Shot clock: You may interpret a rule however you wish, but at the team captains meeting when the director tells everybody face to face that the shot clock will be enforced and the foul is ball in hand, then I interpret the rule to be exactly as they stated it would be.
Stalemate: Yes, we were in a stalemate situation and time was called to get the referee to adjudicate.
His immediate response was "I do not know that ruling exactly, but I think it goes like this...". He was then personally offended when I chimed in that if he is not certain of the rule, and that he had cited the rule incorrectly (in fact it was the opposite of the rule as written), we should pull out the rule book and read exactly what it says.
This was taken as a confrontation to his authority and lack of rule memorization, he handed the cue ball to the opponent and said that we would not be permitted to take the time to look up any rules. He did not "take the rulebook away from me". He simply took the "ready, fire, aim" approach.
It was not even the opponents turn at the table, yet he quickly took the cue ball and smashed away. Thus ending any ability to resolve the ruling as the ball had been struck (illegally and out of turn).
How many times had the ref been called: This was the third game of the match and he had probably been called over two or three times, and at least once by each team requesting a watch on a shot. There had been no rules issues up to this point.
Reasons for losing: Our team did not achieve 51 points in the match. We were eliminated in 64th position. There were no problems with equipment, tables, hardware, lighting or temperature/humidity.
Interesting fact #1: The team which eliminated us played three more rounds, winning a 5th place match and then being disqualified for having too many skill level changes during the tournament. Each of the following three matches resulted in their opponent raising formal complaints about skill levels. When we played them they had two skill level 3 players, one started as a 2 and bumped to a 4 after our match, the other one started as a 3 and bumped to a 5, then they were disqualified and banned from APA.
Interesting fact #2: My only complaint about the match was about the lack of skill, knowledge and tact of the referee and floor judge.
Interesting fact #3: I have no problem being eliminated where we ended up, and it allowed us to have a fun night at the pool party and enjoy some of Vegas instead of shooting non-stop for days. In 2011 my team placed 16th and it was too much pool for a "vacation".
Interesting fact #4: Please don't take this as a personal insult, but I don't care for you very much as a person. I find your personal interpretations of events that you were not at or a part of to be as shortsighted and dim as the referee who can't remember basic rules. At this point I think you're arguing just for the sake of arguing. However I do appreciate very much that you used some sentence structure and organized your thoughts better in this round of dim insults.
Well, the feeling is likely mutual, but I don't know you. You seem a bit hard headed and inflexible, kind of a "know-it-all" that probably thinks he has every tool in his garage and has traveled just about everywhere and can pretend to give advice on everything, but maybe you just write that way.
In the "first round" I didn't insult you I asked questions, I'm really sorry you were to dim to know the difference, thank you for finally answering some of them, by the way.
...anyhow.....
I'm surprised that as well as you know the rules you lodge a protest. You obviously think you were right, if I was that sure of myself in that situation I would have utilized every vehicle available to me to see to it that my concerns were addressed and that I was treated fairly beginning with calling over a floor manager for a correct ruling..
One thing, like I said, you should have felt free to look up any rule you liked, but in no way should the match have been stopped for you to do that, however, the match could have been stopped for a ruling of the supervisor or the floor manager, and that was your mistake if you didn't do it.
As to the referees, you can be sure most of them know the rules, they have to. Sounds like your's may have been a little panicked at the thought of having to make a ruling right there in front of everyone. Most are really pretty good, sounds like your's wasn't. He/she really shouldn't have reacted that way but the situation should have given to a floor manager long before it came to that. Knowing the rules and being able to apply them are really different things, some aren't so good at it and some are.
Perhaps you should volunteer to referee so you can see to it that it's done right.
I do a couple more questions, when you all there at the table thought it was to the point where it was stalemated, were you the player? Who's thought was it to call the referee? Since you knew the rule was it really necessary to involve the referee, why didn't you just point it out, or was your opponent being a little unreasonable by then?
