Championship Round or the Wild Card Round
$500 – Prize is won by the next highest scoring team in either the Championship Round or the Wild Card Round
$500 – Prize is won by the next highest scoring team in either the Championship Round or the Wild Card Round
$500 – Prize is won by the next highest scoring team in either the Championship Round or the Wild Card Round
$500 – Prize is won by the next highest scoring team in either the Championship Round or the Wild Card Round
$500 – Prize is won by the next highest scoring team in either the Championship Round or the Wild Card Round
$250 – Prize is won by the next highest scoring team in either the Championship Round or the Wild Card Round
$250 – Prize is won by the next highest scoring team in either the Championship Round or the Wild Card Round
$250 – Prize is won by the next highest scoring team in either the Championship Round or the Wild Card Round
$250 – Prize is won by the next highest scoring team in either the Championship Round or the Wild Card Round
$250 – Prize is won by the next highest scoring team in either the Championship Round or the Wild Card Round
$250 – Prize is won by the next highest scoring team in either the Championship Round or the Wild Card Round
$250 – Prize is won by the next highest scoring team in either the Championship Round or the Wild Card Round
$250 – Prize is won by the next highest scoring team in either the Championship Round or the Wild Card Round
Total Payout = $136,000

[Coach JP]

I don't see why the wildcard teams should ever get more than anyone in the championship round. Not only does it reward the lesser teams more but it provides some VERY dicey scenarios.


Scenario: You're in the championship bracket and are about to be cut by 2 points. You have a kicker going Monday night. The person who is first in the championship bracket is 100 points ahead of you, while others are 50+ points ahead of you. Meanwhile in the wildcard bracket, your team would be 4th overall and 10 points out of first.

What's to stop you from just benching your kicker and taking a shot in the wildcard round at $10,000 instead of playing for maybe $1-2,000 in the championship? You should never be given the option to tank for more money.

Reward the guys the most who are in the championship bracket. The winner of wildcard should not get more than anyone in the championship. My two cents.

[kjduke]

I don't see why the wildcard teams should ever get more than anyone in the championship round. Not only does it reward the lesser teams more but it provides some VERY dicey scenarios.

Those wildcard teams could have slid down by the thinnest of margin, one bad week. You could very well have a team in that bracket that outscored every team in the champ bracket thru 15 wks. And to win the wildcard, you probably need 200+ in wk 16 ... that isn't worth more than the #12 team in the champ bracket who probably **** the bed in the final week?

[kjduke]

Thoughts?

Prize Schedule for Championship Round AND Wild Card Round

Not a bad thought, but perhaps not appealing from a player standpoint to have to bounce between two different player pools at that point to figure what you're winning. I'd rather a set payout for each pool.

[Coach JP]

I don't see why the wildcard teams should ever get more than anyone in the championship round. Not only does it reward the lesser teams more but it provides some VERY dicey scenarios.

Those wildcard teams could have slid down by the thinnest of margin, one bad week.

I had a bad week the first week of the cutoff -- and I was eliminated. The next two weeks I scored 390 points combined. I have no sympathy for those who get cut down to the wildcard when I'm getting cut from the contest all together for my one bad week.

If your team isn't good enough that week you shouldn't be making more than someone the next week. That's like saying you lost your home league playoff in the semi finals, but for 3rd place we'll give you more than the 2nd place guy because you outscored him the next week.

[Jim Christie]

I have a solution, don't play the damn contest; again, this whining at the end of a contest is ridiculous; I know what the rules are in every contest prior to playing; 1800 teams down to 32 teams in 2 formats playing for money; 12 teams vying for $50,000 first prize and 20 people for $10,000; bottom 6 in champ round get $1,000 and the bottom 8 in wildcard get $250; however, let the whining continue, please;

[Jim Christie]

I don't see why the wildcard teams should ever get more than anyone in the championship round. Not only does it reward the lesser teams more but it provides some VERY dicey scenarios.


Scenario: You're in the championship bracket and are about to be cut by 2 points. You have a kicker going Monday night. The person who is first in the championship bracket is 100 points ahead of you, while others are 50+ points ahead of you. Meanwhile in the wildcard bracket, your team would be 4th overall and 10 points out of first.

What's to stop you from just benching your kicker and taking a shot in the wildcard round at $10,000 instead of playing for maybe $1-2,000 in the championship? You should never be given the option to tank for more money.

Reward the guys the most who are in the championship bracket. The winner of wildcard should not get more than anyone in the championship. My two cents.

Stupid Argument; if you look at the standings going in to week 16, in the championship round, the difference between first and 12th is about 34 points; if you were behind by 100 you wouldn't be 4th in the wildcard; so sitting your K in MNF is ludicrous; the difference between 1st and 7th is about 16 points in the champ round; wide open; in the championships round you have a 1 in 12 chance for 50K, 2 in 12 for 25K, 3 in 12 for 15 K and 4 in 12 for 10K and 5 in 12 for 5K; I can just about guarantee if you finished 5th in the champ round and won 5K, in the wildcard you would probable only finish at best 4th and $1500; finishing 4th in champ round gets you 10K which you would not have won in the champ round;
In wildcard, 1 in 20 to win 10K, 2 in 20 to win 4K and 3 in 20 to win 2K;

To imply the teams in the wildcard are less than or losing teams is sour grapes, again coming in the 24th hour when not one mention of this concern during the season. This setup was fair, like KJ, I had 5 league wins out of 11 teams, all 5 teams were solid or else they would not have scored the most points in each league. I have one team left in the wildcard, got eliminated week one to the wild card and has survived the cut each week after the cut. My BEST team didn't make it because of 2 bad weeks and that team was 9-0 and most league points. SHIT happens.

The bottom line, in this unique format, score or go home. If you're in the championship round and get eliminated, you move to the wildcard, again, score or go home;

1800 teams started this contest and 1768 got eliminated with 32 remaining with a chance at money, in fact all 32 will win something; how they perform in week 16 will decided how much each owner wins.

I would much rather be in the championship round where there is $112,000 at stake between 12 teams, than the wildcard where there is $22,000 at stake between 20 owners; in my math, which isn't fuzzy, option one KILLS option 2;

[Coach JP]

Stupid Argument

It's a completely valid argument, and you being on a high horse and trying to eliminate any discussions on the topic does no good. Greg has gone on record stating they want opinions on how they can make this better.

To me, in my own opinion (because you're allowed to have those), it makes no sense that you can finish 4th in the Wildcard and make more than 50% of the championship bracket. Some may agree, some may disagree. It's worth discussion either way.

It IS possible that the math can work out where it makes more sense for you to tank and drop into the consolation bracket for week 16 if you know you are statistically eliminated from the top 5 spots in the championship bracket. Just because it didn't happen this year doesn't mean that it won't in the future. For all you know one year there could be five super teams who have multiple players go off in weeks 14/15, and they all have a 100 point lead over the rest of the pack. At that point all you have to play for is $1,000 or you can drop down to the wildcard bracket and compete for a lot more money. Easy decision.

I don't have a horse in this race, so to call any opinion different than your own sour grapes/dumb is close minded. This was a test year for everyone to try out this contest. I for one am going to come back, probably with more teams than this season, and will still offer my .02 cents about how I think it could be better.