2020 INTERNATIONAL SWIMMING LEAGUE – MATCH 4
- Monday, October 26: 3 PM-5 PM Local Time (10 AM-12 noon U.S. Eastern, 11 PM-1 AM J+1 Japan)
- Tuesday, October 27: 3 PM-5 PM Local Time (10 AM-12 noon U.S. Eastern, 11 PM-1 AM J+1 Japan)
- Duna Arena – Budapest, Hungary
- Short Course Meters (SCM) format
- ISL Technical Handbook
- 2020 ISL Scoring Format
- 2020 ISL Prize Money and Bonuses
- How To Watch
- Match 4 Full Results
- Teams: Cali Condors / DC Trident / Iron / NY Breakers
Thanks in a large part to match MVP Caeleb Dressel along with women’s backstroke skins champion Olivia Smoliga, the Cali Condors easily defeated Iron, NY Breakers and DC Trident, amassing an eye-popping 610.5 points in match 4.
The NY Breakers were ahead of Iron nearly midway through the meet, before Iron’s Emre Sakci‘s win over Marco Koch in the 100m breast, with a jackpot included, turned the tide in Iron’s direction for the remainder of the meet. The squad’s runner-up status was further solidified by Sakci taking the men’s breaststroke skins.
Looking at the bigger picture, the Condors remain ahead of the entire league in terms of season club points, holding a 2-point advantage over Iron and LA Current.
However, London Roar, Energy Standard, Tokyo Frog Kings and Toronto Titans have only contested one match apiece, meaning we’re not exactly comparing apples to apples for team standings until all squads have raced the same amount.
We’ll get clearer vision after week 3, with Iron and Cali Condors having a bye week while the other matches move ahead as follows:
| 3 | Fri. Oct 30 – Sat. Oct 31 | 12-2 PM Saturday, 6-8 PM Sunday | 10-12 PM Friday, 7-9 AM Saturday | London Roar, DC Trident, LA Current, Tokyo Frog Kings | Iron, Cali Condors |
| 3 | Sun Nov. 1 – Mon. Nov 2 | 6-8 PM Monday, 4-6 PM Tuesday | 12 – 2 PM Monday, 10 AM – 12 PM Tuesday | Energy Standard, Aqua Centurions, NY Breakers, Toronto Titans | Iron, Cali Condors |
HOW STANDINGS WORK
In the regular championship season, clubs earn points from participating in matches according to the following principle:
- 1st place – 4 points
- 2nd place – 3 points
- 3rd place – 2 points
- 4th place – 1 point
At the conclusion of the ten regular-season championship matches, the top 8 teams will advance to the semifinals. From there, the top 4 teams will advance to the final where the winner of the 2020 ISL season will be determined. (Unlike in individual races, there are no team jackpot points; a team won’t gain extra points for winning a match by a huge margin.)
One change from last year’s ISL is that there are no divisions by continent (that we know of). Last year those continental divisions allowed the top 2 American teams and top 2 European teams to move onto the semifinals. This means that this season the top 8 teams overall, regardless of continent, will move onto the semifinals. A second change from last year is the addition of 2 new ISL teams, bringing the total number of competing teams to 10.
looking at the schedule – https://staging.swimswam.com/isl-announces-full-schedule-finale-to-take-place-in-late-november/ and wondering how ISL come up with this schedule.
First notice that ES and LON won’t race against each other in the first 5 weeks. Turn out Condors also won’t race Titans in those prelim weeks…
LAC, NYB, DCT, TOK, AQR and IRO all get to race the other 9 teams, while London Roar will only meet 7 of the 9 (missing ES and Titan), as well as Titans also race 7 team and miss London Roar and Condors.
Right now, the Titans after one match is at the bottom. If they don’t get to Semi or final, maybe they really will have missed Roars and Condors completely in the whole series!
There’s at least one thing that seems to have happened on purpose: Tokyo not starting until week 2 so they could come after their Nationals.
After that, I could cynically connect some dots, but it wouldn’t be anything provable. Nobody I spoke to knows how scheduling was done. In every other major sport league in the world, especially those with imbalanced schedules, there’s an explanation. Everyone knows why you face certain teams a certain number of times.
Here, it’s just guesses.
Couldn’t agree more Braden. Had me head scratchin’ too – but nothing provable.