Why the qualifiers based on this statement?

macguy

macguy

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Was this just added or did I miss it the last time I read the Q&A section? I noticed that section changes from time to time.
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QUESTION:
What if a player selected loses so badly in the first tournament that they choose not to play in any other tournaments for the rest of the year?

Answer:
This is a great safety net for our tour. The 150 players who are selected do not have to play in every event. Some, for various reasons, may choose not to play in an event leaving an opening. When there is an opening, just like in the PGA tour for golf, there can be sponsors exemptions. This means that if there is an opening in a tournament because a player quit the tour or can not make that particular tournament, the sponsor, in this case NaturalCures.com, and in this instance me personally, has the right to take any player who is not a member of the IPT and invite them to play in the tournament. Who will I select? I will look through the thousands of applications that have come in of players who were not selected to be members in the IPT tour for the season and, based on whatever factors justify a selection, will pick and invite players to play in those tournaments.
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It sounds like they have it covered, so why the qualifiers, pick the replacements and get started?
 
Good question

macguy said:
Was this just added or did I miss it the last time I read the Q&A section? I noticed that section changes from time to time.
----------------

QUESTION:
What if a player selected loses so badly in the first tournament that they choose not to play in any other tournaments for the rest of the year?

Answer:
This is a great safety net for our tour. The 150 players who are selected do not have to play in every event. Some, for various reasons, may choose not to play in an event leaving an opening. When there is an opening, just like in the PGA tour for golf, there can be sponsors exemptions. This means that if there is an opening in a tournament because a player quit the tour or can not make that particular tournament, the sponsor, in this case NaturalCures.com, and in this instance me personally, has the right to take any player who is not a member of the IPT and invite them to play in the tournament. Who will I select? I will look through the thousands of applications that have come in of players who were not selected to be members in the IPT tour for the season and, based on whatever factors justify a selection, will pick and invite players to play in those tournaments.
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It sounds like they have it covered, so why the qualifiers, pick the replacements and get started?
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If that is the case it sort of makes these expensive qualifying tournaments an afterthought since he supposedly has the right to just pick 8. In golf however the no shows are replaced by Monday qualifiersl. Sponsors exemptions are picked well in advance.
I am not sure if that was always there.
 
That has been in the Q & A section since it came out with the long version. This paragraph pertains to an occasional absence from a tournament. The sponsor's choice would only be for that tournament. If there was an absence at the next tourney, they would also fill that, probably with a different player, and so on.

The current Q's are for the whole tour.
 
rackmsuckr said:
That has been in the Q & A section since it came out with the long version. This paragraph pertains to an occasional absence from a tournament. The sponsor's choice would only be for that tournament. If there was an absence at the next tourney, they would also fill that, probably with a different player, and so on.

The current Q's are for the whole tour.
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I know you may not know the answer but in the event of a player dropping out will the selected player then take their spot for good? Also do the potential selected players know they are at the top of the list and may actually get to play? That's a hell of a thing to get a second shot even if you only the get to play the one tournament there are players he may select that could win. I do see players dropping out though for one reason or another and they need a way to handle it on the spot without any confusion. They can't be running qualifiers all the time, it's going to enough to do what they have on their plate now.
 
macguy said:
I know you may not know the answer but in the event of a player dropping out will the selected player then take their spot for good? Also do the potential selected players know they are at the top of the list and may actually get to play? That's a hell of a thing to get a second shot even if you only the get to play the one tournament there are players he may select that could win. I do see players dropping out though for one reason or another and they need a way to handle it on the spot without any confusion. They can't be running qualifiers all the time, it's going to enough to do what they have on their plate now.
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I can't tell you what the answers are, but I surmise that if a player dropped out and the sponsor's chosen player replaced them AND they did well, there is an outside chance they could remain for the rest of the year. I don't know if the potential players know if they are on a list or not. I would imagine Alex is somewhere at the top of that list right now, but even he does not have to win a qualifier, so that means he or someone like him would be eligible as a KT pick for future tourneys.

I guessed (wrongly) that the players who showed up at the KOH tournament in the audience could have replaced some of the missing players. We are talking Vivian and CJ, etc.
 
There are only a few people that have the real answers, leaving the rest of us to speculate. :(

Yes, it seems the original plan has changed somewhat. I have heard many guess on why this could be. However, there's one angle that I haven't seen anyone take yet.

This IS going to be a reality TV show. Where's the drama in KT just picking eight players? This way they can film Joe/Jane Somebody from Nebraska taking a shot at their dream of being a professional pool player. They follow him/her through the first tournament and their highs and lows. Maybe they even show them hocking all their stuff to come up with the $2000 qualifier fee. Drama is what sells these reality TV shows.

I admit...I have absolutely no new or exclusive knowledge but this solution seems as reasonable as any. The mantra they kept reciting is that this is a made for TV event. The IPT will live or die on its marketibility...period. If that means delaying tournaments, changing the sequence of events or what ever else then I believe that is what they are going to do.
 
Thats a theory

poolboy17 said:
There are only a few people that have the real answers, leaving the rest of us to speculate. :(

Yes, it seems the original plan has changed somewhat. I have heard many guess on why this could be. However, there's one angle that I haven't seen anyone take yet.

This IS going to be a reality TV show. Where's the drama in KT just picking eight players? This way they can film Joe/Jane Somebody from Nebraska taking a shot at their dream of being a professional pool player. They follow him/her through the first tournament and their highs and lows. Maybe they even show them hocking all their stuff to come up with the $2000 qualifier fee. Drama is what sells these reality TV shows.

I admit...I have absolutely no new or exclusive knowledge but this solution seems as reasonable as any. The mantra they kept reciting is that this is a made for TV event. The IPT will live or die on its marketibility...period. If that means delaying tournaments, changing the sequence of events or what ever else then I believe that is what they are going to do.
Click to expand...

However if what you say were true wouldn't you think they would advertise they were going to be spending tons of more money to film all the qualifiers?
I am sure they might get more people to sign up if they knew that. I have not seen anywhere that the qualifiers were going to be taped.
 
poolboy17 said:
There are only a few people that have the real answers, leaving the rest of us to speculate. :(

Yes, it seems the original plan has changed somewhat. I have heard many guess on why this could be. However, there's one angle that I haven't seen anyone take yet.

This IS going to be a reality TV show. Where's the drama in KT just picking eight players? This way they can film Joe/Jane Somebody from Nebraska taking a shot at their dream of being a professional pool player. They follow him/her through the first tournament and their highs and lows. Maybe they even show them hocking all their stuff to come up with the $2000 qualifier fee. Drama is what sells these reality TV shows.

I admit...I have absolutely no new or exclusive knowledge but this solution seems as reasonable as any. The mantra they kept reciting is that this is a made for TV event. The IPT will live or die on its marketibility...period. If that means delaying tournaments, changing the sequence of events or what ever else then I believe that is what they are going to do.
Click to expand...


Here is the problem with that, we are talking about round robin pool with some of the best players in the world. Weak players "DON'T" win, in fact they get murdered. It is not like golf or skating where you perform and get credit for what ever your performance happens to be. Pool is more like boxing or tennis, you have to play against another player not a course or yourself so to speak. Watching a hopeful getting pounded by a top player doesn't make for great TV and that "IS" what is going to happen throughout these tournaments with this current mix of players. You saw what happened to LJ against what could be called an over-the-hill MS, except for the hype, not very entertaining. in fact I found myself feeling a little embarrassed for her, it was almost uncomfortable to watch. Until maybe the second or third year, if there is one, and the players get thinned out leaving the really good players, many of these matches will be pretty much un-watchable and have no value. This is the real reality of the way they have it set up and maybe their biggest mistake. They need all top players only not a bunch of amateur hopefuls mixed in with killers. I am sorry to be so blunt but that's a fact. If it were an open tournament then so be it, but they selected these players and it is to say the least, bizarre. I think after only one tournament you will see I am right and their original idea of this kind of mix is a bad idea. Especially if they want to have a product to sell to TV if that is their plan.
 
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nfty9er said:
However if what you say were true wouldn't you think they would advertise they were going to be spending tons of more money to film all the qualifiers?
I am sure they might get more people to sign up if they knew that. I have not seen anywhere that the qualifiers were going to be taped.
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Would knowing that cause more people to sign up? Maybe. I suppose there are people that would cough up $2000 just on the off chance they could be shown on TV. I guess I don't really have an answer to your question other than that I would find it unlikely to cause enough additional players to show up to justify spending money on advertising.

For anyone that was at the KOH event and player meeting...I think it was obvious that they are going to have to get used to cameras eveywhere...almost all the time. For every minute of air time...you must record hours and hours of footage. Now, they most certainly are not going to have the level of camera coverage they did in Orlando. However, I think it's almost certain they will have at least some cameras at these qualifiers.
 
macguy said:
Here is the problem with that, we are talking about round robin pool with some of the best players in the world. Weak players "DON'T" win, in fact they get murdered. It is not like golf or skating where you perform and get credit for what ever your performance happens to be. Pool is more like boxing or tennis, you have to play against another player not a course or yourself so to speak. Watching a hopeful getting pounded by a top player doesn't make for great TV and that "IS" what is going to happen throughout these tournaments with this current mix of players. You saw what happened to LJ against what could be called an over-the-hill MS, except for the hype, not very entertaining. in fact I found myself feeling a little embarrassed for her, it was almost uncomfortable to watch. Until maybe the second or third year, if there is one, and the players get thinned out leaving the really good players, many of these matches will be pretty much un-watchable and have no value. This is the real reality of the way they have it set up and maybe their biggest mistake. They need all top players only not a bunch of amateur hopefuls mixed in with killers. I am sorry to be so blunt but that's a fact. If it were an open tournament then so be it, but they selected these players and it is to say the least, bizarre. I think after only one tournament you will see I am right and their original idea of this kind of mix is a bad idea. Especially if they want to have a product to sell to TV if that is their plan.
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You certainly raise some valid issues. However, wouldn't a no name player who gets a shot at the brass ring and ends up getting demoralized be dramatic? Now, you couldn't sell a video tape of that match but it could make for three minutes of compelling TV footage. It would have the perfect reality tv show formula...hope, despair, embarrassment and possibly even improbable victories.

One thing I know for sure that they said they were going to do is have little drop in segments like they do on poker. Kind of a get to know the people beihnd the scenes. I think these qualifiers could just be a logical extension of that. They want to build characters. Characters are marketable.

As far as LJ...I'm not saying the outcome of the match would have been different...who's to know. I think she would agree that she was not playing the way she would have liked to be. You're right, in a format like this...there are going to be matches that will not make for good video sales. However, like I said previously...parts of them may make for great TV.
 
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