APA question

ctyhntr

ctyhntr

RIP Kelly
Silver Member
My APA 9-ball team did well enough this past season to come in first in our night. So, we got a bye for the playoffs, and were slotted for the tri-cup. Most of my teammates have kids and were planning to take the summer off so we can spend time with our family. We plan to come back in the fall and winter seasons.

Local APA league director tells us we have to play the summer season, otherwise we can't participate in the Tri-Cup. Tells me its new rules from St. Louis. I can't find anything on the APA website citing this. Does this sound right?

Incidentally, my team voted no. So, we're passing on Tri-Cup.
 
ctyhntr said:
My APA 9-ball team did well enough this past season to come in first in our night. So, we got a bye for the playoffs, and were slotted for the tri-cup. Most of my teammates have kids and were planning to take the summer off so we can spend time with our family. We plan to come back in the fall and winter seasons.

Local APA league director tells us we have to play the summer season, otherwise we can't participate in the Tri-Cup. Tells me its new rules from St. Louis. I can't find anything on the APA website citing this. Does this sound right?

Incidentally, my team voted no. So, we're passing on Tri-Cup.
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That's how its run here, as well. And has been for the 4-5 years that I've played.

If a team is taking the summer off here, they can still play in the session playoffs, for the trophies and yes, the cash payouts. But they cannot go to tri cup.

Actually, that is the rule every session here, now that I think about it. If you aren't registered for the next session, you aren't eligible for tri cup, which of course is how you qualify for states, where you can qualify for Vegas.

Its certainly done as an incentive to keep playing, for sure. Its a business for the LO. Best to have these discussions before starting a session, to see how serious players wanna be about moving on to the next level tournies....
 
Yep. Once you win tri cups you have to continue to play to stay qualified also so your handy caps stay legit.
 
Unfortunately, that is how the league is run. The best way to get around it is to start the summer session and then play until your Tri-Cup tournament, which I would assume is in the next few weeks. If you don't win the trip to Vegas, then fold your team for the summer. If you do win the trip, then you can try to field a team until August.
 
Thanks for the responses. We also thought about lending the team name to keep our eligibility, but we needed at least 4 to stay for the summer.
 
The APA 2015 season has nothing to do with the 2014 season. Summer is a 2015 season. You should not have to play summer AND also play in Tri-Cup. Singles and partner tournaments do not apply. Once qualified for those you must keep playing.
 
The way it works where I'm from in Illinois the summer session is the first session that gets LTC qualified. So we always skip the first session and the play in the winter and fall sessions. We have done it that way every since I have played in the apa since 2009because no one ever wants to play in the summer and we have been to Nationals Three times
 
No, it's not a national rule, and if your operator says it is they are not being truthful. The national rules say you have to play through Spring Session once your team qualifies for the Local Team Championships. They say nothing about Summer Session, since that's the beginning of a new league year. They also contain no requirements for tricups.

If an operator requires you to play Summer as a condition of remaining eligible for something, it's a local rule. There's nothing wrong with that, since it does help them keep an eye on skill levels, but they shouldn't lie about it.
 
APA Operator said:
No, it's not a national rule, and if your operator says it is they are not being truthful. The national rules say you have to play through Spring Session once your team qualifies for the Local Team Championships. They say nothing about Summer Session, since that's the beginning of a new league year. They also contain no requirements for tricups.

If an operator requires you to play Summer as a condition of remaining eligible for something, it's a local rule. There's nothing wrong with that, since it does help them keep an eye on skill levels, but they shouldn't lie about it.
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Not sure about 9 ball, but in 8 ball, a qualified team not only must play summer, but that team must also finish 50 percent or better in division standings to remain qualified. The national office is enforcing this.
 
Ok....I have to admit when I'm wrong. I reviewed the team manual. There is nothing that says you have to play summer to play at Vegas in August. What it does say is....

"Every eligible team must play the spring session to retain eligibility. If your team qualified in the summer, then you must sign up again and play both the fall and spring sessions in the league area in which you qualified. A team that qualifies in the fall must continue on and play in the spring in the league area in which you qualified.".

It goes on to say.....

" summer session teams that qualify for the local team championship must finish in the top half of their division in the subsequent fall and spring sessions of the current league year. Fall session teams that qualify for the lo al team championship must finish in the top half of their division in the subsequent spring session of the current league year. Teams that do not finish in the top half of their division in the session(s) following qualification are subject to heavy scrutiny of their handicaps and/or loss of eligibility."

You should be good taking summer off but I recommend you don't. You will need it to keep your skills sharp. Just getting together and practicing may not be good enough. You need the competitive atmosphere also. Good luck to all of you in August.
 
brian8ball said:
Unfortunately, that is how the league is run. The best way to get around it is to start the summer session and then play until your Tri-Cup tournament, which I would assume is in the next few weeks. If you don't win the trip to Vegas, then fold your team for the summer. If you do win the trip, then you can try to field a team until August.
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You can't do that here, the LO is wise to that. It is CLEARLY spelled out for weeks in the newsletters that teams that do that will still be responsible for paying a few hundred dollar penalty. If they don't, they can't play in this territory again.

They have a point. Beyond the lost revenue. A team that registers and starts playing, then quits, is a major scheduling headache. Having to rewrite the schedule cuz someone doesn't want to play by the rules is a major pain in the tookus.
 
Also, get on the local apa website, (not national website) and look at the bylaws. All LO's are supposed to keep up the site and post their bylaws. It might be in there.
 
APA Operator said:
No, it's not a national rule, and if your operator says it is they are not being truthful. The national rules say you have to play through Spring Session once your team qualifies for the Local Team Championships. They say nothing about Summer Session, since that's the beginning of a new league year. They also contain no requirements for tricups.

If an operator requires you to play Summer as a condition of remaining eligible for something, it's a local rule. There's nothing wrong with that, since it does help them keep an eye on skill levels, but they shouldn't lie about it.
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This is correct.

Anyone stating otherwise is spreading misinformation.
 
Sounds like there is real rule, but it's interpreted a little differently from place to place. At the national tournaments it always surprises me when I hear "my LO says..."
I always want to respond, "so your LO has no real regard for the actual rules?"
Some of the APA rules are open to interpretation, so when in doubt I'll always fire off an email to the "Ultimate Authority" - to The APA. When I get a response I print that page out and tuck it in the appropriate place in the team manual. It's turned out to be real convenient to have that to fall back on when common sense isn't present.

As to the current question (please excuse the rant), once we are qualified for our cities tournament you have to finish out that pool year until the end of spring session and your team must maintain at least 4 original players through out the year. The thing about our cities, if you team isn't currently playing in the summer session there is a reasonable chance you won't have any information about cities. Just about all the information is passed through the weekly packets or right from the rep that makes it around on league night. If your team isn't there to get the information you might miss your match time or don't get the player certifications signed or won't meet some other requirement so your team won't play anyways.
 
Again, thanks for the replies, for clarification we're not LTC nor have we ever won the tri-cup or gold cup.

My team played both Fall 2013, and Spring 2014 9-ball open. In both seasons we made it into the Tri-Cup. We lost first round in fall 2013 Tri-Cup. Spring 2014 we came in first, got a bye in the playoffs, and slotted for Tri-Cup. We were told if we didn't play Summer 2014 season, we would not be allowed to play in the Tri-Cup for Spring 2014. Winners of the Tri-Cup goes to the Gold-Cup, aka LTC 2014.
 
Consistency

It's a shame that these APA franchises are not more consistent from region to region.

Summer should be irrelevant to the prior competition year, which is three seasons: starts with Summer, then Fall, and ends with last session of Winter/Spring.
 
My team qualified summer session last year and we have our LTC's the 1st two weeks of June this year. I was under the impression we have to play this summer because if we win 2 matches and we go to Vegas in August in order to play you must be on an active roster. Is this not the case?
 
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If you play APA in our area you must play summer to retain qualification for tri-cup/cash cup.. If you play TAP they allow you to take the summer off while staying qualified for provincials/regionals.
 
At this time the decision is up to the local LO. I know that there is discussion at the national level to create a national rule regarding this topic.

In our area we do not have to play summer session to stay qualified for the open 8-person team nationals.
 
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