Unless I'm missing something in your question.... the first number is the 8-ball Skill Level, and the second one is the 9-ball skill level. They are calculated separately.
usapl national qualifier...the most screwed up weekend ever
- Thread starter lorider
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Unless I'm missing something in your question.... the first number is the 8-ball Skill Level, and the second one is the 9-ball skill level. They are calculated separately.
First, I do not think this is endemic of the USAPL but reflects directly on a league operator regardless of who the league is affiliated with. Having done the stats by hand many years ago, the stats on any night were available within 2 hours. So, I have a hard time understanding in the day of computers that the results are not made available in a timely manner. Stuff does happen but sometimes it comes down to lack of caring. I saw a team not play in the playoffs once because they did not know the playoff schedule. These types of situations really irritate me when most can be avoided. That being said the LO's do deal with a lot of crap.
Here is the thing with handicaps, there are maybe 25 honest pool players in the country. That's about all you need to know LOL
Players should know how well they play, if for some reason they are too low ranked, they should approach the person running the league and say "so for whatever reason the system has me as too low" and it can be manually adjusted. In Fargo that can often be due to newer players or some quirk in the players they played before.
It's pretty easy to compare Fargo ratings to APA ratings, but it's not easy to know who is sandbagging and who is not in what league and how good a job they are doing at it. Sure the guy may have a 50% win in league, on purpose. Then just plays his normal, better, game playoff time. A player that is maxed out in APA would be at least a 550 rated player in Fargo. At least. Most likely would be a 600. I don't play APA so I can't say if I would be maxed out, but I have played others that were top APA players and have been competitive with some and have issues winning against other, which is why I say they would be a 550 as the lowest. A 6/8 in APA should be about 500-550 as a good range before I start to question things. Anyone that is a 6/8 or 7/9 in APA that is under 500 in Fargo needs to be raised without question.
I played a 480 that ran two racks at me in one of our playoff matches in 8 ball. I played well for my rating at 550 and ran out a few racks when he made a mistake. Then I broke dry, he ran out that rack and broke and ran the next one. A 480 is a C+. Number of times I have seen a real C+ run two racks like that in 30 years of playing, is 0. The guy was even bragging how he beats all the top players in the area. Yep, he "beats" them due to the spot when he should be playing even. It's like a two identical race cars and one driver said he "won" after loading up the other car with bricks.
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Well after having time to reflect and digest my experience yesterday I am ready to continue describing the events in this ongoing saga so far.
I found out saturday night that the best player of the remaining 5 of us would not be there Sunday for the rest of the 9 ball qualifier. And I thought it could not have gotten any worse than it already had. I saw no chance in hell that the remaining 4 of us could be competitive the rest of the way and mentioned to the remaining players we might as well drop out. They said they wanted to continue and I said let me sleep on it
Sunday the lo texts me and says the starting time for 9 ball today is being pushed back because they still had to finish the 8 ball finals and those teams were also in 9 ball. I replied I was dropping my team out. He asked why and I told him there was only 4 that could show.
He starts giving me this rah rah speech that any thing could happen and to not give up. I said ...do you realize what 4 are remaining ? Me ..a 460....352...320...234 . He says never give up.
So i text my 3 players and ask ...what do you guys want to do. They all said...play. I ask why.? we wanna play pool and we wanna play in a qualifier.
That simple huh ? I then realize that if I dont go play I am doing the same thing the others did and would be no better than the ones that I was upset at.
Also I didn't want to deprive these players from the experience of their first ever usapl national qualifier so I said lets go.
When we get there I see that are running late and it might be possible for our 5th player to get there before the end of our 4 th match. He said yes and I thought ...alright...we will not at least embarrass ourselves too much.
My 3 low level players played amazing and all 3 won
I won vs another 460. my 352 won vs a 396..my 320 won vs a381...my 234 won vs a 488.
I found out saturday night that the best player of the remaining 5 of us would not be there Sunday for the rest of the 9 ball qualifier. And I thought it could not have gotten any worse than it already had. I saw no chance in hell that the remaining 4 of us could be competitive the rest of the way and mentioned to the remaining players we might as well drop out. They said they wanted to continue and I said let me sleep on it
Sunday the lo texts me and says the starting time for 9 ball today is being pushed back because they still had to finish the 8 ball finals and those teams were also in 9 ball. I replied I was dropping my team out. He asked why and I told him there was only 4 that could show.
He starts giving me this rah rah speech that any thing could happen and to not give up. I said ...do you realize what 4 are remaining ? Me ..a 460....352...320...234 . He says never give up.
So i text my 3 players and ask ...what do you guys want to do. They all said...play. I ask why.? we wanna play pool and we wanna play in a qualifier.
That simple huh ? I then realize that if I dont go play I am doing the same thing the others did and would be no better than the ones that I was upset at.
Also I didn't want to deprive these players from the experience of their first ever usapl national qualifier so I said lets go.
When we get there I see that are running late and it might be possible for our 5th player to get there before the end of our 4 th match. He said yes and I thought ...alright...we will not at least embarrass ourselves too much.
My 3 low level players played amazing and all 3 won
I won vs another 460. my 352 won vs a 396..my 320 won vs a381...my 234 won vs a 488.
Looks like you do have a team.
They probably played over their heads, for themselves and their captain. Seriously, that had to be fun
They probably played over their heads, for themselves and their captain. Seriously, that had to be fun
I am going to try to shorten this whole story and get to the bottom line.
The 3 players who did not show were rated at 562....511...490. All 3 are not apa players and would be considered serious players with the 562 recently finishing in the money in an open tournament down in Mississippi that had some pretty sporty players according to what I heard . The failure of those 3 to show put a real hurting on our chances in my opinion.
The 5 remaining players are also apa players that I am reluctant to admit kind of fit the stereotype that apa bashers on here describe all too frequently.
My 2 apa 3's hate to have time outs called...never practice and dont really want advice and when reluctantly accepting advice they say they can't do what you advised. They have been playing for years and I doubt they will ever be more than what they are now. The 234 is a 54 year pls woman and the 320 is a 65 year old man.
The 352 is an apa 4. He has played apa for 18 years and I doubt if he will ever move up either. The only reason he is a 4 is due to his ability to make so man efren like shots and gets more lucky rolls than a man oughta be allowed. Every time he shoots I cringe because there is no telling where the cue ball wl wind up after being hit at warp speed.
The 464 is an apa 6/7 . The first thing he does after arriving an you late....he is never earlier than an hour late is grab a bucket of beer and sits down and starts sucking ons down after the other. And tournament time ? You can't find him half the time when you decide to throw him . He was found Saturday out sleeping in his car.
That leaves me at a 460.apa 5/5 . I am a 63 year old guy that will admit I dont know shit about pool. I dont know much about English except for what I try sometimes. If I hit the cue ball a certain way and it dont go where I want it to them I know the next time to bot it a different way lol. I know nothing about akmkng...squirt...swerve...deflection etc...etc.
The only method I k ow is just piith . I find that when I just dont think about what I want to do and just rely on my hamb experience I play so much better.
I have been accused of being a sandbagger for years and even had the lo say I played af a 7 level one match when I beat a 9 by 15-5. I am capable of playing at a high level like beating an 8 in 9 ball playoffs by 18-2 but I honestly dont k know aha I am doing when i have those kind of matches except not thinking or analyzing each shot and just piith .
Those 3 low level players showed me yesterday what leagues and teams is really all about. They kept each other pumped up like no team I have ever seen before do . I have played in 10 apa qualifiers ...2 Napa qualifiers and a bcapl qualifier and I have never seen such chemistry and bonding like those guys were doing. They were realm enjoying their selves because they were in a national qualifier and they all had this never give up attitude that it eventually affected me and I got to thinking this team reminds me of the bad news bears lol. An unlikely group of players that managed to do more than I thought possible so far. Win or lose in the finals tonight ....those 2 players are winners in my book.
My opinion about this weekend and about this team has definitely changed since I started this thread. Its been a real learning experience and a great tournament so far.
The 3 players who did not show were rated at 562....511...490. All 3 are not apa players and would be considered serious players with the 562 recently finishing in the money in an open tournament down in Mississippi that had some pretty sporty players according to what I heard . The failure of those 3 to show put a real hurting on our chances in my opinion.
The 5 remaining players are also apa players that I am reluctant to admit kind of fit the stereotype that apa bashers on here describe all too frequently.
My 2 apa 3's hate to have time outs called...never practice and dont really want advice and when reluctantly accepting advice they say they can't do what you advised. They have been playing for years and I doubt they will ever be more than what they are now. The 234 is a 54 year pls woman and the 320 is a 65 year old man.
The 352 is an apa 4. He has played apa for 18 years and I doubt if he will ever move up either. The only reason he is a 4 is due to his ability to make so man efren like shots and gets more lucky rolls than a man oughta be allowed. Every time he shoots I cringe because there is no telling where the cue ball wl wind up after being hit at warp speed.
The 464 is an apa 6/7 . The first thing he does after arriving an you late....he is never earlier than an hour late is grab a bucket of beer and sits down and starts sucking ons down after the other. And tournament time ? You can't find him half the time when you decide to throw him . He was found Saturday out sleeping in his car.
That leaves me at a 460.apa 5/5 . I am a 63 year old guy that will admit I dont know shit about pool. I dont know much about English except for what I try sometimes. If I hit the cue ball a certain way and it dont go where I want it to them I know the next time to bot it a different way lol. I know nothing about akmkng...squirt...swerve...deflection etc...etc.
The only method I k ow is just piith . I find that when I just dont think about what I want to do and just rely on my hamb experience I play so much better.
I have been accused of being a sandbagger for years and even had the lo say I played af a 7 level one match when I beat a 9 by 15-5. I am capable of playing at a high level like beating an 8 in 9 ball playoffs by 18-2 but I honestly dont k know aha I am doing when i have those kind of matches except not thinking or analyzing each shot and just piith .
Those 3 low level players showed me yesterday what leagues and teams is really all about. They kept each other pumped up like no team I have ever seen before do . I have played in 10 apa qualifiers ...2 Napa qualifiers and a bcapl qualifier and I have never seen such chemistry and bonding like those guys were doing. They were realm enjoying their selves because they were in a national qualifier and they all had this never give up attitude that it eventually affected me and I got to thinking this team reminds me of the bad news bears lol. An unlikely group of players that managed to do more than I thought possible so far. Win or lose in the finals tonight ....those 2 players are winners in my book.
My opinion about this weekend and about this team has definitely changed since I started this thread. Its been a real learning experience and a great tournament so far.
Yessireee. Read my post I was typing while you posted this.
Well the finals ended tonight and so shall this story I guess.
The first thing I want to say is ...surprise, surprise . One of my no shows decides to show up. We Kinda keep lookin at each other but neither one of us chooses to start speaking first. He decided to go start hitting some balls and I continue standing in the same spot just watching him.
My 234 who has been with me forever comes up and talks to me. She is the one who got me into apa by asking me to join her team about 10 years ago and wanted to join me when I started my own team.
Well any way she comes up and says I know what you are thinking but we need him in order to have our best chance to win . She says to play him instead of her. I said yea...i was thinking we started this tournament without him and we could damn sure finish it the same way. She again said it is our best chance for the team to win and as much as I hated admitting it she was right.
Trying to keep this short but it was agreed upon to only play 4 players because we had a common player between us and it left each of us with only 4. No show made 5 for me but we stuck to 4.
Both teams won 2 matches but they won due to points .
Below is the breakdown.
My 320 lost 28-127 vs a 426.
I ..a 460 won 132-55 vs a 494
My 464 lost 6-214 vs a 492
No show 451 won 114 - 43 vs a 385.
My 464 is an apa 6/7. He is the one who kept disappearing...sleeping in his car...shows an hour late all the time and left as soon as he lost ...did not hang around to see if we could still win. He is definitely not a team player and I have a dilemma now because we all agreed to stick together next session before the tournament started. Probly gonna cut him for the good of the team.
I wound up texting him when it was over and told him we tied at 2-2 but lost on points due to the beat down he took.
He text back...well you should have played him. I thought about it for a minute and said yea....but they threw their best player instead of
him on me when I threw myself.
Well in summary.....i am.not sure if its the worse weekend ever or not. I have to say that those 3 low level players really enjoyed playing and seemed to relish the experience of playing in a national qualifier and they are proud of their selves for finishing as high as we did. And they should be.
It was definitely an eye opener to me as to what a team could and should be.
The first thing I want to say is ...surprise, surprise . One of my no shows decides to show up. We Kinda keep lookin at each other but neither one of us chooses to start speaking first. He decided to go start hitting some balls and I continue standing in the same spot just watching him.
My 234 who has been with me forever comes up and talks to me. She is the one who got me into apa by asking me to join her team about 10 years ago and wanted to join me when I started my own team.
Well any way she comes up and says I know what you are thinking but we need him in order to have our best chance to win . She says to play him instead of her. I said yea...i was thinking we started this tournament without him and we could damn sure finish it the same way. She again said it is our best chance for the team to win and as much as I hated admitting it she was right.
Trying to keep this short but it was agreed upon to only play 4 players because we had a common player between us and it left each of us with only 4. No show made 5 for me but we stuck to 4.
Both teams won 2 matches but they won due to points .
Below is the breakdown.
My 320 lost 28-127 vs a 426.
I ..a 460 won 132-55 vs a 494
My 464 lost 6-214 vs a 492
No show 451 won 114 - 43 vs a 385.
My 464 is an apa 6/7. He is the one who kept disappearing...sleeping in his car...shows an hour late all the time and left as soon as he lost ...did not hang around to see if we could still win. He is definitely not a team player and I have a dilemma now because we all agreed to stick together next session before the tournament started. Probly gonna cut him for the good of the team.
I wound up texting him when it was over and told him we tied at 2-2 but lost on points due to the beat down he took.
He text back...well you should have played him. I thought about it for a minute and said yea....but they threw their best player instead of
him on me when I threw myself.
Well in summary.....i am.not sure if its the worse weekend ever or not. I have to say that those 3 low level players really enjoyed playing and seemed to relish the experience of playing in a national qualifier and they are proud of their selves for finishing as high as we did. And they should be.
It was definitely an eye opener to me as to what a team could and should be.
Nice hangin’ in, LO. You could have just as easily walked away, but you stuck it out
for your players, that’s what a captain does. Nice goin’, nice finish.
for your players, that’s what a captain does. Nice goin’, nice finish.