What a pesäpallo tournament could look like

A new tournament could become a great symbol for the game and unite pesäpallo across Finland

Just over a month ago, the Pessäpalloliito (Pesäpallo association) announced that the annual winter (pre-season) tournament was cancelled due to the ongoing pandemic. In the press release, the Pessäpalloliito stated that teams would still be able to play organised training games tournaments, but with the association’s approval. The association suggested that teams would have to “be creative” to create any tournaments... this got me thinking: what could a more expansive tournament look like in the future? What could a tournament look like now? With the Supercup now being cancelled and a hint that there may be a competition next year to mark the 100 year anniversary, I thought I should finally get round to putting my thoughts together in a post.

Why change Halli-SM at all

The truth is, there is no real reason to replace the current tournament; however the prospect of creating something new and different was too exciting a prospect to ignore. The Supercup included Ykköspesis side Ouluun Lippo and solidified my thoughts on a more expansive tournament that includes Superpesis and Ykköspesis teams - one of the problems with promotion and relegation in sport is that there will be times when local rivalries will not be played because teams are in different leagues; however if there is a tournament that can promote these games annually, surely it is a good thing? Another great benefit with a tournament that includes teams from different leagues is that lower league teams get experience against top teams and test their hopes at promotion etc. plus top teams can be more flexible or bold in team selection and tactics, giving them greater opportunity to pick a winning combination for the regular season.

So in short, there is nothing wrong with the current Halli-SM tournament, but it would be really interesting to see how a bigger tournament could play out and whether the benefits I have outlined would be seen.

Local championships

Format:

One thought of mine about tournaments would be purely to promote local rivalries. In the current situation with restrictions on movement, this would be a more realistic option. This type of championship would work best with only the Superpesis and Ykköspesis teams. The format isn’t radically different to the Halli-SM, but the idea is that the local groups woul be extended to include Ykköspesis teams.

In this format teams would be grouped into regions and them each team would play each other once, with the team with the most points being declared the regional champion. The maximum number of games played depends on how many teams are in each region group, but if groups were limited to 4 or 5 teams, they could play each other once thought may work, teams will play between 3 and 5 games. The champions from each region could even play each other in a “league of champions” for a further 4 games each.

Positives

• Promotes local rivalries;
• The title of being the best team in a region could be more meaningful than being the winner of a “cup”
• Can work with travel restrictions;

Negatives:

• Not a lot of games against rival teams in the same league;
• Uneven groups/tournaments in different regions;
• The same top team in the region could win the tournament every year;

Pessäpallo cup (with groups)

Format:

With this format, you would again only have Superpesis and Ykköspesis teams. You would then split teams into groups of 4 or 5. This could be done by region or by random drawing of numbers or by region. If random numbers were drawn, the teams could be split into “seeds” with the teams that finished in the top 6 in Superpesis in “pot 1”, guaranteeing that a single group doesn’t contain all of the top teams.

Once the teams in each group have played each other once, the top teams from each group qualify for a knockout competition. The number of teams in the knockout competition would need to be 8 or 16, so there could be a rule that the best second place teams also reached playoffs.

Positives

• Groups could be random or based on regions;
• Random groups could give teams the chance to play teams from outside their region that they don't usually get to play;
• Some guaranteed games against league rivals, but also some games against teams from a different league;
• More even groups will avoid high profile teams being knocked out early on;

Negatives:

• Not a lot of games against rival teams in the same league;
• The same top teams in the groups could reach the knockout stages every year;

Pesäpallo cup (knockout)

Format

One format could be a simple knockout tournament similar to the FA Cup or the Challenge Cup (in Rugby League). This could include all teams from all levels and give Ykköspesis and Superpesis teams “byes” to avoid them playing too many games at lower levels. This could be randomly chosen and would mean that Superpesis teams would play against lower league teams, creating a “magic” and excitement about the tournament. In theory every pesäpallo team has a chance to win and they would al have a chance to be part of the same tournament as living legends in the game. Coming from the UK, I know the excitement around tournaments like this. Even though the top teams are likely to win it every year, there is still an excitement around being part of something that everyone in the sport is part of. Fans of English/Welsh football and Rugby League will tell you that the cup competitions have a great following and bring people into the sport to support their local team against their heroes! For me, this sounds like the most exciting type of tournament to celebrate the anniversary year. The fact that some teams have second teams or reserve players is of little relevance; Rugby League faces this issue every year, yet the magic of the Challenge cup is unrivalled.

Positives

• The cup would be something that everyone can take part in, uniting pesäpallo and being a true celebration of the game;
• Random draws can create unpredictability in the cup and excitement - imagine Sotkamo being knocked out in an early stage against Vimpeli?
• This gives players in lower leagues the chance to play against the top athletes in the game, helping to create excitement and a chance to learn from the best. 
• At present, the chances of lower league players gaining experience against top Superpesis teams is almost zero. This tournament allows teams to grow and try something new and learn;

Negatives:

• Top teams could be knocked out early in the competition;
• Uneven matchups in games;
• Difficult to organise;
• Could mean very few games for teams;

A combined tournament 

Format:

Another interesting choice would be to combine elements of Local Championships and a Knockout style competition; this is seen in Gaelic Football, where champions for different regions get byes for the earlier rounds of a knockout competition. This type of tournament would work for all teams in pesäpallo (like the Pesäpallo Cup (knock-out cup) option above). This would help to combine some of the benefits of both Local Championships and Knockout tournaments, whilst also addressing some of the negatives. This option however has its own drawbacks and negatives.

In this format teams would be grouped into regions (in the same way as in Local Championships); however instead of each team playing each other once, the teams could play a knockout competition with the winner being declared the regional champion and receiving a bye to later rounds in the overall tournament.

Positives

• Promotes local rivalries;
• Can reduce travel to a certain extent;
• More opportunities to advance in the knockout stages, so the same top team in a region each year will not stop other teams being able to win;
• Will lead to games between rival teams outside of their region;

Negatives:

• This competition could take longer than other formats;
• The tournament would be difficult to organise and could be confusing;
• Uneven groups/tournaments in different regions;
• The same top team in the region could win the tournament every year;