Having seen this thread put in a couple of times I felt compelled to write something about my cities experience this year. So, I did...
Once again, we qualified through the "back door", as in, we didn't win a trophy but lost on trophy night to a team that already had won so by default we qualified. Save for one, every match this weekend went the full five matches and we were always the last ones to finish, but never went to sudden death. We faced some really good teams and some really good and improving players. One thing I've always said in all my time in the APA was that you don't really have to be the best team that weekend, you just have to be the hottest and to have your core all playing well and together at the same time.
Winning cities is not a terribly easy thing to do. I firmly believe that stringing that many wins together at one time requires some cosmic force to be in effect and on your side and when you face teams and players that are either: A) better than you, or B) are playing better or a better match than you, those forces have to be on your side and you have to have the luck and the rolls, in theory all the planets have to align just right.
We won the first one against a team of 2's and 3's. For 4's, 5's and 6's those are tough races and when the 2's and 3's are shooting hot anything can happen. Still we managed to pull it out in five matches.
Next round we face a much stronger team than before with a couple of players, a husband and wife, both nice people, on the roster. Both excellent players one rated a 6, one a 7. Here's one thing I don't get about the APA, I look up the husband and he's a AAA player and a 7, the wife is a W-B player and a 6. In the APA the gap between 6 and 7 is supposed to be reasonably close, in the real pool world the gap, between AAA and W-B is enormous, I'll have to think on that one. We do manage to pull that one out in five matches once again.
The next round is the one that really sticks out in my mind. I felt like I was watching a former version of myself. Have you guys ever played a team that had a bastard leading a group of bastards? I was that guy some years ago. I'd throw the rule book up in your face and call a foul if I thought you were breathing wrong, and if you beat us, well then you were all sandbaggers and cheated and the LO hates us and all the excuses... I was totally that guy. After all, we played at a real pool hall and the teams that were playing at bars were like stepping stones, "How dare they even try to get on the same table with us, they're all beneath me" You all know that guy? I was him. I'm proud to say I've grown up quite a bit since then, but it really was an interesting exercise in human behavior to watch what must have looked like the old me act like an ass.
A few years ago in cities a team we played forfeited the 4th match (after the break) to get to the last match so it wouldn't be a sudden death one game winner take all. Boy, were we pissed, but what they did was within the rules and a very strategic move that worked out for them. If it had been a one game sudden death situation we would have won, but as it was, our player was defeated 4-1 winning only the first game and we were eliminated.
To save our situation this year we employed the same strategy, and this time in the last match our player won first, last, and most. So in five matches once again we won. Their captain, who is a much better player than person , was so pissed she refused to sign the score sheet. Apparently every time one of our players missed a shot their score keeper marked a safety, so in the end, for five matches there were approximately 68 safes marked on their sheet and far fewer on ours. What I found out later was 2 fold, first when we forfeited our 4th match to get to the last one they rushed their player off to the hide in the restroom in an attempt to let the clock expire, but everyone and their brother knew this, so that didn't fly, and second, the captain had been keeping track of everyone's S/L and knew that we had one player move up, and one move down in S/L, she concluded that this is movement twice and if two more moved we'd be DQ'd hence the 68 safes marked. She continued to ***** and argue, as did the majority of her team right on out the door and with that we had advanced to the final round.
Just a bit more about her and her team; I'm not completely without sympathy for her. At first my reaction was to be mad and argue and attack right back, but I thought about it for a minute and some things came back to me. After all, there have been years that I've captained my team in to cities and I knew I had the best team but we lost, and I don't know if any of you have ever read about my meltdown from cities several years ago. At the time it was happening I felt perfectly justified, but about 10 seconds later I began to realize that I had embarrassed myself, my team, our opponents, the people around us, our LO, the owner of the place we played at, etc... so I don't suspect her and I will sit down and have coffee together or anything like that but I do understand, I have felt your pain and I hope she gets past it faster than I did, and as for the S/L 2 on her team that pitched a foul mouthed hissy, she should just STFU and try to get better, I didn't see much potential there, at least not at pool but I'm sure she's good for other things.
In the final we played a team that we have known for a long time, we shared a location with them at one point, though it had been a year or two since we played them. It was clear that none of the best teams on our board had advanced to the final but certainly the two hottest ones had. It was friendly, and fun for the most part and in the end we advanced on to the NTC in Las Vegas in August.
Upon further evaluation our core played pretty much the way they were expected to and our lower S/L players came through. Everything came together for at least one weekend anyways, and the planets aligned for us, the cosmos was in clear view.
Hope to see you in Las Vegas!
Once again, we qualified through the "back door", as in, we didn't win a trophy but lost on trophy night to a team that already had won so by default we qualified. Save for one, every match this weekend went the full five matches and we were always the last ones to finish, but never went to sudden death. We faced some really good teams and some really good and improving players. One thing I've always said in all my time in the APA was that you don't really have to be the best team that weekend, you just have to be the hottest and to have your core all playing well and together at the same time.
Winning cities is not a terribly easy thing to do. I firmly believe that stringing that many wins together at one time requires some cosmic force to be in effect and on your side and when you face teams and players that are either: A) better than you, or B) are playing better or a better match than you, those forces have to be on your side and you have to have the luck and the rolls, in theory all the planets have to align just right.
We won the first one against a team of 2's and 3's. For 4's, 5's and 6's those are tough races and when the 2's and 3's are shooting hot anything can happen. Still we managed to pull it out in five matches.
Next round we face a much stronger team than before with a couple of players, a husband and wife, both nice people, on the roster. Both excellent players one rated a 6, one a 7. Here's one thing I don't get about the APA, I look up the husband and he's a AAA player and a 7, the wife is a W-B player and a 6. In the APA the gap between 6 and 7 is supposed to be reasonably close, in the real pool world the gap, between AAA and W-B is enormous, I'll have to think on that one. We do manage to pull that one out in five matches once again.
The next round is the one that really sticks out in my mind. I felt like I was watching a former version of myself. Have you guys ever played a team that had a bastard leading a group of bastards? I was that guy some years ago. I'd throw the rule book up in your face and call a foul if I thought you were breathing wrong, and if you beat us, well then you were all sandbaggers and cheated and the LO hates us and all the excuses... I was totally that guy. After all, we played at a real pool hall and the teams that were playing at bars were like stepping stones, "How dare they even try to get on the same table with us, they're all beneath me" You all know that guy? I was him. I'm proud to say I've grown up quite a bit since then, but it really was an interesting exercise in human behavior to watch what must have looked like the old me act like an ass.
A few years ago in cities a team we played forfeited the 4th match (after the break) to get to the last match so it wouldn't be a sudden death one game winner take all. Boy, were we pissed, but what they did was within the rules and a very strategic move that worked out for them. If it had been a one game sudden death situation we would have won, but as it was, our player was defeated 4-1 winning only the first game and we were eliminated.
To save our situation this year we employed the same strategy, and this time in the last match our player won first, last, and most. So in five matches once again we won. Their captain, who is a much better player than person , was so pissed she refused to sign the score sheet. Apparently every time one of our players missed a shot their score keeper marked a safety, so in the end, for five matches there were approximately 68 safes marked on their sheet and far fewer on ours. What I found out later was 2 fold, first when we forfeited our 4th match to get to the last one they rushed their player off to the hide in the restroom in an attempt to let the clock expire, but everyone and their brother knew this, so that didn't fly, and second, the captain had been keeping track of everyone's S/L and knew that we had one player move up, and one move down in S/L, she concluded that this is movement twice and if two more moved we'd be DQ'd hence the 68 safes marked. She continued to ***** and argue, as did the majority of her team right on out the door and with that we had advanced to the final round.
Just a bit more about her and her team; I'm not completely without sympathy for her. At first my reaction was to be mad and argue and attack right back, but I thought about it for a minute and some things came back to me. After all, there have been years that I've captained my team in to cities and I knew I had the best team but we lost, and I don't know if any of you have ever read about my meltdown from cities several years ago. At the time it was happening I felt perfectly justified, but about 10 seconds later I began to realize that I had embarrassed myself, my team, our opponents, the people around us, our LO, the owner of the place we played at, etc... so I don't suspect her and I will sit down and have coffee together or anything like that but I do understand, I have felt your pain and I hope she gets past it faster than I did, and as for the S/L 2 on her team that pitched a foul mouthed hissy, she should just STFU and try to get better, I didn't see much potential there, at least not at pool but I'm sure she's good for other things.
In the final we played a team that we have known for a long time, we shared a location with them at one point, though it had been a year or two since we played them. It was clear that none of the best teams on our board had advanced to the final but certainly the two hottest ones had. It was friendly, and fun for the most part and in the end we advanced on to the NTC in Las Vegas in August.
Upon further evaluation our core played pretty much the way they were expected to and our lower S/L players came through. Everything came together for at least one weekend anyways, and the planets aligned for us, the cosmos was in clear view.
Hope to see you in Las Vegas!
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