In the real NBA, it doesn't matter how you win -- all that matters is that you win. But in NBA 2K16's preliminary Pro-Am events, winning all of your games is not enough to ensure qualification for the eventual 16-team tournament. Road to the Finals is the only team competition I've ever seen where running up the score and padding everyone's stats is the key to becoming champion.
Under Road to the Finals' current scoring system, the teams at the top of the leaderboard will be the ones who are exploiting the mode's gameplay flaws by constantly throwing 90-foot outlet passes for fast-break dunks or corner threes, and trying to cause turnovers every defensive possession by repeatedly going for steals and charges.
If your team prefers to run a patient half-court offense with set plays that take time to develop, or tries to play positional defense without mashing the steal and charge buttons, then you'll be decreasing the number of possessions in a match. If you do this, you're killing your team's chance of achieving an event-winning rating because nobody is going to give you an award if your points per possession is higher than the next team.
Even if you get out to an early large lead, your team's score still won't come close to ranking at the top of the leaderboard if your opponents suddenly quit the match mid-game.
Collusion is also possible under the current matchmaking system -- unless 2K is doing something we don't know about -- because participants aren't limited to playing for only one team. If two team captains are geographically close and are hitting the "search for match" prompt at the same time, "dummy squads" could quickly be created to rig oodles of blowout wins.
A potential fix for Road to the Finals' structural problems exists inside another NBA 2K16 mode.
In MyTeam, users must progress from the eighth seed to the first seed by winning several series of games and climbing up the tiers.
Visual Concepts should let Pro-Am teams work their way up the seeds for a full month of unlimited, uninterrupted preliminary play. Once a team wins the first seed, it qualifies for the Road to the Finals knockout tournament:
- 8th seed, 10-game series -- 2 wins to advance, you can't drop any lower than this
- 7th seed, 10-game series -- 3 wins to advance, 1 win to stay put, 8 losses for a demotion
- 6th seed, 10-game series -- 4 wins to advance, 2 wins to stay put, 7 losses for a demotion
- 5th seed, 10-game series -- 5 wins to advance, 3 wins to stay put, 6 losses for a demotion
- 4th seed, 10-game series -- 6 wins to advance, 4 wins to stay put, 5 losses for a demotion
- 3rd seed, 10-game series -- 7 wins to advance, 5 wins to stay put, 4 losses for a demotion
- 2nd seed, 10-game series -- 8 wins to advance, 6 wins to stay put, 3 losses for a demotion
- 1st seed, 10-game series -- 9 wins to advance, 7 wins to stay put, 2 losses for a demotion
If an even number of teams make the final tournament field, then the bracket is easy to setup:
Seed the teams based on how quickly they completed the ladder. The first team to qualify plays the last team to qualify, then so on down the list.
If an odd number of teams make it in, then all you have to do is hold a single play-in game between the last two teams to qualify, with the winner earning a spot in the even-numbered field.
We're only in the “preseason” stages of Road to the Finals, with the first official qualification event not starting until February 15, so why not scrap this easily exploited points-based system and switch to something where winning is all that matters?