Japan’s professional baseball Climax Series (CS) touched off a heated debate on a 5ch thread, as users traded views on a system that lets the regular-season champion get shut out of the Japan Series if they lose the CS, as well as on the fact that the same CS format is forced even on a runaway Pacific League champion like SoftBank. What began as a thread sparked by Giants and Hanshin fan reactions spiraled into questions about whether the CS should even continue, comparisons with Major League Baseball, and talk about strike-zone calls.
What people said
1AnonymousOct 15, 2026 10:07
Feels good, doesn't it
2AnonymousOct 15, 2026 10:08
Once the Giants missed the pennant, they're basically bottom-tier (B-class) anyway — winning or losing this is just a bonus round for them
3AnonymousOct 15, 2026 10:11
"We'll win it! Because we're the Giants."
"We'll win it! Because we're Hanshin."
The fans themselves are the ones being overconfident
4AnonymousOct 15, 2026 10:12
The Giants act like they win the pennant every single year — that's almost impressive
6AnonymousOct 15, 2026 10:13
Honestly, cut back the interleague games and put more weight on the CS instead
Japan really undervalues short playoff series
7AnonymousOct 15, 2026 10:14
Hanshin's only just gotten back to even
The Giants, though… well, lol
8AnonymousOct 15, 2026 10:14
It's weird they get home field for every single game on top of an advantage win
9AnonymousOct 15, 2026 10:27
If Hanshin as they are right now made the CS, I can only picture it ending close to a 33-4 blowout
10AnonymousOct 15, 2026 10:29
The 1st-place team gets several days of calm prep time while 2nd and 3rd fight it out
The team that wins through only gets one day off before playing again
Doesn't burning your best pitcher just to advance put you at a disadvantage for the rotation?
11AnonymousOct 15, 2026 10:31
Slapping on a half-baked advantage like that is exactly why people start saying 'it devalues the regular season' and kill the buzz
The regular season and the postseason are separate things
12AnonymousOct 15, 2026 10:31
If they want to beef up the CS, they should just add more teams
13AnonymousOct 15, 2026 10:31
Playing 140 games just to narrow 6 teams down to 3 (lol)
14AnonymousOct 15, 2026 10:32
Bet they wouldn't be complaining if their own team was the one winning
15AnonymousOct 15, 2026 10:33
Same dynamic as Morning Musume and Angerme fans losing it over Juice=Juice's rise (a Hello! Project idol-group fandom rivalry)
16AnonymousOct 15, 2026 10:34
Seriously, if they don't reform this soon, the gap with MLB is just going to keep widening
18AnonymousOct 15, 2026 10:42
Still, just casually watching it, something about it feels off
But I guess it can't be helped since it's good for ticket sales
20AnonymousOct 15, 2026 10:44
Playing 140 games only for it to get flipped like this — nobody wins from that
21AnonymousOct 15, 2026 10:45
A rule where you win the pennant race but still can't play in the title decider makes zero sense
22AnonymousOct 15, 2026 10:49
People should realize that whoever wins, nothing in their own life actually changes
23AnonymousOct 15, 2026 10:49
Since there's no promotion or relegation anyway, they might as well just split it into three divisions already
24AnonymousOct 15, 2026 10:49
No, it's definitely more fun with it
If you think it's unnecessary, you're just not enjoying baseball
26AnonymousOct 15, 2026 10:53
Don't need it
It gets boring because a team that only won a handful of games gets to show up in it
31AnonymousOct 15, 2026 10:58
Re: #26
It'd be more boring if a team that's in a slump shows up and just gets stomped instead
27AnonymousOct 15, 2026 10:54
In the Pacific League, even the Hawks — who ran away with the pennant by 11.5 games — still have to play the CS
Don't complain about a gap that small in the Central League
28AnonymousOct 15, 2026 10:54
Whoever shows up is just going to get swept aside by the Hawks anyway, so they might as well hurry into the offseason
29AnonymousOct 15, 2026 10:55
Doing this with such a small number of teams in the first place is pointless
30AnonymousOct 15, 2026 10:57
They won the pennant, so as far as I'm concerned that season's baseball is already over
I personally think of the postseason as a separate thing from the league season
32AnonymousOct 15, 2026 10:59
The CS is run based on the season standings, so calling it 'a separate thing' doesn't really hold up
33AnonymousOct 15, 2026 10:59
I don't see it that way
It only means something if you become the top of the Central or Pacific League
The idea that you can win the pennant and still not get to play for that is ridiculous
34AnonymousOct 15, 2026 11:00
It's not even a matter of boring or not
There's no way a 2nd- or 3rd-place team is going to get anyone excited
35AnonymousOct 15, 2026 11:01
In MLB, it's not even treated as a separate thing — the regular season is treated as nothing more than a qualifier
36AnonymousOct 15, 2026 11:01
But DeNA's the only team with even a slim chance of beating the Hawks
37AnonymousOct 15, 2026 11:03
If Hanshin — who got caught up to by the Giants despite that much of a talent gap — goes up against a SoftBank team that's a tier or two above them, it'll be a repeat of that 4-33 blowout
38AnonymousOct 15, 2026 11:03
I think terrestrial TV broadcasts will disappear eventually too
39AnonymousOct 15, 2026 11:04
People just accept it because 'that's the rule,' but I bet the majority actually think it's unnecessary
43AnonymousOct 15, 2026 11:07
After watching the MLB postseason, NPB just looks lame, outdated, and low-level
Why don't they show that strike-zone-and-pitch-location overlay that's standard on MLB broadcasts?
48AnonymousOct 15, 2026 11:09
Re: #43
You can actually see that now on the official NPB app
They'll probably use it to build toward adopting ABS (Automated Ball-Strike system) eventually
50AnonymousOct 15, 2026 11:11
Re: #48
Getting proud of 'progress' over just that is very fitting for a has-been country, lol
55AnonymousOct 15, 2026 11:13
Re: #50
Huh? I'm just saying they introduced the same thing
Call it a has-been country or whatever, but it's the broadcasters who choose not to use it
58AnonymousOct 15, 2026 11:22
NPB's the only one who's happy about the CS
63AnonymousOct 15, 2026 11:27
Re: #58
Are you saying other countries with a CS-like postseason aren't enjoying it either?
You might want to explain that a bit more clearly
Background and Key Points of the Debate
The Climax Series (CS) was introduced in the Pacific League in 2004 to combat falling attendance once the standings were effectively settled late in the season, then expanded to both leagues starting in 2007. Because the first-place team gets a one-win advantage but also has to wait several days while the lower seeds battle it out, the thread split over just how ‘fair’ that setup really is. The clash between doubts over a rule that can let a pennant winner miss the Japan Series entirely, and calls to simply enjoy the short playoff series on its own terms, is a classic version of the long-running debate over whether the CS should exist at all. The fact that the same format applies even to a runaway champion like SoftBank underscores just how lopsided the Pacific League has become, while also reaffirming the CS’s original purpose of preventing meaningless late-season games.
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