Benefits of joining an APA league?
- Thread starter BD23
- Start date
His family did, not sure if he did, maybe when he was younger. I would bet though that his skill did not come from battling the 3s and 4s in APA LOL
He did play in leagues when he was younger but agree, he didn't get better by playing 3s and 4s. lol
As many have said, leagues are good for consistent play. You know that once a week, you are guaranteed to play pool that day. The other benefit of leagues is not playing the same people all the time. You play different teams and different players. There are some stakes to it versus just playing your friends for fun. Local weekly tournaments are really good as well for getting constant play in. As far as which league, you will figure you out just by playing in various leagues. Enjoy!
Shhhhh... I get people angry at me when I say the APA rules and games are not "real pool" and tend to create a lot of people that are not aware of the pool world outside of the APA. Most APA players don't know anything about the full rules such as pushout, 3 fouls, and other rules common in tournaments and other leagues. I don't know how many times people have said to me "I played in a league for 10/20 years and never heard of this rule" LOL
Individually, yes. However, there's no prize money in league. To "get into money" of any kind, the first step is playing in qualifiers and other events, and winning. All those have entry fees, too. It starts adding up.
On that note, I would like to share an experience from only a couple shorts weeks ago that has left a bitter taste in my mouth.
The Team Captain's tournament.
I've been a Team Captain concurrent for the past 4 years.
This "Appreciation Tournament for Team Captains" actually cost $55 per person for the privilege.
Just two days prior to the event, one of our Captains was moved-up, leaving us high and dry, and having to pick from a small pool of last-minute stragglers. That is, if us remaining Captains wanted to participate in our own "appreciation" event... The move-up effectively "blew-up" our team. It changed the entire dynamic. I almost stayed in bed, however, the League Operator had previously asked, in "do me a favor" fashion, if I would add so-and-so to the roster, and alternate, and I had already agreed.
*(More later on moving-up players this close to a tournament)
So, for my $55 I played one rack of 8-Ball, and one rack of 9-Ball. Yes, 2 racks, $27.50 per.
To further put this in perspective, the $55 entry fee is higher than 95% of the tournaments in my area, and there is plenty. So where, you may ask, is the "appreciation" for those self-less treasures who, week-in and week-out, take time out of their day before league even begins to ensure players will be present, and within permissible skill? Their efforts, after-all, is nothing short of pro-bono lower-level management for APA. Without them, there is no league.
Well, first off, upon arrival, those door prizes were a nice touch. I could take them or leave them, but it did lend itself to an atmosphere that felt special, and "appreciated". Second was our lunch buffet. Very nice. In my opinion the best way to show appreciation is to buy someone lunch. Then the drawing. There was plenty of cool APA swag, and a few great prizes that I definitely would've taken. Overall, something "appreciated" was in the air.
Except for one small problem. None of that actually happened. There was nothing. Notta. Zero. Zilch. Just the aforementioned $55 entry free that went entirely to the winner that day.
<End rant>
*On a side note, APA needs to "Lock" SLs a week prior to these events at minimum, out of consideration for it's members. To help with planning, which is currently almost impossible. The info APA has on it's players is always current and up-to-date. There's nothing so profound happening that week that it can't wait until afterward. I personally know quite a few people that won't play these events because they are put-off by the simple inability to plan.
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dquarasr
Registered
I understand and sympathize. Captain’s tournament in my league, IIRC, is complementary. No entry fee.
I curious how winning would change any of it?
Because it's a completely different story if you had won a trip to Vegas.
The non-awareness of other rule sets is a result of decades of poor marketing of pool (esp. 8-ball). The people who scream "APA" when someone slops in a ball in 9-ball and don't know what a pushout is are far less of a problem than the millions Americans who think the only valid rule set is American Bar Rules 8-ball.
The APA is designed to spawn off new teams as players rank up. That is a feature and part of their business strategy. It is generally easier for a 2,3,4 to get on a team. It gets harder at SL5 and at 6/7 it gets hard. I was out of pool for about 12 years and ended my APA experience in 2005 as a 6 in 8 and a 7 in 9. Coming back after the layoff, on opening week, I walked around and tried to get on a team. No interest other than 1 team. I was very lucky that that captain graciously put me on his double jeopardy team even though he was a 7/8. He would generally let me pick what I wanted to play on a given week unless he wanted to match up with a specific opponent. We could never play together in a team match and field a team within the cap given the other players on the roster. I quit after 1 session and went BCA. It wasn't fair for them as it hurt their matchups and not optimal for me either. I appreciate him for allowing me the chance though. APA is no longer for me. I really don't enjoy coaching as I have had team members argue with me over playing a safe versus selling out over and over...Some people you just can't reach. If I some day get bounced off my BCA team I probably would stop league play entirely and focus on individual tourneys or quit everything again.
APA is a thing unto itself and therefore configured commensurately with modern sensibilities and no doubt ample legality. If I called it a fish farm there's plenty of argue room including, that's what pool room franchises were for etc... etc...
With all due respect, a trip to Vegas doesn't change what I shared. Nor my reason for sharing it. The winners even agree.
Right is right.
There's nothing "appreciative" in charging Captains $55 bucks for a no-frills tournament. Again, that $55 is actually higher than any other tournament APA offers... Appreciation? Yes, it would've been rewarding had we won, for sure. But that isn't "appreciation." There was no sign of appreciation was my point. None. And frankly, billing it as such, while charging $55, is a straight insult to Captains, and to the job that they do.
Good day to you.
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At least where we play APA here, the tables that aren't being used for matches are open for practice all night. So most folks can play as much pool as they want (taking turns, of course), not just waiting all night for their one match. Even if they aren't playing that night, so long as their team is having a match there, they are allowed to use the practice tables.
dquarasr
Registered
That's good. But that's not the case everywhere. At my main location, they allow practice on unused tables, and opened the tables up for practice about an hour before league started. They even looked the other way at the end of the night if we were still on the tables after league play was done (for a while, at least, then they'd warn us they were going to put us on the clock). But the last few weeks of the season, they added a BCA league on the same night, and the extra tables evaporated.
The other place I played at did not provide practice before, during, or after. They'd only provide $ for the coin-op tables for matches.