Talk:Magic number (sports)

This page (including its examples) are almost exactly the same as the about.com post on calculating magic number...
 * about.com mirrors the wikipedia site. --Holderca1 18:36, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

Points System
This article doesn't include how to calculate under a point system. Kingjeff (talk) 15:22, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

draws
These calculations take no account of drawn games - presumably because the editors are unaware that in football, for example, drawn games often result in 1 point for each team. Markb (talk) 13:00, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

It's based on points won and points lost. Not wins and losses. Kingjeff (talk) 06:02, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

AFAIK, teams can only lose points if they are deducted by the relevant authorities, unless you know of another way? Markb (talk) 07:19, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

I was referring to when a team loses a game, they lost 3 points that they could have won. If a team draws, then a team wins 1 point and loses 2 points. Kingjeff (talk) 17:07, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Sentance Removed
I removed this following sentence from the article:

The additional +1 cannot be removed from the formula unless both teams are in the same division and one has clinched the season series and both are already guaranteed to make the playoffs (one as a division champion the other as wildcard).

This is not true. Their are different elimination numbers for divisions and wildcard (if the sport has them) spots. You can not remove the one in any case. Lets say a Team A is 100-62 and Team B is 99-63. The E# for Team B would be exactly 0 (in a 162 game season). Even if both of them are going (Team A by division; Team B by wildcard) if you remove the +1 then the E# would become 1 for Team B meaning they are both tied. JeremyWJ (talk) 07:18, 7 April 2009 (UTC)


 * "if you remove the +1 then the E# would become 1 for Team B meaning they are both tied."


 * Don't you mean –1? Kingjeff (talk) 13:48, 8 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Yea, sorry. My point still stands though.  You should never remove it. JeremyWJ (talk) 20:55, 8 April 2009 (UTC)


 * The only way the +1 can be removed is when a team/person clinches the tiebreaker. Kingjeff (talk) 01:28, 9 April 2009 (UTC)
 * You could, but to keep conformity you -never- should. Doesn't technically matter in a sense because most sports will replace anything 0 or under with the letter "E" usually.  The formula however should not change, and it doesn't (even in cases where a tie breaker is needed).  With the +1 in the formula, it works no matter what the final outcome (be it a clean defeat, tie, or win with a tiebreaker) JeremyWJ (talk) 04:05, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

Simpler Method
I puzzled and puzzled until my puzzler was sore...but I found a simpler way. Usually, sports broadcasts rapidly flash data that is scant and incomplete, often showing nothing but Games Remaining (GR) and Games Behind Leader (GBL). If one wishes to noodle out the Elemination Number (E), all he needs to do is the following; he doesn't need the teams' complete Win/Loss records. Add Leader's Games Remaining to Trailer's Games Remaining and divide by 2; then subtract from that Trailer's Games Behind Leader; then add 1. Presto! There's the Elimination number. See here: $$E= \frac{GR_L+GR_T}{2}-GBL_T+1$$ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 137.186.253.206 (talk) 18:32, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

US only?
All the references are to US sports. Is this terms used outside the USA? If not, this needs to be mentioned. Tesspub (talk) 09:23, 13 February 2012 (UTC)