DMB Tournament of Champions

The purpose of the Diamond Mind Baseball Tournament of Champions (TOC) is to provide a fun and interesting tournament for Diamond Mind Leagues and their managers.  The TOC will be open to leagues with similar rules and roster sizes to compete in a head to head tournament in November of each year.  The league requirements consist of:

• Each league must have between 20 and 32 teams
• Leagues must use the current Diamond Mind Season disk and be set for the current ERA
• The top two teams (Champion and Runner Up) from each league will be placed into the TOC
• For leagues who's playoffs are still running the commissioner may nominate the top two teams from the regular season. These teams could also be the top team from both the AL and NL.

The TOC will be split into divisions based on the number of teams in your league.  We will separate the 20 - 24 team leagues into one division and the 25-32 team leagues into a second division.  There will be a Champion of both divisions crowned just like last year.  The two division winners will then play a separate tournament in the World Series.

Each league commissioner will be responsible for providing via email the league database which will be used to import teams into the TOC database.  The league commissioner will also be responsible for the play of games if the team manager is unable to participate.  Two teams from each league (Champion and Runner Up) will be placed in the TOC. All league and manager information will be placed on the web site.

Managers will be responsible for playing via head to head one series per week until the team is eliminated.  The database will be emailed to all managers on Sunday night/Monday morning and results are due back to the TOC by the following Sunday at 6  PM EST.  In the event managers cannot coordinate a time to play, the TOC will simulate the series and the winning team will advance to the next round.

Managers may have multiple teams in the TOC (from different leagues) to manage throughout the TOC. 

Owners may manage more than one team for the duration of the TOC however, in the event that one manager has two teams playing in the same series, the manager must appoint a replacement manager for one of the teams.  The manager may also choose to provide a MP for each team and have the TOC Statistician simulate the series.

• No Injuries (players may be lost due to ejection or weather)
• No bullpen warm-up
• Weather effects are turned on
• Clutch ratings are in effect

All TOC series are best of 7; with the higher seeded teams at home in games 1, 2, 6, 7 and lower seeded team at home in games 3, 4, and 5.  There is one day off for travel after games 2 and 5.  Seeding will be based on the records of the teams in the TOC.  In the event of a tie, a coin flip will determine home team.

The usage rules of the TOC are as follows:

• The Designated Hitter (DH) will be used in all games
• Rosters will be set at 25 players, fixed for each round, and chosen prior to the round starting
• Usage will be not reset after each round

• Starting Pitchers must have 3 days rest between starts
• pitcher must have 20 innings (was 15 last year) in the MLB season (disk) to be eligible
• Starting pitchers with less than 120 innings pitched in the MLB season (disk) are limited to 1 start in each series;  Starters with 120 innings pitched - 169.2 innings pitched are eligible to start 2 games in each series; Starters with 170 or more innings pitched are eligible to start 3 games in each series

• Batters with less than 50 plate appearances in the MLB season (disk) are not eligible
• Players may play out of position (computer compensates with defensive deterioration), regardless of DMB rating
• Batters with between 51 and 199 plate appearances in the MLB season (disk) are limited to 1 start in each series;  Batters with between 200 and 349 plate appearances are limited to 3 starts in each series; Batters with 350 or more plate appearances can start all 7 games in each series. 
• Players may not pinch-hit until the 6th inning or unless the starting pitcher has been pulled.  Teams are not permitted to pinch run or use a defensive replacement until the 6th inning either.  The only exception would be an ejection

At the conclusion of each series, all statistics and box scores along with a brief write up will be posted on the web site.

The winner of the Tournament of Champions (each division) will receive an individual award along with an invitation to next years TOC.