Hi, this is Thiago (My Twitter account). I didn't like this year's CPL playoff format. Not a single bit.

When the format was first announced a few weeks before the CPL started, the first thing I thought to myself was "Why?". There's a lot of things in it that confused me, like the 1st-placed team facing the 2nd-placed team, the 2-week break for whoever hosted the final, etc... As seen by the comments under the CPL's tweet when they announced it, I wasn't the only one confused by the change.

What I told myself after 2 hours of chatting with other CPL fans on why it sucked was that I'll just wait and see how it plays out. I knew my mind would change after the playoffs finished, kinda like MLS in 2019. Before that year, the MLS Cup playoff format was 2-legged matches, and everyone liked it, there wasn't any point in changing it. Then in 2019, they changed it to single-leg matches, and a lot of people didn't like that change. Anyway, once playoff season arrived, the matches were incredible and extremely exciting. There was so much drama in every match and overall it was a very good change.

So... the CPL playoffs just ended. Forge won again. Like what happened in MLS, I changed my mind about the format, except this time it was the other way around. Maybe it was only me, but I felt like the playoffs were a complete DISASTER.

5 teams is too much

This is one of the main things fans were complaining about when the format was announced. 5 teams is just too much. In what world does finishing in the bottom half of an 8-team league after 28 games give you a spot in playoffs? You might as well give the 6th team a spot, and the 7th, and the 8th... The whole point of playoffs is to give the best teams in the league a chance to get another title. Why on earth does York deserve a spot in the post-season? They finished 5th from 8 teams. That's it, they shouldn't be given any more chances, they had 28 games to finish top 4. I don't buy the whole "Cinderella run" argument by the league... Why not give the 6th-placed team a spot as well? Would make it an even bigger Cinderella run. Having 4 teams qualify for the playoffs was perfect, there was no point in changing it. You're just rewarding teams with a bad season another chance to winning a title.

Might as well make the final 1 vs. 2

The 1st-placed and 2nd-placed teams get way too many advantages. Forge qualified for their 5th final by winning just 1 match... 1 MATCH! It's crazy, they barely had to try. The worst thing about that? Cavalry, who lost that 1 match vs. Forge, couldn't care less. Why? Because they were still in the playoffs. Another stupid thing about the format which I'll talk about later. The Cavs finished 1st this year after an incredible season, finishing 13 points ahead of the 2nd-placed team – a CPL record. For that, they received the CPL Shield, cash prize, and a spot to the CONCACAF Champions Cup. Surely that's enough rewards, right? It's so boring that there's a 50% chance that 1st and 2nd face each other again in the playoffs, just like what happened this year with Forge and Cavalry. The 50% number is just mathematics, but if we're being honest, that number is likely higher. Realistically, whoever loses the 1st vs. 2nd match-up still has a higher chance of beating whoever they have next in their path to the final, it makes for boring and most importantly, predictable matchups.

A midweek matchup had low attendance, who would've thought?

Unlike the formats in 2021 and 2022, this year included a midweek playoff matchup (Pacific vs. York). And as absolutely everyone expected, it had low attendance: 2,780. Now, I maybe wouldn't mind this if whoever won that match had another home match which was played on a weekend... But no, this wasn't the case, this was Pacific's only playoff match of the year. Why? The CPL removed a weekend match (last year had 5 weekend matches, with this year's having 4) because of how the format worked. Not just that, but Pacific only had 3 days to advertise it. 3 days to advertise a midweek match... What could go wrong? 2,780 is simply unacceptable for a playoff match. This year saw a 19% attendance increase from last year, and instead of building on that, they decided to put the match on a Wednesday night. Midweek matches also have other cons. The away team was York United, a club whose local time is 3 hours ahead of Pacific's local time. Midweek matches have to be played at a time later than 6:30pm to allow most people to still be able to attend. For York fans, the match was at 10:00pm. People have jobs, children have school, staying up until at least 12:00am is just not an option for a lot of fans. Not only are you lowering the attendance, but also the viewership. At the time of that match, I was in Argentina (for family reasons), whose local time is the same as Halifax. Imagine Halifax fans wanting to watch the match. It ended at 1:00am for them on a weekday. Not to mention the match was 2 minutes away from going to extra time, which would've extended the end by over 30 minutes. It's stupid, playoffs are supposed to be most exciting matches of the season, and by doing this, you're only preventing more people from watching them. This isn't anything to do with Pacific's time zone, because weekend matches can be played at more normal times, where everyone is able to watch without any issue.

Pacific arrived to Halifax less than 24 hours before their match

I'm not sure if the league thought about this, but there's some away days which are a long time... A VERY LONG TIME. I don't remember where I saw this, but I recall OneSoccer saying Pacific to Halifax was the 3rd longest away trip in a domestic league worldwide, or something like that. Pacific had 3 days to travel to the other side of the country, and it showed. 24 hours before Halifax vs. Pacific, there were some reports popping up on CPL-related forums that the Tridents hadn't even gotten to Halifax yet. I asked a Pacific player about it, and he confirmed it to me.

Me: Hey (player), apparently you guys got to Halifax yesterday night?
The Pacific player: Late last night too

How can the league allow this to happen? Pacific likely only trained once after knocking out York... What a mess! Oh, and it showed on the pitch: Pacific used what they learnt from their CONCACAF adventures in 2022 and wasted so much time that you could likely play another half from all that lost time. Can you blame them though? They had practically no training before playing, and the players were likely very tired. Another one of this format's cons...

0 schedule consistency

Forge had 2 weeks off between their match against Cavalry and their match against... Cavalry... Teams should play once a week. You keep fans engaged and most importantly, the team fit. One matchday had 1 match, then the other had 2 matches, then the other had 1 match, then the other had 1 match... Keep it consistent. What we all loved from last year's format was that the semis were played on the same day, and it made for 2 exciting CPL matchdays. It was so fun to see Cavalry and Forge play then have Pacific and Ottawa face off just 1 hour later. It made for proper play-offs. You don't see what the CPL did this year in any other competition. Look at the World Cup, it's simple. 2 matches a day. That's it. No inconsistency with the play-offs or anything. Hell, look at the Canadian Championship. All matches from the same rounds were held in the same week. It makes it fun but also not confusing. This year, there was only 1 day where there were 2 playoff matches, and those 2 matches weren't even from the same round... *facepalm*.

What on earth was the point of that first Cavalry-Forge match?

Seriously though, I've already completely forgotten about it. The whole point of playoffs is "win or go home". This wasn't the case here... Cavalry lost and it didn't matter in the slightest. They then faced Pacific, beat Pacific and played in the CPL final vs. the Hammers. The match had no hype, and I'll admit it: I, Thiago, the writer of this article, am a Forge fan. Hopefully, I'm not showing any bias in this text. For me, it just felt like a match to see who would host the final, because that's what it was. I seriously wasn't excited in the slightest, or nervous. I knew that if we lost, we'd still have another chance, and we wouldn't have to travel a huge amount, or have a midweek game. It was just another match in another weekend, that's it. It's boring. You could even tell from that game that the Cavalry players didn't really care about losing, there was almost no urgency from them, and rightly so, they're still alive and only have to play another game to face Forge again. Don't get me wrong, hosting the final is great, but with the CPL caring so much about how important final positions in the regular season standings should be, why not just give the higher-seeded team the home final? Ottawa finished 1st in 2022, and got rewarded with hosting the final after they knocked out Pacific in the semis. Same for Forge in 2021. They finished 1st and advanced to the final which they hosted. What I'm trying to get to with this is that the playoffs have stopped feeling like playoffs.

"Positions need to matter"

I understand that final positions need to matter, but it gets to a point where the CPL's made it matter a bit too much. As I said above, Cavalry got a trophy, money, and a spot to a continental competition. What more could they possibly need? Giving them a home match where they can instantly qualify to the final by winning is just plain stupid. Playoffs should be fair to every team, how is it possible that some teams have to play 3 matches to reach the final while the 1st-placed team or the 2nd-placed team just have to win once? Might as well go back to the 2019 format where the top 2 qualified to the final, and the rest got nothing. That's what it feels like now.

The format is too confusing for casual fans

Maybe an unpopular opinion, but the format is too confusing for casual fans. How do you even explain it without showing a visual? "4th and 5th face each other, 1st and 2nd face each other, winner hosts the final. Winner of 4-5 faces the 3rd-placed team, then the winner of that faces the loser of 1st vs. 2nd, then the winner of that goes to the final."
I can guarantee you that whoever you're talking to will immediately forget how it works. You need to show a visual for them to understand.

That's all, folks!

That's it for my rant. We'll see what the CPL does next year. The way they talk about the format as if it's the best format known to mankind makes me think they won't change it for a long time. But it's the CPL after all, they like to tinker with rules and formats every season. I wonder when we'll have 2 seasons in a row with an unchanged format. So far, it hasn't happened once.

I really hope the league considers changing the format and actually keeps it in the following years.

Follow me on Twitter for more rants and some Argentina/Boca Juniors content: twitter.com/thiaguitoszwarc