APA 9-ball skill levels
- Thread starter rbtabor
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What is this upper/medium skill level distinction you're talking about? Is it just a subjective view someone has of an SL6? Is it going to affect your rating if you start up in a different league? How much weight you get in a local tourney?
AFAIK, the APA doesn't have a parallel lower/medium/upper skill level rating system in addition to the numbered skill. You might find some regional discrepancies as to how strong players are at a particular skill level; usually you hear about it when teams come back from Vegas and proclaim all the SL5's from a particular part of the world either could give SVB weight or couldn't make a marble in a manhole. But, ideally, non-sandbaggers of a particular skill level should be able to match up reasonably well across teams/divisions/regions etc.
AFAIK, the APA doesn't have a parallel lower/medium/upper skill level rating system in addition to the numbered skill. You might find some regional discrepancies as to how strong players are at a particular skill level; usually you hear about it when teams come back from Vegas and proclaim all the SL5's from a particular part of the world either could give SVB weight or couldn't make a marble in a manhole. But, ideally, non-sandbaggers of a particular skill level should be able to match up reasonably well across teams/divisions/regions etc.
i'm not sure what context you need the info for but the way the apa breaks it down for things like regional singles and singles in vegas is sl 1-3, 4-5, 6-9. i know they changed the breakdown for 8 ball for these events to 2-3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. all separate after the 2-3 grouping - or so i was told, you'd have to check. i haven't heard anything about changing the 9 ball groupings. if you are asking from the standpoint of how many higher ranked players you can play in a night, 6 and up are higher ranked and you can only play 2 or 3 higher ranked players in a night.
For the purposes of 9-ball team play, any player SL 6-9 is considered a "senior level player". A team may only play 2 senior level players per match.
For singles play, the top tier in 9-ball (Black tier, I think) includes SL 6-9 players.
In either case, the APA considers 6's upper level players, but that breakdown is based on the distribution of players in the APA, which is focused mostly on casual players. I have not met any APA 6's that would be ranked higher than a C player in most tournaments, so I wouldn't read too much into the APA's categorization.
For singles play, the top tier in 9-ball (Black tier, I think) includes SL 6-9 players.
In either case, the APA considers 6's upper level players, but that breakdown is based on the distribution of players in the APA, which is focused mostly on casual players. I have not met any APA 6's that would be ranked higher than a C player in most tournaments, so I wouldn't read too much into the APA's categorization.
This is exactly what it's like around here. The league in the south part of the city has only a few 7+ players - but when we compete with the north county teams, or neighboring cities, their 6's plays every bit as well. The middle ranks 4-6 are all kinds of messed up when you compare actual skill level vs the on-paper skill.
The current APA 9 ball classification is broken down into 3 brackets....2/3, 4/5, 6/7/8/9. There are some changes in place for next year but have not been announced yet.
With that being said, there could be a huge variation between two players that are rated at the same skill level from different area's of the U.S. The reason for this is that it's subject to the league operators opinion. They enter the stats each week but they also have the ability to change skill levels based on their opinion. We had a player on my team that moved up during a week we had a buy. When I asked the league operator how that person could be moved up when they didn't even play, his response was "I've seen him play and he's a good player." Keep in mind that this person has been playing APA for about 15 years so I hardly think there were any surprises.
With that being said, there could be a huge variation between two players that are rated at the same skill level from different area's of the U.S. The reason for this is that it's subject to the league operators opinion. They enter the stats each week but they also have the ability to change skill levels based on their opinion. We had a player on my team that moved up during a week we had a buy. When I asked the league operator how that person could be moved up when they didn't even play, his response was "I've seen him play and he's a good player." Keep in mind that this person has been playing APA for about 15 years so I hardly think there were any surprises.