How does your league weed out ringers?

[Jarick]

Update on our league ringers.

First four games they had:

Player 1: 14 points = 3.5 ppg
Player 2: 11 points = 2.8 ppg
Player 3: 10 points = 2.5 ppg

Now about halfway through the season:

Player 1: 21 points = 2.6 ppg
Player 2: 18 points = 1.8 ppg
Player 3: 15 points = 1.4 ppg

So they came back to Earth a bit, but no way should someone be playing our league and getting over 2 points per game.

We also have another guy getting 20 points in 10 games for 2.0 ppg.

Clearly the league just doesn't give a crap.

 

[Wilch]

Update on our league ringers.

First four games they had:

Player 1: 14 points = 3.5 ppg
Player 2: 11 points = 2.8 ppg
Player 3: 10 points = 2.5 ppg

Now about halfway through the season:

Player 1: 21 points = 2.6 ppg
Player 2: 18 points = 1.8 ppg
Player 3: 15 points = 1.4 ppg

So they came back to Earth a bit, but no way should someone be playing our league and getting over 2 points per game.

We also have another guy getting 20 points in 10 games for 2.0 ppg.

Clearly the league just doesn't give a crap.

It's too time consuming to enforce all of this stuff. And when you do enforce them, it gets socially tacky. Not everyone is that easy to deal with.

Now, if you're running a really high end league, that's a different story.

There's one league I know in particular that's really strict in terms of enforcing ringer rules (along with excellent facilities and better officials), but its also the most expensive league to play in.

 

[SCBruCrew4]

When I played paintball there was a database that was setup for all players entering any tournament. Every time you entered you had to give your "APPA #" (thats the association) Basically it was a serial number tagged to you. So after X amount of games played in one division and depending on your teams results you were then bumped up to the next division. So for the lowest Division (5) all newer players to the tourney side was placed here automatically. If you got moved up but your team did not, each team could use two Div. 4 players on the roster for a Div. 5 tourney. Basically this limited any ringers from going into a tourney and winning the prize money that much easier.

I don't think hockey will do this because this APPA system is used from the newest of the new tourney players all the way up to the pro leagues. But if your league were to set-up something similar, definitely feasible, then it would work out well.

 

[RandV]

Update on our league ringers.

First four games they had:

Player 1: 14 points = 3.5 ppg
Player 2: 11 points = 2.8 ppg
Player 3: 10 points = 2.5 ppg

Now about halfway through the season:

Player 1: 21 points = 2.6 ppg
Player 2: 18 points = 1.8 ppg
Player 3: 15 points = 1.4 ppg

So they came back to Earth a bit, but no way should someone be playing our league and getting over 2 points per game.

We also have another guy getting 20 points in 10 games for 2.0 ppg.

Clearly the league just doesn't give a crap.

Hah, my team has 6 guys with PPG range between 1.8-4.0 (guy with 4 has played 4 games), but we're already at the top so there's nowhere else to go really. Well for a while there they merged Div 1 and 2 into a single div so some scores got run up there, but they've undone that change so we're back in div 1 again (a high B level probably). For your examples though I don't think there's anything wrong if a team has a player or two that's 2.0 PPG or below.

But yeah since I started playing a second league this season I remember why ringers suck again. My team #2 is in the bottom divisions, and it always sucks those games were it would be a close game and/or we would have won but the other team had 1 guy who could skate through everyone and got 5+ points. Win or lose it's much more fun when you play another team where everyone's on the same page.

 

[Wilch]

Hah, my team has 6 guys with PPG range between 1.8-4.0 (guy with 4 has played 4 games), but we're already at the top so there's nowhere else to go really. Well for a while there they merged Div 1 and 2 into a single div so some scores got run up there, but they've undone that change so we're back in div 1 again (a high B level probably). For your examples though I don't think there's anything wrong if a team has a player or two that's 2.0 PPG or below.

But yeah since I started playing a second league this season I remember why ringers suck again. My team #2 is in the bottom divisions, and it always sucks those games were it would be a close game and/or we would have won but the other team had 1 guy who could skate through everyone and got 5+ points. Win or lose it's much more fun when you play another team where everyone's on the same page.

ASHL? Ice604? Duffers?

 

[RandV]

ASHL? Ice604? Duffers?

High level team is Duffers, bottom level team is ASHL. To put it in perspective I did a random sub at Burnaby ASHL after one of my games and played against a top team from Div 2, who were about on par with the best team this year (undefeated I think) in Duffers.

And man I don't get it, but I'm having my first real breakout year in Duffers, with 13-4-7-11 on my Div 1-2 team, but on my new Div 10 team in ASHL my PPG is actually lower with 17-2-9-11

 

[Fanned On It]

Oh yeah, but that doesn't change the fact that it creates an unfair advantage for one team. Plus even if you're friends with people on the team, how much fun can it be to play people who aren't even close to the same skill level as you?

LOL what rink are you at? I'm in Putnam county and this sounds really familiar... You can PM me if you'd like..

Man I wish my adult league gave a crap about this kind of stuff...

 

[Jarick]

Yeah our team is C3 on a scale that goes:

(Best) B1 - B2 - C1 - C2 - C3 - D1 - D2 - Beginner (Worst)

So there's plenty of places for these guys to go.

 

[neksys]

Our league specifically takes the worst, not the best. To that end, we have "try-outs" where we are rated on a scale from 20-50. Guys who exceed 50 aren't allowed in the league, period.

Each team is allotted a skill cap - they cannot exceed that cap.

Each year a guy's rating is adjusted based on his play, so you can't really game the system - if you're rated a 26 but score at a 2 PPG level, you're gonna be found out pretty quick. Similarly, if you're rated at 49 and take another big step in your ability at some point, you'll be invited to join a different league.

It's a pretty fun system and really helps to level the playing field a bit.

 

[redbranch]

that's a pretty interesting way of doing it. I like it

 

[Burke the Legend]

What's wrong with ringers???

In my summer league sometimes teams bring in major jr, ncaa, even ex-ahl/nhl occasionally. It's ****ing fantastic to be able to play against these guys they are so good.

 

[Jarick]

Because the levels exist for a reason. Nobody wants to pay $500 to get their butt kicked by one or two guys who just get the puck and go end to end over and over again.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

What's wrong with ringers???

In my summer league sometimes teams bring in major jr, ncaa, even ex-ahl/nhl occasionally. It's ****ing fantastic to be able to play against these guys they are so good.

That's fine, and I agree that as a goaltender, it's a blast to play against those guys.

In the top level of the league.

 

[redbranch]

I'd kinda like to learn the game before getting trashed by major junior or ex ahl players

Ringers in a high level game, is a lot different than ringers in a beginner, or bottom tier league

 

[Lonny Bohonos]

We dont weed them out. And we have quite a few guys who played minor pro/Junior/College/European Pro and junior.

Some guys have disgusting skills and its fun to watch.

One guy on our team played Jr with Gaborik and few other NHLers. Hes so much fun to watch skate.

 

[Wilch]

We dont weed them out. And we have quite a few guys who played minor pro/Junior/College/European Pro and junior.

Some guys have disgusting skills and its fun to watch.

One guy on our team played Jr with Gaborik and few other NHLers. Hes so much fun to watch skate.

It's like that in cities where hockey isn't a mainstream sport.

Enough players to form a league, but not quite enough to tier. The skill level variance is pretty crazy.

Same goes in Shanghai.

 

[RandV]

What's wrong with ringers???

In my summer league sometimes teams bring in major jr, ncaa, even ex-ahl/nhl occasionally. It's ****ing fantastic to be able to play against these guys they are so good.

Well guys like that are a kind of a level above being a 'ringer'. Generally those guys have made it somewhere and don't have anything to prove stepping into a beer league game (though sometimes they can be complete dicks).

To make a stereotype what people hate, take a young guy in his early 20's who maybe played AAA midget or something so he is good but never actually went anywhere, who while he could keep playing with others at his generally skill level intentionally plays in the bottom tier divisions against beginner adults so he can be an all-star scoring 5+ points a game.

 

[Lonny Bohonos]

It's like that in cities where hockey isn't a mainstream sport.

Enough players to form a league, but not quite enough to tier. The skill level variance is pretty crazy.

Same goes in Shanghai.

Yeah we have one guy on our team who just started this year.

Although Id say we have more skilled than non-skilled guys in our league. Its a pretty good league.

The best part about playing in a place like the middle east is you get players from everywhere. We have French, Slovak, Russian, British, Canadian, Dutch, on our team alone.

 

[Fanned On It]

Because the levels exist for a reason. Nobody wants to pay $500 to get their butt kicked by one or two guys who just get the puck and go end to end over and over again.

I don't know how people don't realize this themselves... I can understand a ringer playing in the tip-top league of an Adult League organization (A1 or what have you).. but it's when the average A1/B1 players start playing in the C/C2 or even D leagues that it starts to have an effect on the quality of the game. In the lower levels, you have guys that are either just learning (like me) or even just guys that aren't that good... so adding in a lifer who played AAA travel hockey and then Jrs or whatever takes the fun AND competitiveness out of it. I want to be competing against people within my skill level or even 1 level above my skill level. Even when these guys are "taking it easy" they STILL have a huge impact on the game.

 

[Summer Rose]

Most players I know who would be capable of being ringers are actually cool enough about it to chill out if they're playing in a setting where they outclass most (if not all) of the other players on the ice. I.e. playing as a stay at home defenseman if they're naturally a forward, or looking to pass first, etc.

In my nearly 11 years playing hockey I've never actually played with or against a ringer who ruined the experience for me. I guess I'm just lucky.

 

[TLow97]

The top team in our division has 7 players who are averaging at least a PPG. Technically they are playing with a "split squad" as they have two teams in our division (Black and Gold). The Gold team only has 4 players averaging a PPG but one is averaging 2+ PPG.

The black team ought to be moved up, in my opinion, if anything for the annoyance factor. They get as giddy as a bunch of peewee's...

 

[Jarick]

Usually players seem to lose about half their points when they move up a level. These guys would rather score 30 points and feel like a superstar than move up and get 15 points and be another good player. Don't know why.

We had some guys that got moved up two levels. Went from about 20-30 points to 5-10. HUGE dropoff.

For me, my points per game went from 0.87 to 0.64 when I've played up. But my goals per game dropped from 0.48 to 0.28. It's a lot harder to score at higher levels because defenses are better and opposing forwards hold on to the puck better.

 

[TieClark]

You need Photo ID for playoffs and in order to be eligible for playoffs you must have played at least 6 games during the regular season. If you have a ringer during the regular season nothing will be done unless you're lighting up the league in which case they'll likely move the entire team up a level

 

[CoopALoop]

Ringers have always been part of the game. There is always going to be someone better than you and your team.

Most leagues around here require 5-10 games played in the regular season to qualify for the playoffs, then during the playoffs having a photo ID to check in.

I mean, everyone wants to win in the regular season, but with every team making the playoffs regardless, does it really matter?


Also, in regards to blowing teams out. One of my teams this year started off the season on a really bad slump. By the time they re-tallied the divisions, all of our regular guys started to show up and we began to own our division by a large margin.

Sometimes the teams that end up blowing out the rest of your division aren't there by choice.

 

[Alpine]

I played in a Senior league once that was supposed to be rec and there was a team of ex Atlantic University players. When we played them we put in in no goalie and their goals only counted if they hit the post.
I moved to Gentlemens league the next season