league play
- Thread starter Bizarro
- Start date
Anything. But I would try out BCA or an in-house league.
Anything else. BCAPL, VNEA, TAP, USAPL, in-house. Take your pick.
oke:::winknudge:
Where are you located?
That is the critical question. How good or bad a particular league might be depends on the local league operator. In Charlotte, we have two very well run leagues, because each has a great league operator. Our APA is one of the best in the country, and the local 8-Ball Express league is great as well, because of good ownership.
I have friends who play BCA in Texas that absolutely love it. I was speaking with someone in West Virginia yesterday, and the BCA league in his area is pure crap. Same league, different local management.
Do the research in your own area. Find out from the players who are actually playing in the leagues you are considering. The answer will be different from one area to another.
Steve
What he said..
Along with, determining what you don't like about the APA.
All leagues have pros and cons... The longer I play in league, the more I realize that a large portion of the bad issues, are caused by the league operators and bad sportsmanship.
Lance Link
Banned
As long as you're asking...
I would say BCA is the league to play in.
I've heard a lot of different things about a lot of different leagues, especially the APA (which seems to have the most issues).
I can tell you that the BCA league operator in our area has never :
1) Arbitrarily raised averages without sufficient evidence (meaning that you're not forced to play a weak player against a stronger team that night).
2) Put a cap on average totals (meaning that you and your teammates can play together for as long as YOU choose to).
3) Required a winning team to play another season in order to claim thier winnings/trip (if you play and win the trip to Vegas in the summer league that ends in September, you do not have to play in the fall league to claim your trip).
I read a lot about those type of situations happening in the APA. I have to imagine that these type of things don't happen in the BCA. If they did, I think you would be reading about the BCA a lot more on this site.
I would say BCA is the league to play in.
I've heard a lot of different things about a lot of different leagues, especially the APA (which seems to have the most issues).
I can tell you that the BCA league operator in our area has never :
1) Arbitrarily raised averages without sufficient evidence (meaning that you're not forced to play a weak player against a stronger team that night).
2) Put a cap on average totals (meaning that you and your teammates can play together for as long as YOU choose to).
3) Required a winning team to play another season in order to claim thier winnings/trip (if you play and win the trip to Vegas in the summer league that ends in September, you do not have to play in the fall league to claim your trip).
I read a lot about those type of situations happening in the APA. I have to imagine that these type of things don't happen in the BCA. If they did, I think you would be reading about the BCA a lot more on this site.
Considering she runs one of the most successful franchises in the country, I guess she must be doing something right. And the other league in the areea is owned by the former LO of the APA here, so there is a lot of experience operating both leagues.
Drive by most any pool room in the area, and you will see the parking lots filled with the cars of the league players.
Something tells me it is working.
Steve
Lance Link
Banned
As long as you're asking...
I guess it depends on the area and the LO. Stop at the bar or poolhall and ask the locals.
I guess it depends on the area and the LO. Stop at the bar or poolhall and ask the locals.
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I played in Singles Regionals in Charlotte a few years back, and was disappointed with how it was run. Also, she seemed, to me anyway, to lack in the customer service department.
While its nice that your BCA league is enjoyable for you, I think your logic here might have a slight flaw: because the APA is more than twice as large as the next largest league, you will of course hear LOTS more about APA than any other league, good and bad. Also, because APA is primarily a bar league, you will of course hear a higher percentage of opinions expressed by "bar clientèle" as opposed to "pool hall clientèle", which are different things if you know what I mean.
As stated by others, the league operator in a given area of the APA has a lot to do with the types of things one must "put up with" in order to enjoy the league. My APA area is fine. There isn't really much B level competition or above, but for a handicapped league it is very good overall.
KMRUNOUT
What, exactly, would you have liked to have seen done differently?
And was this your only experience with this league, or have you actually played in the league here for any signigicant period of time?
Steve
I've never been a big fan of drawing out the boards prior to knowing who was & wasn't going to show up. Someone actually ended up with byes all the way to the semifinals. Also, from what I experienced, KT seems to be more of a "letter of the law" type person, whereas I'm more of a "spirit of the law" type.
While I haven't played in MetroAPA, I have been to a few league nights with friends. Looked like the same stuff I saw playing in TriadAPA.
BCA was ok when I played in a session or two for the vegas trip. Still some sandbagging since the trip was determined by winner of the end of session tournament and not the winner of the session itself, and the best teams had to spot the other teams based on averages from the session. Most teams would just lay it low during the session to get the large handicap in the tourney. We still managed to take it down. :thumbup:
OK, so she does the charts ahead of time, rather than waiting to do it when everyone is already there. I wonder just how many times anyone ever got bye's all the way through the chart. I would think it would be a very rare occurance.
I would also bet that there would be tons of crying going on if the matches didn't start on time because the charts weren't ready.
And she believes in strictly enforcing the rules. If I had to deal with thousands of pool players, I would be the same way.
Look at the size of her league. 3 times a year, she has 100 tables brought in for the cities and singles boards. There are several hundred players in one building, a hundred different matches going on at the same time, and people standing at her table constantly asking stupid questions.
Therre are some things that must be done in order to run an efficient operation. I think she does a damn good job of it.
Steve
Tap,tap, tap! :thumbup:
I would like to echo all of KRRUNOUTs thoughts for my part of the world, as well.
The thing that amazes me in every APA-bashing thread is that the bashers never consider the effect of scale. The fact that APA is SO much bigger in scale and scope than all the others, probably combined, that there will ALWAYS be more occurrence of problems, by fact of simple mathematics. If BCA or any other alphabet soup variation got to be as big as APA is currently, we would hear just as many issues (though they might be different issues) as we do now with APA.
As to the "customer service" issue... Our LO here isn't the most gracious person I've ever seen. I personally have been in the customer service business and in management for over 25 years, so I'm familiar with the concept. After our recent Vegas qualifier tournament, I got to thinking about this where our LO is concerned. And how I'd be were I in his shoes. And I quickly realized that if you try to make everyone happy, you will soon end up with no one happy. Watching and listening to how pool players act, I realized that the LO has to remain distant to a certain degree, and to maintain a level of detachment in order to have a smoothly run operation. I f the LO is to start listening to each and every situation, and to start coming up with a case-by-case judgment, he will A
quickly have a nervous breakdown, and B never have a consistent base-line for the rest of his territory. So yes, the well-run League will have an LO that may seem a bit too business like, and perhaps a bit less-then-friendly demeanor at times. It has to be the only way to make it work. All this having been said, I realize that there are no doubt some areas where APA isn't being run reasonably. That is too bad. That doesn't make APA in general a bad thing, but it sure does show that an individual LO isn't doing the right things to make his business grow, and to thrive. Try to make constructive comments to them in a rational, civil manner, and if you don't see changes made to your satisfaction, show them with your dollars by going to another option. You might also inform them why you are no longer participating, again in a rational, civil manner. Perhaps that might illicit change in the future.
I'm not saying KT is awful, just she is an acquired taste. Things like drawing the boards ahead of time are dealbreakers for me. Obviously there are people who feel differently about it.
In regards to the rarity of byes deep into the tournament, IMHO it should not be "very rare", it should be "impossible".
Fair enough.
KT is the third LO I have seen in this APA league, and I can say she is in the top two!!
I try to look at it from a business standpoint, and the way it looks, she has a lot of satisfied customers.
Not everyone loves it, but a lot do.
Steve
KT is the third LO I have seen in this APA league, and I can say she is in the top two!!
I try to look at it from a business standpoint, and the way it looks, she has a lot of satisfied customers.
Not everyone loves it, but a lot do.
Steve