Bocce League  Teams Formation

 

Bocce teams are formed by the computer to produce balanced teams based purely on the ratings of the players. (CLICK HERE for info on player ratings.)

 

AUTODRAFT PROGRAM -The algorithm used is similar to the drafting of players in professional sports. The bottom team (highest rating) gets the first pick to get the best player down to the best team getting the last pick. A team first consists of one player, then two players, then three players, and then four players. Each time the team total of each of the team player's ratings is calculated and the team with the highest total get first choice in the next draft. This process is done 3 separate times to form balanced teams of 4 players each. The program simulates that the team captains sit down and draft players logically in the order that the players are rated.  The computer does this almost instantaneously after the groupings are set up based on the player ratings.

EXAMPLE - Below is an example to show step by step what the computer does to determine the teams. The example uses 16 players forming 4 teams.

The league rating list is manually derived by name from the total list of bocce player ratings.

League Players List Alphabetical
LAST NAME FIRST NAME PLAYER RATING
A X 2.86
B X 3.34
C X 3.25
D X 1.73
E X 4.25
F X 3.20
G X 1.50
H X 4.20
I X 1.88
J X 1.32
K X 2.70
L X 3.60
M X 4.00
N X 4.13
O X 2.55
P X 2.99
 

The league rating list is then sorted from the lowest rating number to the highest rating number. This list is the broken into 4 groups and 1 player from each group will be on each team. The first group having the lowest ratings are the team captains.

League Players List by Rating
LAST NAME FIRST NAME PLAYER RATING GROUPS
J X 1.32 Group 1

(Captains)

G X 1.50
D X 1.73
I X 1.88
O X 2.55 Group 2
K X 2.70
A X 2.86
P X 2.99
F X 3.20 Group 3
C X 3.25
B X 3.34
L X 3.60
M X 4.00 Group 4
N X 4.13
H X 4.20
E X 4.25
 

The 4 groups are placed in the horizontal format below for the autodrafting program.

  Group1       Group2       Group3       Group4      
J X 1.32   O X 2.55   F X 3.20   M X 4.00    
G X 1.50   K X 2.70   C X 3.25   N X 4.13    
D X 1.73   A X 2.86   B X 3.34   H X 4.20    
I X 1.88   P X 2.99   L X 3.60   E X 4.25    
                                 

The autodrafting program then creates all the following tables.

Group 1 is sorted from the largest rating to the lowest rating for the first draft (in green). The largest rating in Group 1 gets to draft the lowest rating in Group 2 on down to form 2-person teams. The total team rating for each 2-person team is calculated as shown (in red).   (Note that it appears that 2 of the 2-Person teams have identical averages but the computer has the averages out to 6 decimal places.)

  Group1

Draft Order

    Group2  

2-Person Team Total

  Group3       Group4      
I X 1.88   O X 2.55 4.43 F X 3.20   M X 4.00    
D X 1.73   K X 2.70 4.43 C X 3.25   N X 4.13    
G X 1.50   A X 2.86 4.36 B X 3.34   H X 4.20    
J X 1.32   P X 2.99 4.31 L X 3.60   E X 4.25    

 

The 2-person team total is sorted from the largest total to the lowest total for the next draft (in green). The largest 2-person team total gets to draft the lowest rating in Group 3 on down to form 3-person teams. The total  team rating for each 3-person team is calculated as shown (in red). 
  Group1       Group2  

Draft Order

  Group3  

3-person Team Total

  Group4      
I X 1.88   O X 2.55 4.43 F X 3.20 7.63 M X 4.00    
D X 1.73   K X 2.70 4.43 C X 3.25 7.68 N X 4.13    
G X 1.50   A X 2.86 4.36 B X 3.34 7.70 H X 4.20    
J X 1.32   P X 2.99 4.31 L X 3.60 7.91 E X 4.25    

 

The 3-person team total is sorted from the largest total to the lowest total for the next draft (in green) . The largest 3-person team total gets to draft the lowest rating in Group 4 on down to form 4-person teams. The total  team rating for each 4-person team is calculated as shown (in red). The final 4-player team averages are shown in blue.

  Group1       Group2       Group3  

Draft Order

  Group4   4-Person Team Total 4 Team Average
J X 1.32   P X 2.99   L X 3.60 7.91 M X 4.00 11.91 2.98
G X 1.50   A X 2.86   B X 3.34 7.70 N X 4.13 11.83 2.96
D X 1.73   K X 2.70   C X 3.25 7.68 H X 4.20 11.88 2.97
I X 1.88   O X 2.55   F X 3.20 7.63 E X 4.25 11.88 2.97
                              Max 2.98
                              Min 2.96
                              Range 0.02

The final four team rosters for the league are shown below.

Capt.      
TEAM 1 J,X P,X L,X M,X
TEAM 2 G,X A,X B,X N,X
TEAM 3 D,X K,X C,X H,X
TEAM 4 I,X O,X F,X E,X
         

Note that the final team averages have only 0.02 maximum variation. The maximum variation by random combination of the 4 groups could be 20 times the autodraft combination variation. The only human judgment in the whole process is the rating of players by the team captains. However, mixed league teams must be checked that husband & wife are not on the same team and at least 1 woman & 1 man are on each team. If this happens the correction is made by exchanging 2 players with the closest ratings in one of the final four Groups.

 

 

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Revised: November 08, 2010 .