In this format there can obviously be 2-2 ties as far as courts won (which is not ideal), but rather than use the USTA's tie-breakers for a 2-2 tie, the PNW elected to use the points per position format for regular season league play. PNW elected to allocate points to the courts with the singles court and court 2 and 3 doubles being 1 point, and court 1 doubles 2 points. While one team will "win" the match with more points, team "wins" don't matter, and instead teams simply accumulate points during the season and the team with the most points wins the flight.
In many cases the team that "wins" the most team matches will also accumulate the most points, but that isn't a given. This can lead to odd situations where a team could "win" all their matches 3-2 but another team, that the first team beat, could finish ahead of them in the standings. Obviously there are other permutations where it could happen too.
In playoffs when teams play head to head with the winner advancing, the points accumulation doesn't matter. But at PNW Sectionals, teams are split into two flights of usually four teams each and standings will be determined based on accumulated points.
So, it will be possible for a team to "win" all their matches 3-2, and accumulate 9 points in flight play, but another team that lost to the first team 3-2 could win their other two matches 4-1 and stand at 10 points and win the flight.
Is this bad? An argument can be made each way and it is certainly different and puts less value on pulling out the 3-2 win if you don't back it up with accumulating enough points.
Will it happen? I can't say, but I'll be looking.
Many folks like points per position in the regular season as it helps discourage stacking, but what do you think, it is a good thing in playoffs too? Especially with flight play and flight winners advancing?
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