WPBA changes

I agree almost whole-heartedly with what Superstar said. I preface my opinions with the fact that they are my own and not my tour's.

The timing of this is a slap in the face to the women who worked all year long to come to their regional tour stops and play their best in the hopes that they would get an invite to the RTC. I, for one, find the fact that the WPBA makes a press release TODAY that retroactively affects many of the girl's decisions over the past year atrocious. Borana is right in saying that the least they could do is have it start next year.

Secondly, while there may be quite a few regional tours across the country...they are nowhere near the same size. This is where the RTC had it right. Last year, the OB tour sent 11 girls while some sent 2. This was to be fair to the fact that we had well over 100 members, whereas some had close to 30 (numbers are approx.). In no way disrespecting to other tours top women (as they surely may be just as capable to do it against any tour), but how can you claim each is the same? However, the RTC is in no way perfect...we had four days to perform to determine our entire next year's status. Oh, you were sick? Too bad, always next year...oh wait...not really...

I will say, bringing back the qualifiers was a step in the right direction... Even this though, puts a bitter taste in my mouth. In this past year, I tried to raise a question about this very decision to someone on the WPBA board. I was met with a look of disdain and unwillingness to even look me in the eye when two seconds earlier, a friend of mine (longtime WPBA player) brought up points to them which were reciprocated with a friendly discussion.

How many times was it brought up that there weren't very many stops with people surmising it was money related? To which I ask...Why turn away 16 players a tournament who are handing you $500 entry, most of which are just happy to play regardless of return on investment? You can call the fields "diluted" or "watered down" all you want but we are the ones putting our money into the top players pockets. I'm sorry, but I'm of the opinion you need us a lot more than we need you. Many regional tour players haven't had the chance to make a living off of pool, so we have other professions. These decisions seem to step on us and squish any hope we had. Every year you make it harder and harder.

I respect that these decisions were somehow trying to do what's best for the tour...which is why I will respectfully disagree with them.

TLDR: I disagree :)

(It's late, I'm ranting...and Trigger wonders why I don't blog...)
 
I think that changes are probably overall in the best interest in the WPBA. But to change their qualifying criteria at the end of the regional tour season is really unfair. If I had paid WPBA dues through my regional tour, with the expectation that I could have an opportunity to play and possibly qualify through the RTC, I would be writing requesting a refund. Such a bait and switch, even if not ill-intentioned, is unprofessional.

All I can say is that the WPBA must have felt they needed to take drastic action to improve things, and that they couldn't wait. (Despite the small number of events, player attendance has not been good). I'm sure it wasn't an easy decision because they clearly knew this would alienate a lot of women who had faith in the WPBA (and invested time and money in qualifying through the RTC).
 
wow , I thought it was bad enough, but now that I realize what happen with the qualifying it makes me sick.
Ashley has a great point about level of play in each tour and there size.
How can you give one spot to a tour with 30 girls and 1 to a tour with 100 girls, at least so it based on size of the tour.
And waiting until next year would be the only fait thing to do.
This is why pool is were it is, you get peoples hopes up and them pull the rug and wonder why they stop trying.
What is the WPBA gona do when there core group of top ladies isn't there any more and they pissed off all the up coming ladies and have no one to fill in.
Gona be right were the men our, NO TOUR.

Of course the come out with statements from the top players trying to justify why all this is a good idea. Well those top players are not affected and have been trying to make this happen for years, politics SUCKS

It's not a hard fix, have a RTC this year as promised and change it next year before the regional tours start, that way everyone knows what to expect.

Also get rid of those that made the decision to do this after all of the invites for Niagra were excepted, I am sure if some of the ladies know they might drop low enough to not have a spot next year they would have made a way to get there. At least give them the information to make a informed decision.

P.S SUPERSTAR, well said sir, as hard as it is for me to say this, YOU ARE RIGHT on this one, ONLY THIS ONE, bit right none the less
 
one more thing, LORD please let me win the lotto so i can buy the tour or just start my own.
 
I would like to hear from the board on why not having the RTC this year couldn't wait. This part reeks of backroom politics. Johnnyt
 
WOW Superstar...I expected so much worse. You actually showed a lot of restraint in this response. Unbelievable.

SUPERSTAR said:
Hmmmmmm. Where to begin.

When it comes to the girls at the regional level who bought into the apparent bull-poo that the WPBA outlined for them who have since been screwed over, the WPBA definitely went FULL RETARD! WOW! I will never understand it. Talk about ignorant.
WHAT A JOKE!!!

Now, about the other stuff.

I feel that true double elimination is a good thing.
When they started that redraw crap, so they could have a varied assortment of winners, it effectively stopped Allison's dominance.
I wonder how many times since it was implemented, that a player with no losses, lost to someone with a loss.
It was a stupid gimmick, glad they did away with it.

With the field being dropped to 48, i would assume that the top 16 will be getting byes again, and that the WPBA will not have to go down the list of regional tour rankings, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, etc etc till they FINALLY get someone willing to show up just so the chart is filled.
It's probably better for their overall product.

As for the qualification process.
I kind of think that the top regional tour player is an ok idea. Couple of things though. Not every tour is of the same strength, so a #1 ranked player on this tour, might be a TOMATO CAN that blows at pool on a different tour.

In that sense, the RTC was a good idea because it strived to eliminate the filler that might show up and they could duke it out and let the cream rise to the top.
BUUTTT, the problem with that is that the RTC is a one time deal.
It doesn't allow for the bum match or luck, and basically is asking for everyone to show up and give it their best shot, when that isn't what the final rankings of the regional tours represent.
The final rankings of regional tours represents a much longer period of time, where someone could have a crappy tournament, and still manage to keep their rank overall. When you put everyones chips into one tournament, if someone has a bad tournament, or fate is decidedly against them with the rolls, there is no way to recover. Game over.

Ideally, if one wanted to do an RTC, it should be a season of tournaments, with just the top ranked girls from each tour participating, to see what pecking order is established, but that is just completely unrealistic in todays world.

I will also say that i think it's a good thing that they went back to individual spots for specific events.
Gives the girl who might want to qualify for a tournament she knows she can make or wants to play in, a chance to win her entry without the hassle of having to play all year long to maintain a rank.

Only problem at the regional level is if the regional tour allows pros.
With the individual spots, and with the overall ranking, the principle is the same.

It has been discussed several times over the years, but if you are allowing pros to slaughter the non pros in regional tours, you aren't really allowing for those girls to determine their individual ranking/pecking order.
Their ranking, and those individual spots that would be earned, are determined more so by the luck of the draw, then someone's ability.

I'm sure that someone will argue that tours like that toughen the girls up, which is TRUE, but that has no bearing on the outcome, when some great player, gets knocked to the one loss side in the first round by a world champ, EVERY TOURNAMENT.

Think i covered it all.

My condolences to the regional tour players that got pooped on by the WPBA.
They definitely need an explanation that isn't a total load of garbage.
If i were the WPBA at the very least, they could hold a RTC and invite everyone they were originally going to, and only give away the number of spots as there are regional tours. (which would be the same number as if they took each #1)
That way, they are at least giving them a shot at it, and not just stepping on them like someone putting out a cigarette.
Click to expand...
 
Melissa Herndon said:
WOW Superstar...I expected so much worse. You actually showed a lot of restraint in this response. Unbelievable.
Click to expand...

Don't think for a second that i am going all wishy washy.
Just i am waiting for potential explanations before i invest myself any further.
Whether or not those explanations come or not remains to be seen.

I am sure that if i were a female who spent loads of money pursuing a lie that i would be more emotionally involved.
I certainly feel for them and think they have every right to be furious.
As it is now, i have talked to several females i know, and some of their responses are BLISTERING!

Hopefully, some of them might give me permission to reproduce them for all to see, while protecting their identity.
It would definitely raise some eyebrows.
 
[DISCLAIMER: These are my own thoughts and do not reflect the thoughts of my regional tour!]

When I saw this stuff being posted on Facebook yesterday, I immediately went to the WPBA website to read their press release. However, it wasn't anywhere to be found. Luckily, it was posted on AZB who is the only other website I would trust when reading this type of information. I would have expected for a press release this big, to be posted on the wpba website.

It's a shame there won't be an RTC this year, and unforunately I'm only basing that on what I've read here in the forum. The actual press release does NOT say there will NOT be an RTC for this season, just that there would not be any spots given out like last year's RTC. When I first read it, I interpreted it to mean the RTC would still happen, but be like previous years with only the winner winning a spot. Why can't that still happen?

Our tour had NINE stops this year. NINE! I had to travel to eight of them this year as one was in my hometown. Granted my year end ranking stunk and probably didn't qualify for the RTC this year, but I went to EVERY.SINGLE.STOP because I wanted to qualify for the RTC. Imagine the money and time I could have saved!

I look forward to the RTC every year because it allows me an opportunity to play different women for a change. Also allows me the opportunity to gauge myself against top amatuer players. I ended the OB Tour season this past weekend telling myself that I'll work harder on my game next year to make sure I get a high enough ranking for the RTC. Now, looks like I don't have to. Yay... free time for other things! ;)

I can understand WHY the WPBA needed to make these changes. But taking the RTC away from us this late in the year was just WRONG. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

It's great the regional tours get qualifiers back, but the WPBA better not give out qualifiers until they actually have CONFIRMED stops listed on their website. Don't make any players travel to a qualifier for a hypothetical and wishful thinking stop.

-Shayla Neris
OB Cues Ladies Tour
 
Does anyone have any info yet on how this affects everything else? Will they still give exemptions to top 32? How many regional tours are there that will send their points list champions?
 
On the WPBA web site they have 54 players exempt for 2010. Where are the points that each of these players have now or at least had in the begining of the year?

I thought the players had to vote on changes?

I'm :embarrassed2: to be a bronze member of the wpba.
Johnnyt
 
Field size is being cut from 64 to 48
Top 32 after the Niagra Falls event will be exempt for 2011
 
poolsnark said:
Field size is being cut from 64 to 48
Top 32 after the Niagra Falls event will be exempt for 2011
Click to expand...

Taking June Maiers' example from earlier on how she dropped in rank from 2nd to 3rd because of not going to the one event, while thinking her "spot" in the RTC was secure.

I wonder who passed on the Niagara Falls event, who basically would have been exempt for 2011 had they shown up, who now won't be.

Be interesting to see who is affected or if anyone says anything, especially if they had no idea this was going to happen.
 
They have had problems the last few years filling the full field of 64 players. Players way down the rankings on their regional tour got invites. Two reasons for this. The economy and most players smarted up and figured out they had almost zero chance to break even unless they were a standout on their tour. A lot of people say that the only way for the women on the regionals to get better is to shell out $2000 to go and play on the WPBA tour. Not so. Any of them can go down to their local poolroom and play guys that are better than them for a hell of a lot more than putting out $2000 five or more times a year. Then again, for some it's a social thing going to the big tour. Johnnyt
 
i just want to see the live stream at the players meeting in Niagra, i would actually pay someone to sneak in a camera
 
One more thing they should change while going to 48 players is a 45 sec shot clock with one extention a game and finish in 2 days...not 4 or 5. Johnnyt
 
The WPBA making assenine decisions.... SURPRISE SURPRISE!

The changing of the format back to double elimination is one I completely support. The shafting of lower tiered players however is completely unacceptable & just further proof that this ship is going down, down, & down some more.

Seriously if I ever came across funds to just buy it out, I would & get some competence back into the decision making process.
 
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