*Game Times and Performances

[shrub02]

It’s the time of the season… for my annual end of the season team review! This season’s analysis will be a bit different than my last. For starters it's coming out on time. Also I will not be comparing the teams to something fun again. Instead, I will be looking into something that affects us all as users: average game start time for each team. I got this idea because there was also a general feeling in my locker room that the Otters always played in the late games, causing some users to have to stay up late or forego watching. So I decided to see if we really were getting screwed in our gametime. When I started collecting this data, OCO actually had the latest average start time. And then the sim gods decided to destroy the premise of my article by giving the Otters three straight games in the first slot. Out of spite, I decided to expand the article to include every team and make it my seasonal review. Okay, enough rambling. Let’s get to it!

I’ve broken down play times into 3 categories: Early (games 1 and 2), Middle (games 3 - 5), and Late (games 6 and 7). In an ideal world, each team would have an average start time of 4. I also thought it would be fun to see if teams performed better when playing at certain times. So I will also be looking at teams’ records, average points for, and average points against for each category.

Sarasota Sailfish  Average Game time: 3.63

The Sailfish and Liberty are actually tied for the earliest average game time. I gave the top spot to Sarasota because they played the most games in the first slot. They also played the most games in the last slot. Interestingly enough they only played in either the first or last game all season. Whose leg do you have to hump to get that kind of schedule? Sarasota didn’t prefer either time slot most of the season. It wasn’t until they experienced a couple losses late in the season during early games that a preference was shown. The Sailfish won 71.43% of their late games, compared to 55.56% of their early games.

Philadelphia Liberty  Average Game time: 3.63

The Liberty had an early game time average because they only played in the late games twice. Only two other teams played less games in that slot. Most of their games were in the middle and many of those were game 3. That worked out well for Philly as their defense seemed to elevate their play and actually show up during middle games. It’s the only time slot that the Liberty gave up less than 30 points per game. While it did not reflect in a better win percentage than late games, they were able to keep games close when playing in the middle games and even pull out a few dubs.

Chicago Butchers  Average Game time: 3.75

Two things were certain for Chicago this season: they would experience a ton of heartbreak and would play in two game slots. With the exception of their games against Sarasota, the Butchers only played in the second and sixth games. While the heartbreak was spread pretty evenly across the early and late games, Chicago did show a preference for the later games. Their offense played a tad better and defense allowed 3 less points per game. The ability to keep games close allowed the Butchers to improve their win rate from 33.33% in early games to 42.86% in late games. Maybe next season they will get some middle game action and actually perform well there.

Honolulu Hahalua  Average Game time: 3.81

Honolulu tied with Yellowknife in their average game time. I placed the Hahalua higher (or lower? Better) than the Wraiths because they didn’t appear in any late games. Honolulu played nearly all of its games in the middle slots, so there won’t be much analysis here. Although I will note that its defense played significantly better during the two early games. It’s a shame their offense lagged or they may have made the playoffs.

Yellowknife Wraiths  Average Game time: 3.81

I’m sure the Wraiths are happy that they only played one late game, as they got destroyed when in that appearance. Even though they played the majority of the time in middle games they did not seem to prefer that over early games, winning 75% of early games compared to 72.73% of middle games. The point differential was slightly better in middle games but that didn’t translate to more wins. The bottomline is that if you’re going to face the Wraiths, you’d better hope it is later in the day.

San Jose Sabercats  Average Game time: 3.94

The Sabercats are the first of several teams that played at or near the expected average 4. With only a .06, their average game time was basically the 4th game. Turns out that was not good for San Jose. They fared terribly in middle games, not winning a single one with both sides of the ball playing the worst. The Sabercats performed better in early games, winning 33.33% and defense actually showing up. Fans of San Jose may have actually enjoyed it when their team played late as they won 60% of these games. While their offense played its best in late games, the wins were really built on the back of the defense: they allowed 10 less points per game in late games compared to early games.
 

Baltimore Hawks  Average Game time: 3.94

When I first started collecting data for this article, I thought Baltimore was going to be a boring write up. “It doesn’t matter when they play, they always lose.” And then they go and win the final two games of the season! Wow, anything really can happen in this league! Both wins happened in early games too. Looking at the average points for and against, it’s clear that the Hawks perform best in early games. It’s the only time slot where their offense scored more than 20 points and defense allowed less than 30. If Baltimore plays more early games next season, there may be more upsets on the horizon.

Colorado Yeti  Average Game time: 4.00

The Yeti are the only team in the league to hit the expected average on the mark. And for them, this was a good thing. Colorado had their best winning percentage (60%) when appearing in middle games. They got completely obliterated in early games, getting outscored by almost double. Interestly enough the Yeti offense and defense performed best during late games, even though they only won half. I guess Colorado just had better sim luck during middle games.

Berlin Fire Salamanders  Average Game time:4.06

Berlin is the last of the teams that basically played at the expected average game time. They performed well in middle games, winning 75%. I honestly think this is more of a product of the Fire Salamanders fielding a great squad. The only time slot that they struggled in (kind of) was the early games, mainly because they allowed a lot of points during a high scoring loss. Berlin probably would have played well in any time slot given enough opportunities.

Orange County Otters  Average Game time: 4.13

In case anyone is wondering what the gragg curse (or one of them) is - it’s that whatever team he is on ends playing in late games. So is it true? Well, sort of. Orange County’s average start time is on the later end, but is not the worst by far. One thing that lends evidence to the gragg curse is that the Otters are tied with Sarasota and New Orleans for the most late games played, but a string of appearances in first games lowered the average. It is important to note that Orange County performed terribly in late games, winning only 14.29%. The Otters played best during middle games, winning 66.66% of those games with strong offensive showings and their defense allowing less than 20 points per game. If the sim gods are listening, please accept our offering of clams and let us only play in early and middle games next season.

New York Silverbacks  Average Game time: 4.19

The Silverbacks had a pretty even distribution of games across the categories. Fans of New York might wish that they were one of those teams that only played early and late as they performed rather poorly during middle games. The Silverbacks dominated early games, winning 80% with an average point differential of 9.4, and were able to win close games during the late slot. A Silverback might want to take a hostage to the top of the empire state building and demand Sarasota’s schedule for next season.

Arizona Outlaws  Average Game time: 4.25

The Outlaws struggled when playing middle games, winning only half of those games. Their defense played great but lacked the normal offensive production. Good thing for Arizona that most of their games came early or late. The Outlaw offense dominated teams in early games, leading to a 75% win rate. But it was during late games that the Outlaws really shined. They won all six of those games by putting together great offensive and defensive performances. If the Outlaws play in the late game during the playoffs, it's game over for their opponents. 

New Orleans Secondline  Average Game time: 4.31

New Orleans only played four early games, which was probably a good thing for them. Actually it didn’t really matter when the Second Line played, they pretty much always struggled. Unless it was against the Otters. Then for whatever reason they would bring their A game. New Orleans seemed to prefer playing in middle games as it was the only time slot that they had a positive point differential, leading to their highest win rate of 40%.

Austin Copperheads  Average Game time: 4.44

The Copperheads have the honor of being the team that had the latest average start time. Austin always keeps it weird. They might have hoped to play more middle games, as they broke even in both early and late games. While Austin’s offense performed pretty much the same across the board, their defense really showed up during middle games, leading them to win 66.67% of those games.

So after looking at all of the data, I can conclude that there was no meaningful correlation between average game time and how well your team did. The results were all over the board, leading to a correlation coefficient of only .14. Though, some teams did prefer playing at certain times in my opinion. BAL preferred early games. PHI, COL, OCO, and AUS preferred middle games. SAR, CHI, SJS, and ARI preferred late games. It didn’t really seem to matter when HON, BER, and NOLA played, the results were basically similar. NYS preferred any time slot but the middle and YKW anytime but late.

[DarknessRising]

FYI the YKW stats being in white is unreadable for some users, but overall very fun and good data