Vegas BCAPL 2016, fargorate problems

[sbpoolleague]

You are a 649. Your buddies are in the 600's Play in the Platinum Team event where you belong.

 

[poolscholar]

You are a 649. Your buddies are in the 600's Play in the Platinum Team event where you belong.

Me and 2 of my teammates are in the 600's and two are in the 500's, one being a choke artist.

I don't want to sign up for the upper div with a team rating of 3050 when the cap is 3250. Doesn't seem like a good idea if you want to win. Especially when there are teams with 525's that are actually 600's. My whole team is established unless I find an unrated player to replace someone.

Not that any of this is relevant... I'd just like to know whats going to happen with ratings at the event before I drop a thousand on plane tickets and hotel. Like I said before it is worrying that they are not transparent about how it will work.

 

[sbpoolleague]

Me and 2 of my teammates are in the 600's and two are in the 500's, one being a choke artist.

I don't want to sign up for the upper div with a team rating of 3050 when the cap is 3250. Doesn't seem like a good idea if you want to win. Especially when there are teams with 525's that are actually 600's. My whole team is established unless I find an unrated player to replace someone.

Not that any of this is relevant... I'd just like to know whats going to happen with ratings at the event before I drop a thousand on plane tickets and hotel. Like I said before it is worrying that they are not transparent about how it will work.

In every single BCAPL team event you have participated in there have been dozens of teams filled with Advanced and Masters level players that hadn't yet been designated as such. And in every one of those years, if these players finished high in the preceding singles events, their teams were not broken up because of the new Masters designation.

So now we have Fargo ratings, which will catch a lot of the unrated players that wouldn't have been caught in years previous, but since they are new, they won't catch everyone. What we have now is everything we had last year and more. It's better than before. And it will continue to get better year after year.

Either find yourself some more heavy hitters or find yourself some more unknowns. Or do what our teams have always done. Go there, compete, have a fun time, and if you win money, enjoy the gravy.

 

[poolscholar]

In every single BCAPL team event you have participated in there have been dozens of teams filled with Advanced and Masters level players that hadn't yet been designated as such. And in every one of those years, if these players finished high in the preceding singles events, their teams were not broken up because of the new Masters designation.

So now we have Fargo ratings, which will catch a lot of the unrated players that wouldn't have been caught in years previous, but since they are new, they won't catch everyone. What we have now is everything we had last year and more. It's better than before. And it will continue to get better year after year.

Either find yourself some more heavy hitters or find yourself some more unknowns. Or do what our teams have always done. Go there, compete, have a fun time, and if you win money, enjoy the gravy.

You are right. I should find unrated players, but I'd like to play with my league team. Teams with fully established ratings are going to be underdogs. If they raised the starting rating (at least for upper div) or limited unrated players somehow, it would help.

I do go to Vegas for fun but I can have fun at home too for much cheaper, if I go to Vegas I want my team to have a chance to win. Nothing in this thread has reassured me they will be adjusting or controlling team ratings at all during the event, which sadly may result in me skipping this year. Undecided currently.

 

[sbpoolleague]

You are right. I should find unrated players, but I'd like to play with my league team. Teams with fully established ratings are going to be underdogs. If they raised the starting rating (at least for upper div) or limited unrated players somehow, it would help.

I do go to Vegas for fun but I can have fun at home too for much cheaper, if I go to Vegas I want my team to have a chance to win. Nothing in this thread has reassured me they will be adjusting or controlling team ratings at all during the event, which sadly may result in me skipping this year. Undecided currently.

We'll all miss you Dave. It's hot in Vegas in July but I'd rather be there than Minnesota.

 

[Fast Lenny]

Again, there will be no handicaps at nationals. With the large numbers nationals enjoys the benefit of being able to build fairly large divisions of similar-speed players.

To be fair here, some of the regional tournaments, like Texas BCAPL, have had Open & Advanced players together in the past and I believe had some handicapping going within the division. So having divisions AND handicaps is not new. I've also seen it in Arizona and in Wisconsin. Western BCA I believe has had sufficient numbers to be able to not not handicap within divisions. It is a question of having more smaller divisions or handicapping within a broader division. There are arguments either way, and the best way to do it is a legitimate open discussion.

The Fargo rating wasn't used at Western BCA but I know there are talks about it. In the beginning I was not so sure about it but the more I have been exposed to it, the more that I feel its the future. I believe this could get men and women playing together in events also because if there is a 600-650 or something division or however the levels are there is no reason to separate them.

You would have a true winner of say the 600-650 division and it very well could be a women. The Fargo system and men along with women competing in the same events would bring pool into the future I believe. I look forward to what is coming down the road and hope that events steer towards the men and women playing one another.