Formats for leagues around the world

[stewie]

Did they have less formal bar-team leagues too, or only the Sunday one?

Only other thing I remember were some tournament series in Spielothek locations. Those locations are like Dave&Busters + Slot Machines. There was some tension as they were not sanctioned by the German Billiard Organization. Club players risked to loose their league spots, if they took part.

There might be a "Hobby League" in some regions. I read about one looking like being organized by the same clubs who I was writing about earlier. But those might be pretty much like playing in one of the lowest divisions anyway. Maybe they just don't relegate, so they keep playing the same teams over and over.

Usually, if you join a club, you can be a "passive" member. No league play, but you get access to the club facilities or the club rate at the pool hall.

I moved away 16 years ago, so, not sure about current developments. It was way less common in Germany to find a bar box in many bars. Here in the US almost every dive bar has one, seems like.

 

[hang-the-9]

That sounds horrible. You play someone 2 racks, break only one of them and get handicapped for balls left on the table?

In Germany there were tiered cup tournaments besides team leagues. A "county", "district" and then state and national championship for each discipline. The most fun though, was the 8-Ball cup, starting at the state level. Race to 2, double elimination. Could be over very quickly, but you also had a good chance taking out some heavyweights.

It's a quick fun league setup. instead of playing a single person a longer race you play more people 2 games each. Number of racks you play is still the same if you played a single person. There is no handicapping really in the games, that is for your skill rating in the league. The balls left count for the team score for the losing player, they get 1 pt for each ball they make. If you are beating players when they have many balls left that gives you a rank in the league, it does not affect the week-to-week score, but it is used to limit the team to keep a team from having all the best players on it and they also used it for the tournaments they had for the league, those were handicapped based on skill.

 

[stewie]

It's a quick fun league setup. instead of playing a single person a longer race you play more people 2 games each. Number of racks you play is still the same if you played a single person. There is no handicapping really in the games, that is for your skill rating in the league. The balls left count for the team score for the losing player, they get 1 pt for each ball they make. If you are beating players when they have many balls left that gives you a rank in the league, it does not affect the week-to-week score, but it is used to limit the team to keep a team from having all the best players on it and they also used it for the tournaments they had for the league, those were handicapped based on skill.

The "horrible" was for the handicapping part. Short races can be a lot of fun.

 

[Sheldon]

Our BCA league has 4 person 8 ball and 3 person 9 ball seasons. 8 ball is 4 rounds (each player plays opponents 1 time). 9 ball is 9 rounds, playing each opponent 3 times.
Scoring is by points; for 8 ball you get 10 points for a win and the loser gets 1 point for each of their balls pocketed (7 possible). 9 ball is one point for each odd numbered ball, and 6 points for the 9.
After the first couple of weeks, a player's average is calculated and points are given up each round by the stronger team. (only counting towards round totals, not player totals) Max of 15 for 8 ball and 9 for 9 ball. Handicaps are pretty much meaningless since it only affects the team stats, they do not count towards anyone's total points.
At the end of the session the money ($5/week) is divided by the total points of all players which makes each point worth $$ and everyone gets paid back depending on their total points.
This encourages people to play their best, NOT SANDBAG TO KEEP THEIR HANDICAP LOW. I think this is a big part of why APA never caught on here, besides costing more and paying much less.