Fargo rate?

buckshotshoey said:

They have been working on this app for a long time now.
When I input my player number, it still comes back as no information. Is it working for anybody?

Click to expand...

I joined usapl several months ago and look up mine and my team mates from time to time. I have always just typed my name...or names of other players. Heck....i don't even know my player number lol. When you type in a name it will show all the players with that name but it also shows the city so you can tell which is yours.

Btw.....a few times the site was running a lil slow but has always worked for me.

I happened to look up mine today and see I dropped from a 511 to a 501. Dang....gotta pick it up a little in matches I guess. I hope to be back up before I have an established rating. Sitting at 172 games right now.

Not all weekly leagues/operators are reporting at this time. That would be the place to start asking IMO.

buckshotshoey said:

I was under the assumption, (yeah.... I know) the LO was turning all scores to the national office like APA LO's do. Then the national office would input them to the Fargo rate.

Click to expand...

Thats their end game I think, but its not there yet. Ive been told that there was supposed to be a mobile app available some time back, but its still in beta.

BCAPL operators has the option to use League Management Software which is directly linked to FargRate. Stats normally take 24 hours to be updated.

buckshotshoey said:

Ok. Is is because the "optional" software is extra money that some LO'S don't want to use it? I will try to get with the LO and ask.

[...]

Click to expand...

There is no cost for BCAPL sanctioned leagues. However it is easiest to start using FargoRate LMS at the beginning of a new session rather that trying to switch in the middle.

mikepage said:

There is no cost for BCAPL sanctioned leagues. However it is easiest to start using FargoRate LMS at the beginning of a new session rather that trying to switch in the middle.

Click to expand...

Is it available? I'd suggest it to my LO for next season if it is.

buckshotshoey said:

Ok. Is is because the "optional" software is extra money that some LO'S don't want to use it? I will try to get with the LO and ask.

Also, should I even care if I have a rating or not. After some study, it's starting to should like more of a value to those getting into callcuttas then a value to the pool player. Is there really any value in it to my team and myself?

Click to expand...

There is a value in Fargo ratings if you are playing in a handicapped league or tournament. Callcuttas have nothing to do with it. In fact, it can be bad for them since you can't sneak in a player as a C that should be a B because any player can look them up and point out they are not ranked properly. Anytime you see a "weaker" player bid up by players that know him, you know there is something not right LOL

Fargo helps the overall player base, leagues and tournaments not individual players that are trying to say "But I have not played in months, you can't have me as an A" that try to sandbag or rob tournaments.

However that rating only works if the players are properly entered into the system. Especially from non-handicapped events where hiding your true speed is useless.

buckshotshoey said:

Maybe you can help me then. We are into our 4th session now. It's a small league... only 6 teams right now. Does the LO enter the scores, or does BCA enter them? And what is the real value of having a Fargo rate to my team? I only see a possible need if we play State.

Click to expand...

Yes, Mike will be able to help. I recently submitted over 10k games to him for an in house league started in 2012 with 4 teams. We now have 6 teams. More than 90% of league members now have established Fargo ratings. Instead of Match Charts, we use Fargo to roughly convert into the traditional numerical 2 to 8 ratings with which members are more comfortable.

We're starting a new session this week. http://newtonelkspoolleague.com/spring-2018-session-history/

buckshotshoey said:

Maybe you can help me then. We are into our 4th session now. It's a small league... only 6 teams right now. Does the LO enter the scores, or does BCA enter them? And what is the real value of having a Fargo rate to my team? I only see a possible need if we play State.

Click to expand...

The LO enters the scores on a screen that looks like this below. We are also testing right now a mobile scoring APP, which eliminates this step for the LO

BRussell said:

Is it available? I'd suggest it to my LO for next season if it is.

Click to expand...

Is the LMS software still in "beta" testing? Or, does it lack upgrades to apply to most league situations? Our 8-ball BCA league has 5 person teams, for a race to 11. Our new season starts May 22. Our LO told me last week that it was still in beta testing, and wasn't set up yet for a race to 11. I wonder if the LO reply is really up-to-date info....

buckshotshoey said:

I'm in a 4 man team BCA league. Our handicaps are based on our weekly performance. 1 point per ball, 10 points for a win, with a possible of 40 points per night.
The Fargo rating hasn't been applied to our league as of yet. Not sure if it will do anything for our situation. Not sure how this would work if one of our teams went to state..... which is possible.

Click to expand...

You can translate your BCA rank to Fargo manually, Mike Page had a chart posted a few times with a pretty good comparison between ratings.

However your ratings in league if all you guys do is play each other may be well off the national ratings. If your best guy is a B, he will be the top rank you can get to, but in most areas a B would not be the top ranking player, so when you go, our 7 player is a 600 or 650, he/she may only be a 500 or 550 when looking at a broader area.

buckshotshoey said:

I'm in a 4 man team BCA league. Our handicaps are based on our weekly performance. 1 point per ball, 10 points for a win, with a possible of 40 points per night.
The Fargo rating hasn't been applied to our league as of yet. Not sure if it will do anything for our situation. Not sure how this would work if one of our teams went to state..... which is possible.

Click to expand...

Let's say your league is on Tuesday night, and against that crowd you win half your games. And to make it easy we'll assume you get 4 points every time you lose a game. So half the games you get 10 points and the other half you get 4; your average would be 7.00

Now suppose you join the much weaker Thursday-night league, where you win two thirds of your games. Now your average is two-thirds*10 + one-third*4 = 8.00

While you have a different average against every different crowd of players, your Fargo Rating is the same no matter who you play.

So how does LMS handicap a league based on this "ball average" approach?

Think of what you call "ball average" as being an expectation of how many points you earn in a game. A player with an "average" of 6.30 is expected to get around 63 points after 10 games. You add up how many points each team is expected to earn in a round and the difference--or some fraction of the difference--is used as a handicap.

You can do better with Fargo Ratings because based on your rating and the ratings of the PARTICULAR opponents you are playing tonight, LMS computes how many points you are expected to earn TONIGHT. So not only is your expectation different on Thursday from Tuesday, but it is different against a strong team in your division versus a weak team. This is of course all done behind the scenes, and all you see is that you are giving up 2 points per round against this team.

So the handicapping looks the same (points per round) but it is based on your expectation rather than your historical average. It is a better way to do it.

I wish our vending company, Shaffer Amusement in Dayton Ohio would put our BCA matches into Fargo so we'd have more accurate ratings. I've tried to convince them to no avail.