This is going to be a bit of a read, sorry.
At the beginning of this last session, I decided that I would start playing in leagues, and joined BCA and APA. I hopped onto a great APA team and thought we would do well, even going so far as to say that we might make it to Vegas. I mentioned this to some other guys that play in the same room as me and they said, "Don't count on it, the same guys go to Vegas every other year." I kind of brushed it off, thinking that if we won fair and square, there wasn't any way that we'd get screwed out of going.
Well here we are at the end of the session and guess what's happening? This league started off as an in-house league that operated solely out of one room. The reason for that being that it's a great room, with some really quality Kim Steele 9' tables with Simonis cloth. About 3/4 of the way through the session, the league operator's friend starts up some hole in the wall joint out on the highway with a few valleys, so suddenly we're having to play over there as well. I've got nothing against bar boxes really, it's a lot different than a 9' table, but I can adjust. The thing is, these tables are just pure crap. Dead rails abound, the heaviest slow rolling felt I've ever played on, etc. etc. Not only that, but the place is the size of a matchbox and has no ventilation, so my eyes actually start to hurt and water a bit after being in there for a while. If we want to practice on the tables before hand, we have to pay for the tables, unlike everywhere else I've ever played where the tables are open to APA members for the night.
So now we have to play in some crap bar a few nights out of the week. Ok fine, whatever, we'll just make do. Heading into the last two games and suddenly everybody's SL starts going up without us actually having made any really big improvements. We're told that's just how the system works. Ok, that's fine too, we'll just try harder. One team has to forfeit to us and for some reason the LO says we only get half the points that we're supposed to for the forfeit. I still haven't heard the reason for that call. We've ended up on top despite all of this, but going into the "playoffs" and we can no longer play at our home room. The LO said that there is a rule stating that the "playoffs" have to be held on 7' tables. Where, in any of the rules does, it say that??? I called the LO and he said that the room owner no longer wanted any APA play going on there. This is BS, I was sitting next to the room owner when I called the LO, so I knew that this wasn't true. I asked the LO what if I straightened things out with the room owner, could we get things moved back to the original location? He said no.
I've been told that we'll have to stay active for another session to be eligible to go to Vegas, but something tells me that we'll never actually get that chance. Even if we do win tomorrow, I'm not sure that I want to deal with the headaches of this LO, regardless of who goes where. Oh, and get this, the BCA league that I joined wasn't actually sanctioned, so nobody really got anything and never had a chance of advancing in that league.
Apparently a new BCA sanctioned league is going to be started, and I might join in on that, but all of this leaves a very bad taste in my mouth.
If you made it through all of that, thanks, lol. :thumbup:
At the beginning of this last session, I decided that I would start playing in leagues, and joined BCA and APA. I hopped onto a great APA team and thought we would do well, even going so far as to say that we might make it to Vegas. I mentioned this to some other guys that play in the same room as me and they said, "Don't count on it, the same guys go to Vegas every other year." I kind of brushed it off, thinking that if we won fair and square, there wasn't any way that we'd get screwed out of going.
Well here we are at the end of the session and guess what's happening? This league started off as an in-house league that operated solely out of one room. The reason for that being that it's a great room, with some really quality Kim Steele 9' tables with Simonis cloth. About 3/4 of the way through the session, the league operator's friend starts up some hole in the wall joint out on the highway with a few valleys, so suddenly we're having to play over there as well. I've got nothing against bar boxes really, it's a lot different than a 9' table, but I can adjust. The thing is, these tables are just pure crap. Dead rails abound, the heaviest slow rolling felt I've ever played on, etc. etc. Not only that, but the place is the size of a matchbox and has no ventilation, so my eyes actually start to hurt and water a bit after being in there for a while. If we want to practice on the tables before hand, we have to pay for the tables, unlike everywhere else I've ever played where the tables are open to APA members for the night.
So now we have to play in some crap bar a few nights out of the week. Ok fine, whatever, we'll just make do. Heading into the last two games and suddenly everybody's SL starts going up without us actually having made any really big improvements. We're told that's just how the system works. Ok, that's fine too, we'll just try harder. One team has to forfeit to us and for some reason the LO says we only get half the points that we're supposed to for the forfeit. I still haven't heard the reason for that call. We've ended up on top despite all of this, but going into the "playoffs" and we can no longer play at our home room. The LO said that there is a rule stating that the "playoffs" have to be held on 7' tables. Where, in any of the rules does, it say that??? I called the LO and he said that the room owner no longer wanted any APA play going on there. This is BS, I was sitting next to the room owner when I called the LO, so I knew that this wasn't true. I asked the LO what if I straightened things out with the room owner, could we get things moved back to the original location? He said no.
I've been told that we'll have to stay active for another session to be eligible to go to Vegas, but something tells me that we'll never actually get that chance. Even if we do win tomorrow, I'm not sure that I want to deal with the headaches of this LO, regardless of who goes where. Oh, and get this, the BCA league that I joined wasn't actually sanctioned, so nobody really got anything and never had a chance of advancing in that league.
Apparently a new BCA sanctioned league is going to be started, and I might join in on that, but all of this leaves a very bad taste in my mouth.If you made it through all of that, thanks, lol. :thumbup:
