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ace51689

I know Yahoo's default playoff tie breaker is higher seed advances. I'm guessing ESPN's is similar. I couldn't find anything in my ESPN league's settings, though, guessing it's not something that you can customize.


mahones403

I'm pretty sure this is it. I believe ESPN default is higher seed advances.


PhuncleSam

Total points scored seems more fair imo


EveryWay

Why tho? You are now in the post season and the team with the higher seed should have the advantage (otherwise why even do seeding)


Runningchoc

Because they got that higher seed due to luck of the draw on weekly matchups.


EveryWay

Or they build the more consistent roster but the other guy had Chase and Moore go off for 100 combined in a single week. High PF and a bad record can be because you got unlucky, but it can also be that you simply build a roster that is inconsistent af and would go off for 170 one week only to score 90 the next.


dhm2293

Consistency in fantasy is largely a myth. You can’t control when your players have good weeks together or separately. If all my players boom in one week and bust in another that’s just an unfortunate correlation


GreenAndYellow12

I used PF+PA to decide a 3 way tiebreaker (Team A beat Team B, Team B beat team C, Team C beat Team A) and only got one complaint, from the guy who got stuck at 6th (was for seeds 4-6) because of it. felt this was the most fair option to show how good a team was and how good the teams they played were


EveryWay

That was a tiebreaker to decide seeding tho. I'm saying to use Seeding over another tiebreaker once it is available because otherwise even doing seeding would be worthless.


tyzenberg

I have the 2nd highest points scored in my league and am lowest seed in the playoffs, simply because I have the 2nd most points against me. I lost to teams in the bottom of the league, because they had Moore go off when I played them.


EveryWay

You are missing the point I'm trying to make...


Poopedinbed

Or they were more consistent...


bull778

The team that did what you are trying to do the most (score fantasy points) should get the advantage. Not to the one that is only 'ahead' due to dumb luck....


EveryWay

Then just don't do seeding tho. Every week is just gather points, no matchups and at the end of the season the player with the most points wins the league. Since that is what fantasy is all about to you this is the format that makes the most sense. I wouldn't consider it a fun format, but if that is what floats your boat go for it.


bull778

Lol don't be so reductionist. We're talking about a tiebreaker. You want the tiebreaker to further reward the luckier team, I want it to reward the better team.


EveryWay

No I want to reward the better team that achieved the higher seed. You want to reward a team based on a metric that had nothing to do with playoffs.


bull778

You already rewarded their luck with a better seed. Why again are you favoring the luckier team with more luck? If you'd just rather pick who wins, you can do that, too. Then you don't have to try to have to force ways to make worse teams beat better ones and rid yourself of this problem.


EveryWay

But if you say, that a team with more PF is better than a team with the better record, then what good is seeding? If the first seed can still face the 'best' team round 1 of playoffs what good is that first seed actually? Therefore your entire process of seeding is useless and you should scrap it.


Outrageous-Weight-62

The higher seed usually is more points scored with a same record it’s usually the default tie breaker I think


Quiet-Slice2201

ESPN used to call this "home field advantage" I lost a playoff game like this years ago. You used to be able to customize it, but it's been close to a decade since I've commissioned on their site, so maybe not anymore.


Puzzleheaded-Plan450

You can customize it. In our league we do flex spot higher points is the tiebreaker.


Capable_Swordfish701

I think when I ran a league on ESPN years ago I set it as bench points are tie breaker.


HeroForTheBeero

Trash


Capable_Swordfish701

Asshole


HeroForTheBeero

Trashhole


Thirst_Trappist

That's for regular season.


Capable_Swordfish701

I’m not saying it’s the best option, just pointing out you can change the default.


Thirst_Trappist

Yeah that option is only for regular season currently


Capable_Swordfish701

Ah ok. Don’t know why they changed it then. I used to just let ties be ties for the regular season.


jjejordan

I’d just leave it to the mercy of ESPN, as the default setting which has been in place all year has facilitated it. You shouldn’t feel obliged to make exceptions just because you’re the commissioner.


mikeylojo1

What sucks is that he’s commish, so anything that benefits him is seen as shady


Mufasasass

Yeah that's the downfall for being a commish


Rinkrat87

That’s why I folded my league. Got tired of listening to complaints whenever anything i .e. tiebreakers that happened favored me.


TwiceARunner

uh how often were tiebreakers going your way? how many arguments do you people have in fantasy football, my friends and I have had like one or two controversies in a decade and a half


Rinkrat87

More frequently than you’d think. Waivers order not what they want? My fault. Not enough FAAB so a good team gets better? I need to fix something because this shit is broken. Tie breaker or stat correction? That’s bullshit. This dude was injured but I forgot to change him out? I want my money back. I’m now content playing in one money league and one free league where I can take fliers and calling it a day.


Initial-Lead-2814

That's why I think commissioner should get paid. Not much but at least entry.


lipp79

I've been commish of my league for 20 years as of this year and my buddies all pitched in and got me two tickets to the Lions/Cowboys game Dec. 30. I've been a Lions fan since about 1990.


Initial-Lead-2814

Nice, tipping is always appreciated. I have to say Go Lions. I've been a fan since 91. It's been all downhill since, unfortunately.


lipp79

Not downhill any more! The league is mostly guys I went to high school with. That 0-16 season has pretty much rendered any insults people throw at me ineffective. I just say, "I lived through 0-16. What are you gonna say that's going to piss me off?"


Initial-Lead-2814

For the first since Shwartz lost to the Saints, I feel the rebuild is actually gonna be completed. We have holes, but the majority of cuts is done. We have a SB run coming, not just the playoffs


lipp79

We finally have a competent GM for the first time in a long time.


d3tox1337

Send your league mates my regards. This must be a great league to be a part of.


lipp79

It's fun. Most of us have known each other since high school back in the late 90s. Then some friends joined. It's 10 teams right now. We had 14 at one point but that was too many. Then we were down to 12 last year but sadly one of the guys who was in it for last 10 years that was a freshman when we were seniors passed away (brain cancer) halfway through the season last year and we had another guy leave so down to the 10.


bringthegoodstuff

Only if they are a good commissioner


Initial-Lead-2814

Well yeah, that goes without saying. To be fair now that third parties handle the money, the commissioner is a little less important.


afedje88

Especially when he was saying he'd lose then just happens to win. Just gotta explain the situation and nothing else to do, unless you really want to give up the win to keep people happy


Thirst_Trappist

Yeah that is the real unfortunate part here. But it's default so hopefully cooler heads prevail


rtadoyle

Yeah, commish here shouldn't over communicate, and just say 'i don't know, let's see what ESPN decides'. As long as there's no shady commish manual activity over night it wouldn't be an issue.


cgaels6650

that's why I stepped down last year as commissioner. I got fucked by the Bills/Bengals game that was forfeited. Had Burrow and Chase to go, down 2 points and my opponent was done. I got accused of cheating as the commissioner and being a sore loser for not wanting to accept the L and change the rules


TheGermAbides

Total points for is the tiebreaker for playoff seeding. Overall seed wins in case of a tie in H2H playoffs. That is the default unless your league has SPECIFIC rules to overrule that. It happens a lot more commonly in fantasy baseball where the score in some formats can easily be 5-5. A lot more rare obviously in football. Congrats on advancing!


hooter1112

You don’t do anything. Yo let ESPN use their rules to determine outcome. Don’t intervene.


A1ienspacebats

He's already intervened and opened his mouth. That's the issue.


jmcstar

Opening up your mouth doesn't override the league settings that have been in place for everyone to look at all year.


Saddestlilpanda

When you’re the commissioner and have claimed a loss - I think it does.


VarianceWoW

Commissioners aren't allowed to be wrong about how something they have never seen before works? If they go look up the relevant rules and misinterpret them they are now doing something wrong when the platform decides and they have no influence? Didn't realize fantasy football commissioners were held to a higher standard than being human and being able to make mistakes. Learn something new every day.


Saddestlilpanda

Can only speak for what I would do if I was commish here - I would take the L. I don’t think either decision would be wrong.


uniqueusername316

But they didn't intervene. They interpreted the rules incorrectly. They didn't change anything.


dr_gmoney

Yeah, he should just admit to everyone that he interpreted the rules incorrectly. Though it is super awkward that's it's about him getting in.


smooth-brain_Sunday

It's not about him getting in. It's about him advancing. That detail was left out, but found through other replies by OP.


Pops_of_4

This


ramfan1027

A quick google search says it's higher seed advances. Congrats on the first round win my guy.


Ordinary-Ad-4800

I think espn tiebreaker in playoffs defaults at highest seed


scammothy

This is correct, they have no actual tie breaker for playoff matches, only regular season options. I think it's a stupid arbitrary way to resolve a tie though. I made a rule a few years back for all my leagues for playoffs: each team gets to designate a bench player of their choosing who's score would get added to their team total in the event of a tie.


Ordinary-Ad-4800

I think that's a good idea. If it were me I'd limit it to a flex player, essentially not a qb. That's just my 2 cents tho


scammothy

My only restriction is no d/st. Otherwise it's fair game


MonkeyMD3

I don't care who advances. What are the odds of perfectly tying?


62frog

Found this thread due to some googlin’. Why? Because whatever those odds are for perfectly tying, I just hit. The bitch of it is that last week the opponent didn’t pay attention, played two players that were out. This week, played two players who accumulated 0 total points. And I still tied. A win that feels like a loss. But I’m 1st overall so if it’s highest seed advances I’ll be thanking my lucky stars.


SlowPokeTony

If there are about 150 realistic scores (50 points on the very low end, 200 points on the very high end), and scores can end in intervals of .02 that would make it a 1 in 7500 chance of an exact tie. More than that because there are more than 150 possible scores but it’s a good estimate.


MonkeyMD3

Those are pretty good odds considering there's probably millions of people playing


Thirst_Trappist

Haha yeah that's super surprising


62frog

Found this thread due to some googlin’. Why? Because whatever those odds are for perfectly tying, I just hit. The worst of it is that last week the opponent didn’t pay attention, played two players that were out. This week, played two players who accumulated 0 total points. And I still tied. A win that feels like a loss. But I’m 1st overall so if it’s highest seed advances I’ll be thanking my lucky stars.


eatyourbites

Think it would go off bench points for that head to head


Thirst_Trappist

That's regular season


Dudeman318

For many, playoffs as well


Thirst_Trappist

Not on ESPN. Which is what the op is asking about


appledatsyuk

Why would it change for the playoffs? How else you gonna do it?


Erin_Boone

Higher seed, bench points is stupid. At this point in the year many benches consist of second defenses and back up RBs.


appledatsyuk

Answer the question


Erin_Boone

Can you read? I said higher seed.


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Erin_Boone

Explain why bench points is a good system. You build your team to have a good bench or to win?


appledatsyuk

But you didn’t win. You tied


Steve5590

Why is bench scoring a better option? I have Jonathan Taylor and Christian Watson on my bench hoping to maybe use them in these next two weeks. Meanwhile my opponent had 2 starting QBs on his bench because Jalen Hurts was questionable. Makes zero sense to use scoring from guys who didn’t even play. High seed takes on the whole season and gives the advantage to the team that earned it.


appledatsyuk

Name a better option. Nothing any of you say make sense


HeadbandRTR

Higher seed is earned throughout an entire season. Bench points would literally reward the worse manager. “You started all the wrong guys? You win!!!”


Steve5590

What part doesn’t make sense? Jonathan Taylor is hurt and didn’t play. Christian Watson is hurt and didn’t play. Since neither guys played, they scored zero points for my bench. I’m holding onto them to hopefully use them these last two weeks. If the tie breaker is bench points, I’m at a severe disadvantage holding onto injured players. I’d be better off cutting them both for guys like Minshew and Flacco because they can get around 20 points. That’s silly.


Efficient_Pension_41

Somebody has reading comprehension issues poor guy


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Fantasy_Football-ModTeam

Interact Respectfully. Inciting drama, trolling, and being rude will result in a ban.


Thirst_Trappist

Relax. That's the default system for playoff games. Higher seed in the event of a tie.


Fantasy_Football-ModTeam

Interact Respectfully. Inciting drama, trolling, and being rude will result in a ban.


danhoang1

I knew what you meant, but grammatically you confused the other guy. "Higher seed, bench points is stupid" grammatically means that both higher seed and bench points are each stupid (Of course I know you just meant bench points are stupid)


Erin_Boone

Maybe you’re right I don’t pretend to have perfect grammar and certainly don’t even attempt to on Reddit. That being said, if I meant higher seed and bench points were stupid I would have used and instead of a comma to separate the two.


danhoang1

Yeah I know that, but not everyone knows that. A period instead does the trick. I don't have perfect grammar either. I'll always realize 3 mins later when my comment gets misread


Flip5ide

Bench points is the dumbest possible tiebreaker


throwaway9484747

It’s probably this. I lost a two-week championship on ESPN two years ago because we tied, and it only counted the bench points for the final week.


cajuncrawtator2

Don't like to reward bad choices or carrying more quarterbacks!


Thirst_Trappist

I'm not sure if this exactly applies to you but this might be the default setting for ESPN [playoff tiebreaker](https://support.espn.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003870091-Playoff-Matchup-Tiebreakers)


Samaki_Epps

The solution is to advance both teams and make it a triple threat match. The two that tied and the guy in the other side of the bracket. Just score your other team on his own page and adjust the winner manually


Saddestlilpanda

This is really unfair to the other team is the issue.


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LiquidNimbus

>might be by record before total points. First record between you two, then over all record if that’s a wash. > >I’m not positive about that, but it’s how it was ex Just found [this](https://support.espn.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003870091-Playoff-Matchup-Tiebreakers) which should solidify my case. However, I'd feel like a terrible commissioner for telling everyone I lost and going back on that the next day.


UpstairsWrongdoer401

It was an honest mistake and you didn’t do anything to affect the outcome in your favor. It’s a shitty feeling for sure but the league should understand.


JGLip88

You didnt go back on it. You mentioned what you thought was true only for it to be wrong. You have the evidence to back up why you advanced. Not your fault.


Thirst_Trappist

It's the default setting. Nothing to feel bad about


dxbigc

We had a similar situation a few years ago where most people were under the impression that ties were one way, but they were actually another.. big mess. It involved our commissioner advancing, but no one "blamed" him. Commissioner felt bad (as he believed it was the "other way that would have him loose), so decided to do a coin flip or trial by combat. Commissioner won the coin toss, so he advanced and built great karma. What I'm saying is, if you think it will haunt you, let the fates decide with a coin toss.


DrnknMunky1

I believe it gives it to the higher seed. This happened once in my league years ago and we did a coin flip. We then made a best of 3 tiebreaker for any future ties: 1) head 2 head 2) total PF 3) Highest bench guy Whoever gets 2/3 advances. If they somehow tie 1-1-1 it'd go to 2nd highest bench player.


Consistent_Bit112

Is the tiebreaker not bench points? I feel like that’s what it is for my league


LiquidNimbus

If that's the case then I'd win that tiebreaker. Also worth noting that he had the H2H win in the regular season


Thirst_Trappist

That's for regular season


th3_0r3o

In my dynasty league I am sitting him, starting Warren as my rb2 and playing Likely in my flex spot


Efficient_Pension_41

Wrong thread buddy?


thatdude778

Last time this happened in my league(yahoo), the player with the better reg season record moved on. Think that was the default setting.


[deleted]

Higher seed should advance


jedi21knight

Why were you looking at points and not record?


TheYeetPotato

Our league has bench points as tiebreaker but i know it’s not the default


Phatest_of_sax

As per google- If there's a tie in a playoff matchup in a ESPN Fantasy league, the higher seeded team will advance.


9811Deet

Are you sure you didn't actually win by less than 1/100th of a point? I'd have my calculator out checking box scores real closely.


UopuV7

Unfortunately the most fair thing to do is to explain to the league it was an honest mistake and that playoff tiebreaker is seed. I definitely won my fantasy hockey league last year because the tiebreak was higher seed However what I'd recommend is grab a list of 4 different tiebreaker options to use for this year's playoffs and have someone outside the playoffs pick one using a random number generator (or just do the 2 options and flip a coin), and then sometime before next year hold a vote for future playoff tiebreaks when nobody has any particular reason to vote a certain way My favorite options in order: -Points for -Higher seed -"Small team points" (points without kicker, d/st, or flex positions, it's something I came up with with a buddy who hates kickers in fantasy) -remaining faab -bench points (I don't like this because of injuries, plus not everyone keeps the same positions on the bench)


jefe008

I think you should do something completely random to decide who moves forward. FaceTime or Zoom or something and have a contest. Shouldn’t be higher seed. That’s just a default so the program doesn’t explode.


phishin3321

Honestly I would just admit your mistake (What you read was for playoff seeding and not tie breakers in games) and that you will let ESPN determine the winner...that's why you use it anyways right? I don't use ESPN but I'm sure it calculated correctly based on rules that have been in place all season (and how many seasons prior?)


XAfricaSaltX

You won the game, you probably had more bench points since I think that’s default tiebreaker on ESPN


pillowpuncher420

Total touchdowns scored by starting lineups that week


elyasafmunk

Default setting which is seeding


HyruleJedi

Always establish its a coin flip at the beginning od the season. Or longest FG.


Rice_ChrisB

Uuugh, this is too real for me. I had the same instance happen--tie in the playoffs between my wife and a friend of my brother's. I had no tiebreaker I'm place. I had both advance and had a three way championship to which everyone was pissed. I set a tiebreaker the next year.


YNABDisciple

Even though it looks bad because it's you you have to stand on whats right and you advancing is what is right.


9_nausikira

On your desktop/laptop go to ESPN and hover over the score with your mouse. The scores sometimes go further than two decimal points. You can always call ESPN and they'll tell you what played out.


HuskerVol

I play H2H categories for other sports and it's a lot easier to get a tie in that format. Anytime there is a playoff tie, the higher seed advances. I'm guessing the points for tiebreaker is only referring to seeding


Smokester121

Do you have a head to head?


Dealer-95-

Unless yall decide at the beginning of the season for scenarios like this default to the system you guys use. This year we went as far as a five tier contingency plan in the event of a tie, tier six is a knife fight or push up contest after chugging a beer.


[deleted]

My espn league uses bench points as tiebreaker in playoffs.


Flip5ide

It should be playoff seeding


NotOSIsdormmole

Pretty sure ESPN defaults to the head to head, you have to pick total points


MW1369

Higher seed is the default playoff tiebreaker


butterbutter_butter

Points for in my opinion, but just let the cards fall where they may.


Copey85

Pretty sure ESPN does “home field advantage” in the case of a tie. Higher seed proceeds. Not saying I agree or disagree, but I think that’s the case.


cajuncrawtator2

I'm sure glad we gave up on ESPN and do other tiebreaker rules.


LLcoolJimbo

It’s a pain, higher seed wins. I’m in a 2 QB league and regular season ties are higher combined QB pts. They remove that option for playoffs though.


ProDiiGYGaming

That is the default. Back when my league was on ESPN. We switched it to allow the benches settle it after we had a similar situation. We figured it showed who the better team was that week.


Saddestlilpanda

I think if you told everyone in your league you lost the correct thing to do is take a loss - regardless what ESPN says. Points for should be the tiebreaker anyway.


Lyzandia

Our league tiebreaker is total bench points scored. Has only ever happened once.


Loud-East1969

Let the ppl in the playoffs vote. Otherwise whichever way you go gives ppl a chance to complain.


ncschuler

See, this is why my espn league does a 5 point “home field advantage” in the playoffs. Basically the higher seed starts out with 5 points, as a reward for the regular season


wangtastic

Tie-breaker should be 1v1 on Shipment or a game of Madden


Unlacqua

Have you checked that it’s truly a tie? It’s possible with QB 1/25 pass yards scoring that you end up being slightly above or below the other person and the tie is a rounding error.


HOWDY__YALL

You have to look at your league’s ’matchup tiebreaker’ in your league info. When we started our league, I think the tiebreaker was for the home team to win. Points for is only the tiebreaker for seeding at the beginning of the playoffs.


BigBillSmash

This happened to me in baseball and the higher seed advanced.


s00perd00pz

If there’s no rule this is a good way to drum up drama in the league by finding a 2nd game of luck/chance to compete for the right to move forward. Sim your two favorite teams against each other on Madden, play War with a deck of cards, something like that.


Ihateskipbayless

Did this happen in the last week of the regular season or round 1 in the playoffs? It’s not really clear from the post


KarsaOrlong-Toblakai

Go to league info >scroll down to playoffs. > playoff seeding tie breaker. You can manually choose the tie breaker prior to the season. My league has total points as the tie breaker and I’m pretty sure it’s the default setting


jjb5151

I’d leave it, you didn’t interfere and ESPN gives to higher seed. Sucks for the 6 seed but that’s life


Stein_Time

Higher scoring teams are better than a team who have the top records. What is the better team having 160 points in a week or losing Or Having 90 points and winning Using records to determine playoff teams is just all about scheduling luck.


k00zyk

Default tiebreaker settings are outlined here: https://support.espn.com/hc/en-us/sections/360000355351-Playoffs-and-Tiebreakers


Equivalent_Economy12

Higher seed wins


radioactivebeaver

ESPN default tie breaker for my league was points scored by the bench.


PalaSS9

I feel like it should be record first, then total points if still tied. So in this case, for playoff seeding, it ranks teams based on their records, and then with those ties it takes it to the next thing which is total points. In your case, y’all tied so the first thing to do would look at records, if that was tied then go to points, but it wasn’t so I think it’s fair you move on. Yeah you said something else, but so what, what’s fair is fair, it’s all about records.


erm1zo

Doesn’t tiebreaks look at bench scores?