2022 Virginia State Men's & Women's 9 Ball Championships - BIG Change to Event

JMD in VA

JMD in VA

It's All Good!
Silver Member
Hello Folks,

I hope that 2022 has treated you all well so far and that with all the options for tournaments that are available out there, that you are all getting a chance to compete.

To quote Winston Churchill "To improve is to change“. So, after careful consideration, we have decided that after 17 years it’s time to open the field. For the first time in the history of the event, the Virginia State Men's & Women's 9 Ball Championships, will allow players from outside of Virginia and the District of Columbia to be eligible to play.

However, players from outside of Virginia or DC will have a Fargo Rating cap of 750 for the Men's event and 630 for the Women's event.

Another change for this year’s events is around entry fees. Players can sign up, early for the events for $100. After June 18, the entry fee will go up to $120. This will allow us to have the field in place the morning of and get the boards done quickly so we can get down to business.

Enough about changes. Let's get to some constants. For starters, the Virginia State Men's & Women's 9 Ball Championships will be held at our perennial poolroom sponsor; Diamonds Billiards in Midlothian Virginia on July 23-24. I know Thomas and Team Diamond are ready to have us back! As always, the Virginia Pool and Billiards Association along with Rayman's Pro Shop will be sponsoring the Virginia State 9 Ball Championships.

The VPBA is excited to welcome back the Central Virginia APA Pool League as the title sponsor of the Women's event for it's 3nd year. The Central Virginia APA's Director's, Dawn Buchanan and Marguerite Rueger, are excited to sponsor the event and supporting the Commonwealth's best female players in an opportunity to be called State Champion!

We also want to welcome back Outsville as a sponsor; as we will be using the Accu-Rack once again. They have been the best racks in the business and have been getting the attention worldwide, that they deserve.

I want to remind everyone that we have a Dress Code we want the players to follow. One Day 1, shorts will be acceptable. On Day 2, Dress Pants, Slacks or Khakis will be required. Collared shirts at all times. The only t-shirts that will be acceptable will be either from previous State Tournaments or from one of your sponsors. I want everyone to look their best when I hand you your trophy and/or cash! To help with this, Elvis Rodriguez, from INBX Sportswear will be present selling shirts he has designed for the event. I can't wait to see them in person!

The details for the State Championship are on the site:
www.va-pool.org

I will be updating this Facebook invite, the thread on AZ Billiards; as well as the website.

I have the pleasure of meeting many people over the last 17 years and we have become friends because of this event. For those of you that make the trip to Richmond to play every year, thank you all so very much! For those coming to play for the first time this year, particularly those not from Virginia, I look forward to meeting you.

Please reach out to me if you have any questions or feedback on events or the website.

See you in July!
 

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So out of state players can play, but only if they are below a certain FargoRate level? Assuming you don't have a FargoRate maximum cut off for the Virginia players, and I couldn't find one (is it the same cap for them and I just couldn't find it?), this sure comes across as petty and protectionist. "Only those of you that can't beat our guys can play, but the rest of you that are an actual threat, well you guys have to stay away". Either open it up to other states, or don't, but don't have different FargoRate caps depending on what state you come from.
 
Poolplaya9 said:
So out of state players can play, but only if they are below a certain FargoRate level? Assuming you don't have a FargoRate maximum cut off for the Virginia players, and I couldn't find one (is it the same cap for them and I just couldn't find it?), this sure comes across as petty and protectionist. "Only those of you that can't beat our guys can play, but the rest of you that are an actual threat, well you guys have to stay away". Either open it up to other states, or don't, but don't have different FargoRate caps depending on what state you come from.
Click to expand...
It is a bit interesting. I've played in this before, and it's always been locals only. I don't think VA has anyone over 750, but still.
 
We appreciate the feedback! As mentioned before, this event has always been open only to VA and DC residents. The reason for doing so was that I felt, the champion should either live in the state the won the event. As for DC, since they never had representation in anything; they were included. Plus, we wanted to keep the pros out of the event; unless they lived here. What would have stopped Earl from driving up from NC when he lived there to come and win the tournament?
Over the last couple of years, the event fell short of filling up. It was discussed at the end of last year's event the thought of opening the field. This option was determined as a "trial balloon" to see how it goes.
Call it what you will, but that is the decision we have made and are going with.
Cheers!
 
JMD in VA said:
We appreciate the feedback! As mentioned before, this event has always been open only to VA and DC residents. The reason for doing so was that I felt, the champion should either live in the state the won the event. As for DC, since they never had representation in anything; they were included. Plus, we wanted to keep the pros out of the event; unless they lived here. What would have stopped Earl from driving up from NC when he lived there to come and win the tournament?
Over the last couple of years, the event fell short of filling up. It was discussed at the end of last year's event the thought of opening the field. This option was determined as a "trial balloon" to see how it goes.
Call it what you will, but that is the decision we have made and are going with.
Cheers!
Click to expand...
But if Earl moved to Virginia you would then have no problem letting him play and would probably even be thrilled to death about it because then you could claim a superstar Virginian. So it isn't about not wanting a pro to play or to win, it is only about not wanting anyone from outside of Virginia to be able to win and so you are intentionally manipulating the rules to help favor the Virginia players. If you don't see the problem with manipulating the rules to play favorites then I don't know what to tell you.

Your desire is a reasonable one (to only see a Virginian win the Virginia State Tournament), but the only appropriate way to do it is to limit the field to Virginia residents. Your manipulation of the rules to help favor the home players is completely obvious and comes across as extremely petty. The only reasonable options you have are to either only allow Virginians, or go ahead and allow everybody with no cap. Yes, I know that both have drawbacks and you personally find both to be less than desirable because of their respective drawbacks (which is why you are trying so hard to justify this), but you should be finding manipulating rules to play favorites an even less desirable option for obvious reasons. And before you decide to make the rule a 750 or whatever FargoRate cap for everybody including Virginia "because we don't have anybody above 750 anyway so it still protects our Virginia players", just know that too will be just as obvious and petty looking and will only look worse yet as soon as you have a Virginia player above that and you have to raise the cap so they are able to play (which will happen sooner or later whether it is one that moves there or one that grows to be above that skill level). Food for thought.
 
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