Seeding Could Be Hurting Streaming #'s

Ths is not a field of Joe Bangers but a field of great players. There are great matches every single day in every single round and there are no easy draws.

Seeding helps ensure that those contending for the title won't play each other quite yet, but this is what allows the event to build to a climax, and that's as it should be. My opinion is that if the early matches don't interest you, then the late round matches probably won't either.

On the stream right now is Kim Davenport vs BJ Ussery, a fine match having two amazing players. My recommenaiton is "buy it and enjoy it."

I agree with your point. There are quite a few good matches on the first day.

With regards to seeding, it's main purpose is to reward players that play on ranking tournaments (in US Open case, BCA and WPA points). It's an incentive for those who put time and effort (and of course win). It's not necessarily to delay contending players from playing each other. It just happens to coincide.
 
I agree with your point. There are quite a few good matches on the first day.

With regards to seeding, it's main purpose is to reward players that play on ranking tournaments (in US Open case, BCA and WPA points). It's an incentive for those who put time and effort (and of course win). It's not necessarily to delay contending players from playing each other. It just happens to coincide.

Seeding is to get the top players to play in the event and to make sure they have a head start through the brackets to be there the last day for the cash and the promotorss gate. Johnnyt
 
Seeding is to get the top players to play in the event and to make sure they have a head start through the brackets to be there the last day for the cash and the promotorss gate. Johnnyt

Seeding is an incentive for those players that join ranking events. I don't believe the promoter of US Open comes up with his own ranking just to woe good players. I believe US Open uses BCA and WPA rankings to determine seeded players. If the promoter is assigning seed by his whim then it's bad.
 
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Seeding is an incentive for those players that join ranking events. I don't believe the promoter of US Open comes up with his own ranking just to woe good players. I believe US Open uses BCA and WPA rankings to determine seeded players. If the promoter is assigning seed by his whim then it's bad.

I never said the prmoter was seeding his way. If you seed from the BCA ranking you will have the top players to seed. Johnnyt
 
I never said the prmoter was seeding his way. If you seed from the BCA ranking you will have the top players to seed. Johnnyt

I'm lost . . . I believe that what the ranking points determine, the top players who join ranking events.
 
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Seeding is to get the top players to play in the event and to make sure they have a head start through the brackets to be there the last day for the cash and the promotorss gate. Johnnyt

But is it really necessary to seed to get the top players to play in an event? What I mean is if you add $25K to a purse aren't you pretty much going to attract all the top talent just by doing that? Seeding is something the ABP wants. Throw an unseeded $25K added money event and about the only way the top players won't show is if there is a seeded event with the same added money on the same weekend. And even then the added dough better be guaranteed because that seeded event will have a more difficult time filling the field with dead money.
 
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I think seeding may be hurting Live-Streaming but live streaming may not be very important to the promoter. I talk to my local pool room owner and he wants to know who is playing today on the TV table...... That says a lot because it comes from someone who is a true fan of pool and who doesn't mind spending a little money to keep his customers happy.

As a wannabee player, I agree with Lou about the seeding. It sucks. As a fan of pool, I see SJM's point.

Seeding is attractive to some wannabees, as it gives them a chance to play one of the big boys for entry fee alone. When you play in a lot of tournaments, you get that opportunity frequently. For me that's not a big deal. I'm still trying to get used to standing up to the gauntlet.

I'm not sure if people like Lou and I make up the majority of the wannabees or not but I like the idea of having a miniscule chance of cashing in any event I play in. I also like the possibility that I will have a chance to get acclimated to the tables and the event by playing another baby seal, before I meet up with Goliath.

Good thread nevertheless.


Agreed.

If it's your one time fling, I can see wanting to go two and out, having drawn Efren and SVB. BUT, if you get into more than one of these, that thrill wears off a bit and all you want is a fair shake for your dough.

Lou Figueroa
 
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While many top players do have relatively easy first, second and third round pairings, many top players are facing solid competition early in the tournament.

As an example, assuming Brandon Shuff and SVB win their first round, they could be facing each other in the second round. Whoever wins there could be facing Raj Hundal next. The winner could then face Jose Parica so this isn't exactly a cakewalk in the early rounds.

It looks like one of the baby seals, Pahdahsong Shognosh, turned into a sea lion in devouring Jose Parica. :cool:

Upsets happen all the time so those "baby seal" pool players aren't as defenseless as they look.
 
I think if someone had the $$$ to have every table streamed....viewer can choose the match they want to watch, that would be amazing.
And to have commentators that chatted with everyone, it just makes for a nice touch and you want to stay. Families would love to watch too.
earlier this year I watched the European Championship matches stream (14.1, 8, 9 & 10 ball) over a period of 10 days. It cost less than $3 per day and they had 18 of the 25 tables streamed so by the second day you could see every match. The top matches (3-4 tables) had commentators and all the rest had scores updated by the players. All matches had real time scoring and brackets were updated real time... you could click between all the streams and stay on top of a couple of matches.

10 days & no re-boots or frozen screen also!

Far better than anything I have seen here in the US.
 
I like the seeding so far in the US Open. Get rid of all that free money early so all the players I want to see don't match up early and get knocked out. This could turn out to be a great weekend, full of champion talent that I would/will pay to watch.

The problem with streaming this event is they only have one table and your forced to watch that match or pound sand. Seeing how its almost impossible to get some ESPN type quality production (highlights of great run-outs, jump shots, breaks), in the future maybe they could have at least 2 streaming tables. That way you would have a choice of who you would like to watch.

IMO seeding is a must just like other sports mentioned above...the problem is where do you get the points to seed the top players?
 
I think seeding may be hurting Live-Streaming but live streaming may not be very important to the promoter. I talk to my local pool room owner and he wants to know who is playing today on the TV table...... That says a lot because it comes from someone who is a true fan of pool and who doesn't mind spending a little money to keep his customers happy.

As a wannabee player, I agree with Lou about the seeding. It sucks. As a fan of pool, I see SJM's point.

Seeding is attractive to some wannabees, as it gives them a chance to play one of the big boys for entry fee alone. When you play in a lot of tournaments, you get that opportunity frequently. For me that's not a big deal. I'm still trying to get used to standing up to the gauntlet.

I'm not sure if people like Lou and I make up the majority of the wannabees or not but I like the idea of having a miniscule chance of cashing in any event I play in. I also like the possibility that I will have a chance to get acclimated to the tables and the event by playing another baby seal, before I meet up with Goliath.

Good thread nevertheless.

Personally if I'm prepared, the first round is always the toughest for all players, and if the event is seeded and you play a top 16 in the world your chances are most often better early on, no one is yet totally acclimated to conditions, the tables are dryer, cloth is new, and speed control is not as consistent as in the later rounds, even the ball sets are New along with the racks.
 
''Coming Out''

This event has and is the one place where each year we get to see someones game ''change'' and jump a ball or two and get in the last day of play or at least the final 16 or 24. This event is also one that can be won by someone who has the potential, but has not crossed over yet, like TKO/aka Tommy Kennedy did yrs ago and DRILLED Archer in the final. This aspect of this event is what most interests me. Tho as more great players from overseas play in this event, this aspect becomes even more difficult to be accomplished, but home court always speaks loudly.
 
I like the seeding so far in the US Open. Get rid of all that free money early so all the players I want to see don't match up early and get knocked out. This could turn out to be a great weekend, full of champion talent that I would/will pay to watch.

The problem with streaming this event is they only have one table and your forced to watch that match or pound sand. Seeing how its almost impossible to get some ESPN type quality production (highlights of great run-outs, jump shots, breaks), in the future maybe they could have at least 2 streaming tables. That way you would have a choice of who you would like to watch.

IMO seeding is a must just like other sports mentioned above...the problem is where do you get the points to seed the top players?

I have to agree with this point. I paid for the whole week and while I'm enjoying watching, I'm missing 95% of the event. $60.00 to watch a few matches a day is a little weak. I know that it's a great service that they provide, but if this is going to get into being something great, it's going to have to improve signifcantly. It's early on so the excitement isn't quite ramped WAY up yet, but my bet would be that next year I don't lay out the cash unless I have more options on tables to watch.

You have to be able to provide people with a lot of value to get $60.00 out of them for PPV, especially over the internet.
 
Ths is not a field of Joe Bangers but a field of great players. There are great matches every single day in every single round and there are no easy draws.

Seeding helps ensure that those contending for the title won't play each other quite yet, but this is what allows the event to build to a climax, and that's as it should be. My opinion is that if the early matches don't interest you, then the late round matches probably won't either.

On the stream right now is Kim Davenport vs BJ Ussery, a fine match having two amazing players. My recommenaiton is "buy it and enjoy it."
I agree 100%.

I am here at the Open and attendance is low.

Could be for a couple of reasons:

1. Too early in the tournament.
2. People can't afford to hang for the whole week. Not everyone is rolling in money like me...LOL

I disagree with the statement that some people don't want to watch a beast devour the kittens early in the event. I think that is precisely when you see great play, because the beast is not afraid and can turn their strokes loose and put on a show.

Yesterday Archer beat poor Matt Krah 11-0.
Matt is a very strong regional player, but it was fun to watch Archer play textbook pool.

SVB beat Shuff yesterday, and Shuff is VERY strong, but again, it was fun to watch SVB play!

Strickland beat Piercey from Canada yesterday, and he crushed the guy.

Lee Van Corteza beat Raymond Linares 11-1, but again, watching Lee Van move the CB to pinpoint precision is highly entertaining.

Not every match has to be a hill-hill nailbiter to be considered entertaining. Speaking of which, Shaun Wilkie gave Ralf Souquet a scare by losing 11-10 after a bad pushout in the last rack. Real heartbreaker of a loss for him.

In my not-so-humble opnion, all of you out there that are complaining about seeding, quality of streamed matches, paying for streams etc. should just suck it up and spend some money.

Support pool...we come on here day after day and complain about the decline of our sport, then we complain about this, that and the other.

Spend a few bucks, sit back and enjoy the show!
 
Seeding is to get the top players to play in the event and to make sure they have a head start through the brackets to be there the last day for the cash and the promotorss gate. Johnnyt

Do you really think that Johnny Archer, former US Open champ, would stay home if the event wasn't seeded? Oh, wait.....

;)
 
This event has and is the one place where each year we get to see someones game ''change'' and jump a ball or two and get in the last day of play or at least the final 16 or 24. This event is also one that can be won by someone who has the potential, but has not crossed over yet, like TKO/aka Tommy Kennedy did yrs ago and DRILLED Archer in the final. This aspect of this event is what most interests me. Tho as more great players from overseas play in this event, this aspect becomes even more difficult to be accomplished, but home court always speaks loudly.

Excellent post. We've seen guys that had no chance at the beginning of the tournament find something extra inside themselves and turn it up a notch...

Who would have thought that guys like Gabe Owen or John Schmidt could have won the whole thing against all the monsters that show up every year? (Ralf, Mika, Johnny, Alex, etc.)
 
I agree 100%.

I am here at the Open and attendance is low.

Could be for a couple of reasons:

1. Too early in the tournament.
2. People can't afford to hang for the whole week. Not everyone is rolling in money like me...LOL

I disagree with the statement that some people don't want to watch a beast devour the kittens early in the event. I think that is precisely when you see great play, because the beast is not afraid and can turn their strokes loose and put on a show.

Yesterday Archer beat poor Matt Krah 11-0.
Matt is a very strong regional player, but it was fun to watch Archer play textbook pool.

SVB beat Shuff yesterday, and Shuff is VERY strong, but again, it was fun to watch SVB play!

Strickland beat Piercey from Canada yesterday, and he crushed the guy.

Lee Van Corteza beat Raymond Linares 11-1, but again, watching Lee Van move the CB to pinpoint precision is highly entertaining.

Not every match has to be a hill-hill nailbiter to be considered entertaining. Speaking of which, Shaun Wilkie gave Ralf Souquet a scare by losing 11-10 after a bad pushout in the last rack. Real heartbreaker of a loss for him.

In my not-so-humble opnion, all of you out there that are complaining about seeding, quality of streamed matches, paying for streams etc. should just suck it up and spend some money.

Support pool...we come on here day after day and complain about the decline of our sport, then we complain about this, that and the other.

Spend a few bucks, sit back and enjoy the show!


I think it is presumptuous to link those of us against the concept and practice of tournament seeding with an inability to “suck it up”, or unwillingness to spend money to support the game. Personally, I suck it up all the time, spend plenty of dough supporting the game, tournament promoters, and the PPPRF -- “Pro Pool Player Retirement Fund.”

Taking a look at the first three days of Open programming, in all honesty, I don’t see matches I want to watch (remember my wish about seeing Strickland and Appleton getting paired up in the first round?). The truth is: few people want to watch preliminary rounds between medium speed players, or watch baby seals get clubbed. (OK, so you’re the exemption and like to see the pros get big and fearless against the baby seals and let that club stroke out.)

Maybe we’ve gotten spoiled by being able to pick and choose the marquee match DVDs we order from Accu-Stats or the always stellar match ups TAR consistently offers. But people, generally speaking, want to watch top flight performance, or at the very least the drama of a match where something like big money and/or a title is at stake. Or how about rooting for that underdog that's making a spectacular and unexpected run because all the pros were in the other bracket :-)

Lou Figueroa
 
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I didnt read most of the posts in this thread but when they seed a tournament it is basically just for a big matchup in the end? Its a joke.
 
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