Question about sandbagging in the Apa...

[Nullus]

Yes, it takes roughly 20 weeks to generate a handicap, based on 10 of those weeks. A typical session is 12ish weeks. Your 'Top Gun' stats are figured based on the handicap of the player you play/beat. Most teams carry 5-8 players and take turns playing, therefore, few players play every single week. You can sandbag and win because of the poor system in APA and it sometimes doesn't catch up to you for many weeks, leading to a situation such as the OP states regarding Top Gun points. Beat a 7, you get 7 Top Gun points. It's just a horrible handicap system. APA knows it, but folks keep playing because APA also knows they have the lure of Vegas. I keep hoping they'll fix their handicap system one day and maybe i'll go back to playing in it, but I honestly don't think they will until someone new takes over the reins or they are threatened nationally by another league. I'm waiting for NAPA to move their nationals to some place like Atlantic City or even Vegas, and it won't take long for their league to make a huge dent in APA. Winning and sandbagging don't coexist in NAPA. They just don't have the lure of Vegas....yet.

 

[buckshotshoey]

We have switched to the new Top Gun format here, this session.

It's based on how many points you average per game, out of the total points that you had available. This session I went 11-0, but didn't have many shutouts, so I averaged about 2.18 points per match. The guy who won went 7-0, but averaged 2.29 points per match, obviously getting more 3-0 wins than I did during the session.

(Under the old format, he may still have won, as he being a strong SL6 would have been playing primarily 5's, 6's and 7's all session, whereas I being an SL5 and having stronger players on my team, I played more lower skill leveled players all session. So he likely would've had more of the old "top gun points". No biggie, just interesting to think about.)

And we could have both lost. Technically, there was one player who had a better Points Per Match than both of us, but she didn't play enough matches to qualify for the award, according to our local bylaws. Our LO requires that a player play in half the matches available during the session (rounding up if its an odd number of weeks, or down if there is a bye in the schedule during that session) and this girl only played in six matches, with a 2.33 average. Obviously it wasn't important to her, she wasn't even there the last week...

Or she didn't know.

Sounds like it might work out. No mention of it yet in my area that I am aware of. Hope they don't do the half session thing. My job only allows me to be there every other week. Guess It doesn't matter much. Dont stand much of a chance under those conditions.

 

[justadub]

Or she didn't know.

Sounds like it might work out. No mention of it yet in my area that I am aware of. Hope they don't do the half session thing. My job only allows me to be there every other week. Guess It doesn't matter much. Dont stand much of a chance under those conditions.

Well, the LO here adds that condition to keep people from rattling off 4 or 5 wins and then not playing the rest of the session, just to win the award (and the $50 that goes with it).

Kinda wants to reward people that play regularly. 7 out of 15 weeks isn't a whole lot.

 

[RFranklin]

Sandbaggin

Unfortunately, if a new team shows up that has several skilled players starting at the APA starting points you can keep the farce going for a full season. We won 8 and played "that" team in the semis. They had a player that had just moved from a 5 to a 4 and I drew him blind. I am am legit 7 with a 70%+ winning percentage over 150 matches. He beat me 2-2 in 8 innings with a rack run on my dry break in the 4th game. We lost and they moved on to the finals last week. He moved back to a 5 but beat another 7 3-1 in 16 innings with several safes. I dont know why winning first in the playoffs was so important to them after playing the sandbag game all season but I guess it helps us out. They had another player that started as a 4/5 who ended the season as a 7/8 over 14 weeks to show you how stacked they were. Very seriously considering only staying active for tourneys at this point.

 

[ridinda9]

the "3 point" system is badly flawed, and ripe for manipulation!

You are exactly right, and said it with out pulling punches!
I wasn't really sure about the 3 point system. After playing it for a while, I think it wl be just fine. Some complaints, but not a lot. We did get screwed once because of it. Won 3 of the 5 matches one night. But the two we lost were shut outs. The 3 we won went to the hill. They got 9 points, we got 6. Thats the way the cue ball bounces I guess.

Maybe top gun will be better of too. It should be a lot closer now if it goes nation wide.

Your team won three out of five matches. 3/5 =60%

You received 6 points.
they received 9 points.
6/15=40%
9/15=60%
Yes, this can be done consistently in APA 8ball.
You no longer have to win to "win"!

APA 9ball has always been that way. I'd let 3 guys lose intentionally 12-8,and then only need two "light" wins 13-7 and 14-6 to advance with a 51.
even when we lose, we win.. . . . . .

 

[APA Operator]

Your team won three out of five matches. 3/5 =60%

You received 6 points.
they received 9 points.
6/15=40%
9/15=60%
Yes, this can be done consistently in APA 8ball.
You no longer have to win to "win"!

APA 9ball has always been that way. I'd let 3 guys lose intentionally 12-8,and then only need two "light" wins 13-7 and 14-6 to advance with a 51.
even when we lose, we win.. . . . . .

Here's what's wrong with that strategy - you have to do it consistently for it to have an impact on skill levels. When you do that, you'll get caught by anyone who's paying attention. There's a pretty good and remarkably simple metric that will pinpoint anyone who employs that strategy.

 

[vrrdriver]

I gave up on apa when our 6 got beat by a 2 that played a 3 rail kick safe for a win and then broke and ran

oh btw that was for third place at the Vegas tournament


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[Guapo]

I gave up on apa when our 6 got beat by a 2 that played a 3 rail kick safe for a win and then broke and ran

oh btw that was for third place at the Vegas tournament


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Ouch!! That's gotta be very infuriating.