Myhockey Tournaments LLC Unorganized, and unprofessional. Can't answer questions concerning their own rules **AVOID** Chicago, Illinois

Obviously your policies are flawed if you have to go into such great detail.
I'm a well educated adult and have a hard time following your policy.
TRY explaining it to a group of 9 year olds who ask one question, "Why is the team we just beat going on to the finals if our records are the same?"
You can go ahead and write that it's the "Crazy hockey parent", when in reality it is the 9 year old boys who don't understand your policies, and the parent who needs a PhD to give them an explanation.
We have attended several different tournaments, and your is by far the most exhaustive to understand when it comes to tiering.

Because of the prestige of our tournaments, some sports parents go to an extreme to advocate for there teams and this is a case where a parent does not understand, or refuses to accept, the tournament tie breaking rules.  The tournament rules are posted, along with the schedule, on our website for weeks prior to the tournament.  The rules are also posted in all of the facilities where the event it held.



The rules are complicated and written in great deal because some parents will argue to push their team foward and the written rules cover all possibilities that may occur.



When three teams are tied to advance, our rules specify how the tie will be broken.



In the event of a tie, final standings will be determined by the following criteria:

a)  Head to head competition With 3 or more teams tied, all teams must have played each other and there must be an obvious winner.  If not we skip Head to Head and go to Most Wins.

b)  Most wins

c) Goal differential (5 goal maximum differential for a single game) involving only the tied teams, if all tied teams have played one another Goal differential (5 goal maximum differential for a single game) involving only the tied teams,   

d) Goal differential (5 goal maximum differential for a single game) in all games.   

e) Fewest goals against in games involving only the tied teams   

f)  Fewest goals against in all games   

g)  Fewest Penalty Minutes   

h)  Coin Toss  



If multiple teams are tied, as we move down the list of tie-breakers, we will never move back to the top of the tie-breaker list.  For example, if three teams are tied and head-to-head and most wins do not settle the tie, but goal differential between the tied teams decides a winner, ties between the remaining teams will be decided by moving down the list to goal differential between all teams, fewest goals against, etc.



In this case three teams were tied, calling them GC3, GC4 and NS.  This gets a little complicated:

NS defeated GC3 5-3

GC3 defeated GC4 2-1

GC4 defeated NS 3-0



When the tiebreaking rules were applied, head to head tiebreaking did not apply because the three teams had beaten each other in a "circle": NS defeated GC3, GC3 defeated GC4, GC4 defeated NS.



The next tiebreaker was most wins and all teams had the same number of wins.



The next tiebreaker was most wins and, in this case, the goal differentials among the tied teams were:

GC4 +2

GC3 +1

NS +1



GC4 won the tiebreaker and advanced to the championship game.  GC3 and NS were still tied.  This is where the dispute occurred.  The parent from GC3, and author of this post wanted his team to advance because they had beaten NS.  But our rules are written clearly and cover this exact situation, "as we move down the list of tie-breakers we never move back up". 



The written rules were followed exactly and the next tiebreaker used was goal differential in all games, which was:

NS +9

GC3 +8



NS advanced to the championship game and should be congratulated because they went on to win the championship game.



You can disagree with how the rules are written but we have found over many years and events that the rules we have are the best and most fair option.



We do not mind disagreements and we are very happy to review the written rules and procedures with our customers to help them understand how tie-breakers will be applied.  As in anything, there is a small percentage of people who will refuse to accept an explanation and choose to use bullying tactics to get there way, or post to anonymous websites.  I am always available by phone at 773-269-6547 to discuss our rules and how they are applied.