Anyone part of a challenge ladder group - i.e. Top 30 - Top of the Ladder - etc.

Chili Palmer

Give or take an 1"
Silver Member
This is where your local area creates a list of the top 30 players and people challenge each other to get to the top. Kind of like the drag racing shows on tv.

We're working on one here locally and was hoping to get some input from those who are currently doing or have done it in the past.

We're in the preliminary stages but should have it up and running soon and already have everything ready, we're setting up the initial tournament now, so I'm not looking for help, just ideas.

If you're in one now - why did you join? How active are you? How active is your area? What would you change?
If you were in one and you quit - why did you quit? What would you have changed?


Thoughts or ideas?

Thanks in advance.
 
I ran a one pocket pyramid tournament a few years ago at my home room (Pressure Billiards in Chicago). Here's the standings sheet I disseminated regularly - you could only challenge on your own level or one above, couldn't refuse a valid challenge, and had to make your own matches.

A dozen players, lots of fun, but also lots of work contacting players to make sure they knew the standings, were matching up correctly and often enough, etc. I think it ran 6 or 8 weeks.

pj
chgo

pyramid.JPG
 
I ran a one pocket pyramid tournament a few years ago at my home room (Pressure Billiards in Chicago). Here's the standings sheet I disseminated regularly - you could only challenge on your own level or one above, couldn't refuse a valid challenge, and had to make your own matches.

A dozen players, lots of fun, but also lots of work contacting players to make sure they knew the standings, were matching up correctly and often enough, etc. I think it ran 6 or 8 weeks.

pj
chgo

View attachment 583823
That looks like a really interesting format. It would be a ton of fun.
 
I ran a one pocket pyramid tournament a few years ago at my home room (Pressure Billiards in Chicago). Here's the standings sheet I disseminated regularly - you could only challenge on your own level or one above, couldn't refuse a valid challenge, and had to make your own matches.

A dozen players, lots of fun, but also lots of work contacting players to make sure they knew the standings, were matching up correctly and often enough, etc. I think it ran 6 or 8 weeks.

pj
chgo

View attachment 583823

Interesting. We're trying to work on a 1P league also but it will be a standard league I believe.

And yeah, we'll have it where you can challenge up 1 spot if you're in 1-16 and 2 spots anywhere below that. If we get enough people on the waitlist we'll let the people really far down on the list to challenge up 3 spots, but we're thinking we'll need 50 people for that so we'll see what happens.

As far as people challenging goes, we don't care who challenges who, it's not a league system where they have to play. If they want to move up then they'll have to challenge people. Once a challenge is made they'll have so many days to accept the challenge then so many days to play the challenge.
 
We got a 100+ people interested (joined the group on FB) within 48 hours, looking forward to seeing how this plays out.
 
Chili

I have a couple questions about your format.

Is this like a league, where there is a set place and time for all challenges to be played?

Or
Can these challenges be played anywhere at anytime the players agree?
 
LOL..i became Champion a few Years ago without playing 1 Game.
It happened that i was drawn on top and the 2 guys below me never lost an game and never challenged me for the Throne.

You should start with an regular tournament to do the initial ranking in the pyramid
 
I took part in something similar very long time ago, but it was snooker race to 5 per match. Anyone could challenge anyone once or twice I think. Standings were determined by record. Cream was at the top of course despite some level of handicapping that I can't recall.

Best part of the whole thing was the posted standings in plain view within the pool room. Everyone could clearly see who played who and how the standings were playing out. This was before the internet was a big deal...lol
 
Chili

I have a couple questions about your format.

Is this like a league, where there is a set place and time for all challenges to be played?

Or
Can these challenges be played anywhere at anytime the players agree?

To setup the initial ladder positions we are using multiple tournament results over the last month (tournaments around here are pretty much booked until June and we don't want to have to move other tournaments and frankly, this is easier) then me and the other guys are going to go through the lists separately and rank the players, then we'll all sit down together and rank them. This way, we have about 4-5 guys looking at the numbers so we'll get a somewhat accurate list. That being said, I suggested we take them in groups of 10 (i.e. after the top 16 or 32) then just we'll just pull numbers for that group. So if we pick 1-16 we'll then create a group for 17-26 and randomly draw numbers for their placement or just say - you 10 are tied for 17-26 now go challenge someone, this should allow for challenge matches to start fairly quickly.

So to answer your question - a few tournaments to set initial ladder positions and then you start challenging people to move up the ladder. The challenge matches can be played anywhere and anytime. We are working on the final rules but essentially the higher up you are in the ladder the higher the minimum bets become. I.e. 1-16 is minimum $20 per person wager, 17-32 is minimum $10 per wager, waiting list is no minimum wager. If the players cannot agree on a game location or game specifics we will have default locations and games that must be played.

We're still fine tuning the fees and dues but right now we're at $1 month but not sure about fees for challenge matches. We're thinking $5 per person in the top 32 then $5 per match on waiting list, with the challenger paying the fee by default - we don't care if they split it but one person will be responsible for it.

The fees and dues will go towards admin (we're not doing it for free but we're not greedy either, we just want to see pool in our area grow), top player(s), entry fees and possibly travel for other big tournaments in the area but those are down the road.

Beyond that we have a few big tournaments planned for the year as well as plans to form an Idaho team to compete with the folks in Montana, Wyoming, etc.

We started the FB page about 2 days ago and we already have 114 members. I'm not sure all of them will convert to paying members but either way, we're getting off to a good start.

Right now we're waiting for the tournaments to wrap up then we'll rank the players then we'll go from there.
 
LOL..i became Champion a few Years ago without playing 1 Game.
It happened that i was drawn on top and the 2 guys below me never lost an game and never challenged me for the Throne.

You should start with an regular tournament to do the initial ranking in the pyramid


LOL, I don't think that's going to happen here. It doesn't seem like our top 3 players in the valley will join but we're not sure yet. I'm predicting after the dust is settled the top 3-5 spots will fluctuate a bit and the top 15-20 after them will fluctuate but not much movement between the two groups. Which is fine, we've discussed it and we're really just trying to get more people playing and improving. We're going to track their beginning Fargo's to see if it works :)
 
LOL..i became Champion a few Years ago without playing 1 Game.
It happened that i was drawn on top and the 2 guys below me never lost an game and never challenged me for the Throne.

You should start with an regular tournament to do the initial ranking in the pyramid
When I did my pyramid we started everybody on the bottom level - you had to fight your way up and out of the crowd.

pj
chgo
 
htown has houston best of billiards, been wanting to try it out for the 1pkt action but not real sure on how active they are right now even though everythings going full blown right now
 
Chili

Love the idea and I am sure it will work there. The main point I want to share is that I and I'm sure others out there-- don't have time or other reasons to play on a designated nightly league.

Don't get me wrong, when I had time I looked forward to league nights. I love the game but work and family are more important.

If my area in Naples Fl had what you are doing i would play. I am sure many other guys would play too, everywhere in the US.

Keep up the good work and I hope this takes off nationwide.
 
When I did my pyramid we started everybody on the bottom level - you had to fight your way up and out of the crowd.

pj
chgo

We thought about that but then we didn't want the scenario of a top player getting placed in the bottom because we were afraid people would bitch because now he's got two matches a week to smoke people (and take their money) on his way up the ladder. That's why we're grouping them but then that's why I want small groups to start off so there is movement right away without having some guy run through the ladder taking all of their money.
 
We thought about that but then we didn't want the scenario of a top player getting placed in the bottom because we were afraid people would bitch because now he's got two matches a week to smoke people (and take their money) on his way up the ladder. That's why we're grouping them but then that's why I want small groups to start off so there is movement right away without having some guy run through the ladder taking all of their money.
The players bet on each match?

pj
chgo
 
Chili

Love the idea and I am sure it will work there. The main point I want to share is that I and I'm sure others out there-- don't have time or other reasons to play on a designated nightly league.

Don't get me wrong, when I had time I looked forward to league nights. I love the game but work and family are more important.

If my area in Naples Fl had what you are doing i would play. I am sure many other guys would play too, everywhere in the US.

Keep up the good work and I hope this takes off nationwide.

Thanks, I have to give credit to someone else though, he's the local pool guy and I'm the tech guy. He and one other guy are running the tournaments, etc. while I'm running the stats, website, etc.

And yeah, league is running like gang busters around here so it's hard to nail down one night, that's why we like the play whenever/wherever process.

This guy also had a 1P tournament a while back and wants to get a league going and is thinking the same thing, we send out matchups for the week and they play whenever and wherever.
 
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