I guess this is part of what makes the new format fun! Teams among the favorites playing in the round-robin and having to come back and dominate their other matches to still make the semis.And Mid Atlantic plays both. Opportunity to play spoiler...twice.
might have other sections not named FL or Northern rooting for them.
I haven't seen the schedules, but I did get to play one team and see the other. For what that's worth, I think Southern is the better team. No offense intended, but I found the ******* singles to be weaker at all spots. Their doubles was good but not outstanding for the level. So while they are probably similar in doubles, I'd give Southern the edge at two of the three though. In the end, close enough that the right opponents could turn the tide, but still far enough that I'd bet Southern without reservation.schmke said:
I agree Southern is the stronger team, and they are more likely to make the semis than Middle West is, but Southern has a slightly tougher schedule too.
They're one of the favorites but they will have their hands full with southern and southwest
Bunch of ageists!
Any chance you do a simulation for the men's 40 and over 4.5+?
Yep, I will, the 40 & Over teams were finally just finalized last weekend. I'll probably do it early next week. You going?
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My simulation should give a good idea. What section?
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Yeah, Caribbean is almost always underrated coming in, still working on the best way to remedy that.
See you tomorrow Croc @CrocodileRock
Just wrote a bit of a recap on the semi-finalists and tie-breakers on my blog.
It also matters if their opponents actually brought their best players or if their ratings are "accurate" in comparison to the other sections. I noticed both Florida and Northern didn't bring one of their key singles players. Northern definitely could have used their missing guy to try and flip their losses. If you were to redo the simulations with only the players that showed up to nationals, I'm sure the predictions would look different. Wouldn't have helped Middle States, though. That was a surprise.
Yep, I thought about noting that. It might have helped to list the opponent's record minus the match against the semifinal team in question. It would have looked like this
I agree. It looks like Middle States left their best player at home. LOL.
good luck to some of your guys in the 40s.I'm sure we crossed paths today and this weekend. Congrats to your team and on your season! Maybe see you in...2 years
Schedule strengths are a huge factor in this format. And I've heard from some players how close some matches were, for example a 4-1 loss where the losing team had multiple match points in two of the losses so that could have been a 3-2 win. There are razor thin margins and a 4-0 or 0-4 record isn't necessarily as dominant as it sounds.
Really? I was on the Middle States team and was there this past weekend. We had our top players so I'm not sure who we left at home. We had match points to win # 2 doubles and ended up losing 16-14 in the coman. #3 doubles also came down to a coman so it could've been 3-2 middle states over weekend. Credit to Puerto Rico for pulling out the win. They're a good group of guys and deserve winning the whole tournament.
It was me I was referring to. That was a joke, not serious.
Not last, DFL as @J011yroger pointed out.
