Such a mediocre 2nd round, I was extremely lucky (like, 3 points lucky) to finish as high as I did. I got TWO playoff points in round two, and that was enough to move up 2 spots. I was honestly expecting to finish 11th or something after going into round 2 in first place.

Congrats to brianjw who clearly earned it, and to everyone else who did so well.

Yeah, 2nd-6th was super close.

4 Crowns. Wow. Congrats Brian!!

Congrats, brian! Knockout punch in Round 2.

I am pleased to have cracked the top 10 here in my 3rd go-round and 2nd time making Round 2. I am disappointed, however, that I won fewer games in each successive 162-game interval and then had the worst showing of any team with 3 playoff teams. Not sure how to explain that downward trend, but 7th is nothing at all to sneeze at in this group.

Let's get started on the next one!

Congrats, brianjw.

In my write-up I said that I'd be happy with finishing higher than 20th, so I guess I'm happy.

Prizes have been distributed (a breakdown can be seen in the Google Sheet).

Thanks to all for playing -- see you in a few months

Congrats brianjw. No shame in getting 2nd place behind one of the best ever (brianjw and WaitnSee)

Thanks everyone!

One striking thing about this tournament was that I ended up thinking that for almost all the leagues, deadball pitchers were not the way to go. I used one or two when they made sense, but mostly I thought they didn't.

Now obviously winning comes down to lots of luck, and I wouldn't say that winning proves this was right. But until recently I wouldn't have thought anyone had a chance if they didn't use deadball pitchers. Now, clearly, they do.

Part of what changed was the messed up way dynamic pricing was introduced. And partially this is because the mid-2010s pitchers are much much better than other live ball pitchers, especially other starters.

But largely it's because everyone has so internalised the idea that everyone uses deadball pitchers that they are using doubles and triples hitters rather than home run hitters. And Sale/Kershaw/Arrieta/Scherzer etc are much better against those hitters than any of the dead ballers who didn't get priced out of contention by dynamic pricing.

So hopefully we'll see many more modern pitchers in the game soon. And then people will start using more HR hitters, and it will all get a bit more interesting, and a lot more like familiar baseball.

Congrats Brian on your 4th championship and your remarkable consistency during round 2. Getting 5/6 teams into the playoffs with the quality of the field was fantastic on your part. For me, managing to lead for a cycle or two in the second half of round 2 and being competitve through it all (in my first WISC) was very encouraging. I'm already looking forward to the 2020 WISC (and getting better at the high cap leagues!).

I would also like to second Brian's comments about using the modern pitchers from a somewhat different perspective. I am a relative WIS newbie (started playing in early 2018), so I arrived after all of the dynamic pricing changes were implemented. I had not internalized the idea that deadball pitchers are most often the better option because everything was new to me. Even after I started feeling comfortable drafting PA/IP totals for my teams (and having more success), I still would often gravitate to pitchers from the mid (and now) late 2010s. It's nice to see that there are lots of different ways to win.

Thanks to everyone for a very exciting 6+ months of WISC baseball and I'll see you around in the various themes...