Here's the layout. I play on a 5-man team in a BCAPL 8-ball league. We have the 8-point handicap system, meaning you get a point per ball and no bonus for winning the game. It's screwed up but that's not my issue. The issue is that my team has been accused of sandbagging.
We do go to Vegas every May to compete in nationals. We get our asses handed to us, too. I can run out with a high consistency. Two of the matches last season I ran every rack, leaving my opponents no shot the entire night. I run 4-5-6 packs of bar box 8-ball fairly commonly. I can play that game. However, I get crushed in Vegas. My safety game is lousy and getting out of safes is lousy. Play me safe & you'll destroy me. That's an issue in my game I want to fix, as does my other teammates. We want to be competitive at national level & feel our offense is good but defense is equally & oppositely bad. This season we decided we'd practice safety play for an entire season leading up to nationals. As incentive, we agreed to make an ante pot that we all put money in when somebody pulls off a lock, BIH safety. It's like $.25, not green cash. Nothing big but at the end of the season will be 40-50 bucks that we can put down & buy ourselves a round of drinks in Vegas. That's the scenario.
Last night there was a captain's meeting called because a few people in the league think we are sandbagging because we play safeties when there's open shots, and play too many of them. One of the officers even called the BCA to ask for advice on how to handle us. She was allegedly told to boot us from the league or give us all 8-handicaps. WTF? Really? Exactly what do we have to gain by sandbagging? There is absolutely no gain from it. We're practicing safety play so we can compete better at national level. They even accused us of gambling (the ante pot). What's going on here? Why are we being punished for trying to learn to be better players? Everybody complains about me personally because I run out on them all time. Now they complain that i'm playing safeties when they expected me to run on them. WOW!!!!
We do go to Vegas every May to compete in nationals. We get our asses handed to us, too. I can run out with a high consistency. Two of the matches last season I ran every rack, leaving my opponents no shot the entire night. I run 4-5-6 packs of bar box 8-ball fairly commonly. I can play that game. However, I get crushed in Vegas. My safety game is lousy and getting out of safes is lousy. Play me safe & you'll destroy me. That's an issue in my game I want to fix, as does my other teammates. We want to be competitive at national level & feel our offense is good but defense is equally & oppositely bad. This season we decided we'd practice safety play for an entire season leading up to nationals. As incentive, we agreed to make an ante pot that we all put money in when somebody pulls off a lock, BIH safety. It's like $.25, not green cash. Nothing big but at the end of the season will be 40-50 bucks that we can put down & buy ourselves a round of drinks in Vegas. That's the scenario.
Last night there was a captain's meeting called because a few people in the league think we are sandbagging because we play safeties when there's open shots, and play too many of them. One of the officers even called the BCA to ask for advice on how to handle us. She was allegedly told to boot us from the league or give us all 8-handicaps. WTF? Really? Exactly what do we have to gain by sandbagging? There is absolutely no gain from it. We're practicing safety play so we can compete better at national level. They even accused us of gambling (the ante pot). What's going on here? Why are we being punished for trying to learn to be better players? Everybody complains about me personally because I run out on them all time. Now they complain that i'm playing safeties when they expected me to run on them. WOW!!!!
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