Coming from OH, where there is a HUGE pool playing community, there is no rating system. You match up simply based upon what you know about the other player, that's it. 99% of the tournaments are OPEN, some in house handicapping, but that's it. I've been in AZ for 10 years and only recently, past year or so, did I start playing tournaments and started playing scotch about 6 months ago. I'm mostly a league player, but I've been focusing on tournament play.
WIth that said, and since I don't post that much if at all, I've been around to many of the bars and pool halls in the Phoenix area and I've seen and met a lot of great players and people. I've also read this thread and there are a lot of valid points.
Some of the "bar" tournaments I frequent range from 5's to 9's, I see very little discouragement from the lower rated players playing the higher. It seems the lower rated players want the challenge and the higher rated players don't mind "helping out" to grow the community. Not all players are of this mentality, but I do see it spreading.
Ratings need to go back to the criteria they set when rating players. There is way too much political influence, good ole boys/girls club and frankly, people rating that shouldn't be. If there were a way to get back to basics of truly rating people, there would be minimal complaining and possibly better and even more competition.
The ratings need to be based MAINLY on singles competition. With all the scotch tournaments out there, some players are being rated solely on their scotch performance. While I feel you can rate a player on scotch play, it should be done so over a period of play, not once or twice. Obviously, there should be some discretion concerning "sandbagging" and that is usually left to the tournament director.
There are a TON of tournaments in the valley, some handicapped, some aren't, but if you listen closely, these tournaments are somewhat guarded. Why? Because a decent player will "find" one and then cherry pick it until word gets out. To top it off, once better players show up, they will have the cajones to say, "this is my tournament, what are you doing here?". Instead of keeping these tournaments quiet, wouldn't be better to get the word out? More players, better for pool...Better for the bar...Better for everyone!
Players want to MILK there 6 and 7 rating because of sandbagging and I'll admit, I used my 6 status to my advantage in quite a few tournaments until I was raised to a 7. Sandbagging exists and will always exist. But the good ole boys club of some of the bar/hall owners want to keep "their own" at a lower rating and will do whatever necessary to vote it down. You get four or five "friends" and Player "bob" isn't getting raised. If you can find a way to prevent that, good luck! I'm a strong 7, but I don't have the consistency of an 8 and believe me, I want to be an 8 and it has nothing to do with what tournaments I can or can't play in, it's my own personal thing, I want to achieve that next level....and the next. The people I play pool with have the same mentality and that's a driving force to become better players. On the flip side, you have guys who are happy to be a 6 and they aspire to continue at that level and there is nothing wrong with that. WIth all the players and mentalities, the tournaments being rated seems to be working. If all a 6 wants is 7 competition, they play in that tournament, if a 6 want's to become a better player, they will migrate to tournaments with the better players.
I hope it all changes for the better, and the main focus should be growing the pool playing community and making it as fair as possible so that everyone has fun is able to grow their game.
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