Looks about right. A 4 or 5 is about the average player from what i have seen.
You can get the info on your region when you log in. Hit "view all divisions", and you have every player in your region by team with skill level.
just like there no 8's or 9's, but all three Skill Levels are present in APA 9-ball.
Ok. I misread the post. I was thinking 8 ball
How come there are no 1 rankings in 8-ball?
{in my best Gomer Pyle voice}
Because once you are that bad, you don't get better.....
It's a historical thing. At first, when there was just 8-Ball, it was a race to your handicap and it was decided that 7 was the most anyone should have to win and 2 the fewest. Later the races were all shortened to shorten the league night. Over the years there was discussion of handicaps higher than 7, but it was decided that there were too few of them to create extra skill level bands for the high end. It was 8-Ball, and if you pit two 7's, either one can win, so there's really no need to go higher in 8-Ball anyway. When 9-Ball came around, there were no such "race to handicap" issues (i.e., a table was needed from the start), so 1-9 (matching the balls) was chosen. And in 9-Ball, there is a difference at the high end. A player who is a 7/9 and plays a 7/7 will lose the 8-Ball match much more often than the 9-Ball match.
What is your reasoning? The 7/9 is an overall better players, so why wouldn’t he win more playing 8-ball, since the lesser player has to win the same amount of games.
Because the 7/7 is still good enough to run out almost as often in 8-Ball but not nearly as often in 9-Ball, so the mistakes made by the 7/9 in 8-Ball are more costly. That and experience running both 8-Ball and 9-Ball tournaments for these players.
9s can also grab a quick 20+ points off a single ball in hand if they're shooting well. They'll run out that rack and then have a decent chance of running out the next, especially on a bar box. So one foul by the 7/7 can quickly erase their handicap advantage.
I acknowledge reading your reasoning. I disagree wholeheartedly.
He just means the skill gap shows up more in 9ball than in 8b so the more skilled player loses more often in 8b than 9b, not loses more often than the weaker player. This has been my experience as well playing some 7s recently. One guy in particular (strong 6, weak 7 in a big city) plays me close in 8b every time, winning 1/3 of our matches so far but could easily be up 2-1 or 3-0 if he got an extra roll here or there (I roll like Albin Ouschan). But in 9b, he is 0/3 and the races aren't close.