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Wow, this forum has been dead this year. Nothing to talk about our what???

Here is a little bit about how to not seed pools for a tournament. Unlike the fantastic job the folks up in Duluth did to spread out and balance the two brackets, here is an example of a tournament setting up the host team.

I used rankings from "MyHockeyRankings.com" simply since it is mathamatical, and it includes all teams.

So there are 12 teams in the tournament, arranged in three pools, with four teams each. There are three top ten ranked teams, and Chicago Young Americans (hard to quantify). I would have guessed you would see one of the top ten teams in each pool....wrong.

Black Pool
Orono (24)
Eden Prairie (16)
Highland Central (51)
Lakeville South (22)

Red Pool
White Bear (31)
Mound Westonka (8 )
Prior Lake (53)
Lakeville North (20)

White Pool
Minneapolis Storm (38 )
Osseo Maple Grove Crimson (3)
Woodbury (9)
Chicago Young America (Tier I, USA ranked #10)

Nice job Eden Prairie, way to even out the pools!!! Not that it really matters, but take 5 minutes and at least make it balanced...

hockeyfan87 wrote:Unlike the fantastic job the folks up in Duluth did to spread out and balance the two brackets, here is an example of a tournament setting up the host team.

You must not have seen the Duluth 14UA brackets, where all the top-ranked D6 teams got placed together. So, instead of playing these teams in the Twin Cities, they had to travel to Duluth to play the same teams.

hockeyfan87 wrote:Nice job Eden Prairie, way to even out the pools!!! Not that it really matters, but take 5 minutes and at least make it balanced...

Like it or not, a lot of host teams rig their tournaments. It's a fact of hockey life, I guess. I agree with you, it'd be nice if objective rankings were used, like myhockeyrankings.com. However, over the years, I've come to an understanding to just take it as it's given to you. To win the tournament, you have to win your games, whether they're at the beginning or end of the brackets/pools.

"If I am traveling all the way from Chicago, could you give us at least two competitive games in pool play". If I am the coach or the manager that is what I am asking for.
The other request I would have in a local tournament is please don't put us with teams we play regularly.
I think EP answered both of these and they did not put themselves with 38,51 and 53.

iceglo wrote: You must not have seen the Duluth 14UA brackets, where all the top-ranked D6 teams got placed together. So, instead of playing these teams in the Twin Cities, they had to travel to Duluth to play the same teams.

Sorry, I didn't look at the 14A brackets in Duluth. The 12A brackets were balanced fairly well.

I am sorry, I thought the goal was to have the "Medal Round" games be the most competitive. I didn't realize we want to potentially only have one of the three strongest teams in the tournament advance to the medal round...

I always thought the goal was to have a great semi-final and Championship.

EPIC97 wrote:"If I am traveling all the way from Chicago, could you give us at least two competitive games in pool play". If I am the coach or the manager that is what I am asking for.
The other request I would have in a local tournament is please don't put us with teams we play regularly.
I think EP answered both of these and they did not put themselves with 38,51 and 53.

I would be little more upset if I was from Chicago and I traveled all his way, and paid $1000 for three (one hour) games, since their pool is very strong they may not advance to the medal round. I do agree, they did a decent job in spreading district teams around. I imagine, the good folks from Minneapolis Storm may disagree with that opinion...

Here's a few scores that I've heard for the E.P. U12A tourney --

Thursday's games:
E.P. (#16) over Orono (#24-- 2 - 0
Lakeville South (#22) over Highland (#51-- 1 - 0
Friday's games:
OMG (#3) over Mpls (#38-- 6 - 0
WBL (#31) tied Mound (#8-- 2 - 2
CYA (#10) over Woodbury (#9-- 3 - 2
Lakeville N. (#20) over Prior Lake (#53-- 3 - 2
Saturday's games:
Highland (#51) over Orono (#24-- 1 - 0
Lakeville S. (#22) over E.P. (#16-- 2 - 1
OMG (#3) over Woodbury (#9-- 3 - 1
CYA (#10) over Mpls. (#38-- 3 - 1
WBL (#31) over Prior Lake (#53-- 4 - 1
Mound (#8 over Lakeville N. (#20-- 6 - 3
E.P. (#16) over Highland (#51-- 4 - 0
WBL (#31) over Lakeville N. (#20-- 3 - 1
Orono (#24) over Lakeville S. (#22-- 3 - 0
Woodbury (#9) over Mpls. (#38-- 4 - 1
Mound (#8 over Prior Lake (#53-- 5 - 0
OMG (#3) over CYA (#10-- 3 - 1


Some upsets -- and some close games --

Sunday's games:
10:30 -- Mound (#8) seed 2 over Lakeville S. (#22) seed 3)-- 4 - 1 Mound to championship game

10:45 -- OMG (#3) seed 1 over WBL (#31) seed 4 (wild card)-- 3 - 0 OMG to championship game

Finals:
4:30 -- Lakeville S. (#22) over WBL (#31)-- 3 -1 for 3rd place --

4:45 -- Mound (#8) over OMG (#3)-- 4 - 3 for Championship --

Congratulations Mound/Westonka Champions !! Great tourney !!

Just a quick comment on the Duluth tourney -- which I agree is the top tourney in the state !! However; some are commenting on the U12A brackets being balanced (which they were for the most part) -- the only issue with this is that Edina didn't face a top 10 team until their 3rd game (and this wasn't pool play) -- all other top 10 teams in the tourney played a top 10 team in either their 1st or 2nd game (luck of the draw maybe) -- and since both brackets had 4 top 10 teams (from myhockeyrankings) in them they could have easily done this ! I congratulate Edina for the wins non-the-less they're a great team but as far as the Duluth tourney brackets being balanced there was one more step needed --

Here's the brackets --

http://leaguesville.com/results/renderR ... ketID=1422

http://leaguesville.com/results/renderR ... ketID=1421

The Duluth tournament was a huge disappointment to me this year for the reasons mentioned above. Our girls have been in this tournament since 10U, and competed in it this year as a 14U team. Obviously the brackets were deliberately arranged to knock out the stronger teams right away with no consideration of the experience of the girls. As far as next year goes, there's no way I would support us paying the fee to play in one of the most expensive tournaments, not to mention the travel expenses, only to play the same teams we play at least 3 times in league play.

demongoed wrote:The Duluth tournament was a huge disappointment to me this year for the reasons mentioned above. Our girls have been in this tournament since 10U, and competed in it this year as a 14U team. Obviously the brackets were deliberately arranged to knock out the stronger teams right away with no consideration of the experience of the girls. As far as next year goes, there's no way I would support us paying the fee to play in one of the most expensive tournaments, not to mention the travel expenses, only to play the same teams we play at least 3 times in league play.

This is the exact reason why our 14UA team didn't go to Duluth this year. Our 10's and our 12's did but like you said, why go to Duluth to play the same teams you play here in the cities, or worse yet, in the same District! Love the city of Duluth, the Heritage Venue is awesome; however the UMD 'practice' rink at the college is not, and like you said, it's a very expensive tournament to end up playing the same teams in your district. Rumor has it Duluth is maybe going to reduce the number of teams for next year, the tournament may have gotten too big for them.