...So is there a handicap system for BCAPL? What would the handicap system look like at their BCAPL nationals in Vegas? How do they rate the players once they arrive in Vegas?
how does the bcapl 8 ball handicap work?
I think there are various handicap schemes local leagues can use. The one in my league is pretty simple to explain. Each game is played on a 10 point must system. The winner of the game scores 10 points. The loser scores however many balls he made, from 0-7. Each players handicap is his average, determined by the total number of points he's accumulated divided by the number of games he's played. So if I win 3 and lose one (making 6 balls in my loss) then my total is 36 divided by the 4 games I played, or 9 handicap. Over time your total points and total games keep accumulating and the handicap recalculated. Handicaps are rounded to the nearest whole number, so a 8.4 and a 7.6 are both considered 8's even though one is almost a full point higher than the other. So in the league there are players you might consider strong 8's and others weak 8's.
In my league the handicaps are only applicable to the team play. Each game though is played even regardless of the handicaps of the players. So if a 9 is playing a 6, he is most likely going to win that game because they play even.
The team scoring is where the handicaps come into play. In our league 5 guys on a team play a total of 4 games against 4 of the 5 players on the other team. There are 4 rounds with 5 games in each round. 5 points are up for grabs - one for each round and one for the total. Say one team has players with handicaps of 8+7+6+8+7 = 36. The other team's handicaps are 9+8+8+7+7 = 39. This means the better team gives 3 points per round and 12 points on the total. At the end of a round, the total points made by the players of each team are added up. Then the weaker team adds the handicap to their score (in this case 3), and whichever team has the high score wins that round. So if the better team scores say 35 points in a round and the weaker team scores 33, then the weaker team wins the point for the round since their net score was 33 +3 for the handicap, or 36 total. If the round is a tie, then the team that had 3 wins takes the round.
I'm sure there are various ways it can be done, but this is basically how ours goes.
As Scott mentioned, handicaps are local only. There are no national handicaps and the national tournament is played scratch, but in divisions based on skill levels.
Because of the way it is set up, sandbagging is not much of an issue in the BCAPL. Any team can go to nationals, you don't have to win your way to a spot. Additionally, when you get there your team handicap doesn't mean anything because you are playing even. What can happen on occasion is when a team(s) or players of higher skill get entered into a lower skill division. I can't tell you that has never happened, there will always be people trying to steal.
Hope this helps.
