The Good The Bad and The ?

[1ab]

As it obvious, handicapping is the only way to involve the multitudes in leagues and tournaments, I have had many conversations regarding methodology. I am familiar with the use of VNEA handicapping in league, yet in tournament, levels are established and used in races. I tried APA for one season and felt like understanding that handicap system required a top secret security clearance. I couldn't even ask a question about its workings. What's the best system out there ? What's the worst and why ? How can existing systems be improved ?

 

[Richardson]

I haven't played in the Fargo system, but i have also heard no complaints about it.

 

[Quesports]

Since there isn't and probably never will be a perfect system I will go out on a limb and say that the ACS I play in seems to work fairly well. I am in the midwest near Chicago but I do not know if that matters at all. The sad thing is it seems that every individual league within the ACS can vote and makeup there own rules as they want. The STUPIDEST one in our league was just instituted this session. When a new "unknown" player joins whatever he scores during his first night is what his handicap becomes for the following three weeks. Well as you can imagine this has led to sandbagging immediately. People that are new are encouraged to shoot poorly by their unscroupulous team captains. My rank is currently a 53 and a few weeks ago I had to play a guy that was a 20! As a 20 he should not have known which end of the cue to use but instead he was playing bank shots and combinations!! That was when I found out about the new system for ranking "unknown" players. BTW the captains of all the teams had to vote for this change and a majority did thus the change. The original rule was any new player came in as a 42 and was adujsted from there accordingly. One other note a former pro player just joined and he was given a rank of 50 but has gone down now to a 47!! He is by know means unknown to anyone and is not in any sense over the hill!

 

[itsfroze]

Since there isn't and probably never will be a perfect system I will go out on a limb and say that the ACS I play in seems to work fairly well. I am in the midwest near Chicago but I do not know if that matters at all. The sad thing is it seems that every individual league within the ACS can vote and makeup there own rules as they want. The STUPIDEST one in our league was just instituted this session. When a new "unknown" player joins whatever he scores during his first night is what his handicap becomes for the following three weeks. Well as you can imagine this has led to sandbagging immediately. People that are new are encouraged to shoot poorly by their unscroupulous team captains. My rank is currently a 53 and a few weeks ago I had to play a guy that was a 20! As a 20 he should not have known which end of the cue to use but instead he was playing bank shots and combinations!! That was when I found out about the new system for ranking "unknown" players. BTW the captains of all the teams had to vote for this change and a majority did thus the change. The original rule was any new player came in as a 42 and was adujsted from there accordingly. One other note a former pro player just joined and he was given a rank of 50 but has gone down now to a 47!! He is by know means unknown to anyone and is not in any sense over the hill!

Why is it a secret you mention a pro player has joined, and he is known and not over the hill. So who is he or do we have to guess?

 

[itsfroze]

A Secret ???

Double post sorry.

 

[Quesports]

Why is it a secret you mention a pro player has joined, and he is known and not over the hill. So who is he or do we have to guess?

I said a former pro player and never said it was a secret. Everyone in our league knows who he is. If you were in our league you would also know and yes, you can guess all you like.

 

[lorider]

i do not know what the system is called but in my money league your handicap is adjusted every week according to the last weeks match results. if you won your match you go up 1 point , if you lost your match you go down 1 point. if you beat a higher handicapped player you go up 2 points.

new players start out at their known handicap if they have played in another league. if you have never played in a league men start as a 4 and women start as a 3.

if a player started as a 4 and won his 1st match the following week he would be a 4.1, if he lost he would be a 3.9.

every week your scoresheet as all of the following information.

every player on your teams new handicap and their win loss record up to that week.
your teams win loss record and your standing in the league , ie; 1st place or 5th place or wherever.

it also has all of the above information of your opposing team for that week.

oh yea, it also has the standings for every team in the league.

it makes it easy for you to match up your players with all that info available.

lets say your opponent throws out a 4.4 and he has 3 wins and 5 losses so far. you can tell from that record he is a weak 4.

you have a choice of of throwing your strong 4.1 with a 5-2 record making it a 4-4 race or save him for their weak 5.1. you can throw your strong 3.5 who has a 4-2 rec making it a 3-4 race with a good chance your 3.5 will win.

you only record the number of racks you and your opponents wins or loses each match.

 

[schmizz]

Since there isn't and probably never will be a perfect system I will go out on a limb and say that the ACS I play in seems to work fairly well. I am in the midwest near Chicago but I do not know if that matters at all. The sad thing is it seems that every individual league within the ACS can vote and makeup there own rules as they want. The STUPIDEST one in our league was just instituted this session. When a new "unknown" player joins whatever he scores during his first night is what his handicap becomes for the following three weeks. Well as you can imagine this has led to sandbagging immediately. People that are new are encouraged to shoot poorly by their unscroupulous team captains. My rank is currently a 53 and a few weeks ago I had to play a guy that was a 20! As a 20 he should not have known which end of the cue to use but instead he was playing bank shots and combinations!! That was when I found out about the new system for ranking "unknown" players. BTW the captains of all the teams had to vote for this change and a majority did thus the change. The original rule was any new player came in as a 42 and was adujsted from there accordingly. One other note a former pro player just joined and he was given a rank of 50 but has gone down now to a 47!! He is by know means unknown to anyone and is not in any sense over the hill!

When I used to play on BCA back in the 90's everybody would sandbag the first night to get a good handicap. I can honestly say I refused to do it and it ruffled a few teammates feathers.