WPBL (Bonus Ball) new wesbite

nathandumoulin

nathandumoulin

WPBL / RUNOUT MEDIA
Silver Member
WPBL (Bonus Ball) new website

The new WPBL (Bonus Ball) website is now up. For anyone who was looking for more information, there are a series of articles that elaborate on the concept, season format, rosters, and start dates.

Be sure to check it out:

www.wpbl.tv/

Also consider 'liking' the Facebook group, as that's probably the quickest way to get updates and previews of the new WPBL studio (the construction is almost complete and pics will be posted soon - floor plan below).

https://www.facebook.com/wpbltv

headlines_001_full.jpg
 
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One cool thing that's not documented in the floor plan, is that the control room and commentators booth both have glass walls and are raised up looking down on the arena. I'm pretty excited to run the production from there.

There's over 40 studio lights mounted up in the truss, 8 cameras, and 26 monitors. The arena also has three 63" TVs mounted on the light rig (above the table), and 42" TVs on all four 24' lengths of truss over the audience.

Did we go overboard? Probably. But it's going to be a pool players wonderland in there.
 
nathandumoulin said:
The new WPBL (Bonus Ball) website is now up. For anyone who was looking for more information, there are a series of articles that elaborate on the concept, season format, rosters, and start dates.

Be sure to check it out:

www.wpbl.tv/

Also consider 'liking' the Facebook group, as that's probably the quickest way to get updates and previews of the new WPBL studio (the construction is almost complete and pics will be posted soon - floor plan below).

https://www.facebook.com/wpbltv

headlines_001_full.jpg
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Nice..........I thought there would be living quarters :)
 
Majic said:
Nice..........I thought there would be living quarters :)
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It's funny you say that. I actually requested a lounge and resting area for the players and crew in the original draft of the building, but Larry denied it. Can't say I blame him. lol

He made amends and got us a gourmet pizza oven, hot dog grill, popcorn machine, and nachos maker. Now I'll just end up fat, rather than lazy.
 
Nathan,

That is a good looking venue.
Hope things go as scheduled.


Mark Griffin
 
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Thanks Mark! Nathan and I are working around the clock to make this happen. Sleep is not important until Dec. 2nd. We are doing everything possible to help Larry launch this league. After that, the billiard world will decide if they want something structured, organized and professionally based! I know the players certainly want it!
 
FWIW I watched a match of Bonus Ball last night for the first time on the website and I have to say I rather enjoyed it. Good mix of strategy and shotmaking at a quick pace. Looking forward to seeing more.
 
StraightPoolIU said:
FWIW I watched a match of Bonus Ball last night for the first time on the website and I have to say I rather enjoyed it. Good mix of strategy and shotmaking at a quick pace. Looking forward to seeing more.
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I completely agree. Seen from a skill perspective this game requires knowledge of all games to play it at a high level. Over time this will become more apparent when the players are playing for meaningful stakes and tightening up as they play.

From what I see the players are going to need a lot of banks, caroms and kick shots in addition to power shots to run through racks in this game.

This is not a gimmick game by any means and might be the hardest game invented since one pocket.
 
What a great website. It is easy to navigate, and it is inviting to explore and find out more. I love the color scheme. It's very sporty! Well done!:)
 
I think that the defensive shot rule needs to be changed. It's highly unfair. The reason is because it's almost always an automatic two-way shot but with one really nasty difference.

The shooter can shoot a hanging ball INTO the opponent's pocket and still keep shooting. And the ball made spots immediately.

So the situation happens often that the shooter can play shape for the spotted ball into his pocket or play shape for another ball going towards his pocket while simultaneously clearing the opponent's pocket and he gets to keep shooting. Either I fail to to see the rationale for this rule or it's incredibly and overly advantageous for the shooter.

Furthermore while you can only do this on a combination or carom shot you cannot directly pocket a ball in your opponent's pocket as a defensive shot. Doing it is a ball in hand foul.

So this sets up situations where balls lay in the pockets and make it almost impossible to remove the balls except with combinations which then offer the shooter too much of an advantage.

There is a ton of skill required in this game but there is also a LOT of luck and lucky rolls here too with the way it's set up now. My recommendation would be to allow an outside committee to examine the rules and suggest some tweaks to balance out the relative fairness for the shooter/incoming player so that there aren't situations where it's way out of line.
 
hope all goes well in your "Grand Opening Event"

Fast Lenny said:
The venue layout is great, pool has never seen anything like this. :smile:
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This is structured very well. Easy to navigate (the website) and builds anticipation to know more about the game and it's players.

Nice Job, I hope all goes well in your "Grand Opening Event". :thumbup:
 
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JB Cases said:
I think that the defensive shot rule needs to be changed. It's highly unfair.
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The 'defensive' shot has been renamed more appropriately to 're-spot' shot.

I'm rather confused by your stance on this though. After testing, we feel the rule achieves the exact opposite of your sentiments. The rule negates the luck of the break (if all balls go over one players pockets if allows them to clear them out), speeds up the game, and drastically increases the level of strategy.

After all, playing a combo is often difficult enough, but in Bonus Ball you have to control to the cue ball AND the first ball in the combo, so that it also goes over your pocket. It is an incredibly skillful shot.

Rules can be changed and modified as needed. Time may show that you're correct, but thus far we really like the re-spot shot as is.
 
nathandumoulin said:
The 'defensive' shot has been renamed more appropriately to 're-spot' shot.

I'm rather confused by your stance on this though. After testing, we feel the rule achieves the exact opposite of your sentiments. The rule negates the luck of the break (if all balls go over one players pockets if allows them to clear them out), speeds up the game, and drastically increases the level of strategy.

After all, playing a combo is often difficult enough, but in Bonus Ball you have to control to the cue ball AND the first ball in the combo, so that it also goes over your pocket. It is an incredibly skillful shot.

Rules can be changed and modified as needed. Time may show that you're correct, but thus far we really like the re-spot shot as is.
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Then allow the player at the table to make the ball in the opponent's pocket and the turn stops.

As it is the way it's done now is that the shooter can attempt to make the ball and play safe at the same time. IF they miss then the incoming player is safe. IF they make it then the shooter not only gets the reward of having cleared the pocket but he continues shooting. That's too weighted towards the shooter with zero opportunity for the incoming player. The incoming player is looking at either a safe or watching balls in his pocket cleared and the shooter continuing to shoot.

Well, time will tell and I am sure other folks will pipe up with what they see. In any event you guys are going to do what you are going to do and at this point I wouldn't expect you to change anything based on what the viewers say.

Otherwise, as I said, I like it. Definitely a skill game through and through.
 
This is going to be great! Professionaly made website indeed. Now we must wait and see the photos of the newly made venue.
 
JB Cases said:
Then allow the player at the table to make the ball in the opponent's pocket and the turn stops.

As it is the way it's done now is that the shooter can attempt to make the ball and play safe at the same time. IF they miss then the incoming player is safe. IF they make it then the shooter not only gets the reward of having cleared the pocket but he continues shooting. That's too weighted towards the shooter with zero opportunity for the incoming player. The incoming player is looking at either a safe or watching balls in his pocket cleared and the shooter continuing to shoot.

Well, time will tell and I am sure other folks will pipe up with what they see. In any event you guys are going to do what you are going to do and at this point I wouldn't expect you to change anything based on what the viewers say.

Otherwise, as I said, I like it. Definitely a skill game through and through.
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Actually, we're quite curious to what the viewers have to say. There's been some disagreements amongst ourselves on several issues, and have had to settle on picking solutions that not everyone is comfortable with. Time will tell which was the better option, as will the viewer response.

In regards to the re-set shot, Bonus Ball is geared towards aggressiveness, and you get rewarded for offense (literally, as you score 2 points toward your teams conference standings if you get to 30 points in regulation time, while only 1 point if you accomplish the same task in overtime). This bigger pay off enables players to play lower percentage shots when they otherwise would not.

Creativity is also a big part of Bonus Ball, and 2-way shots are what help promote that. We feel that other games (10-ball specifically) have ruined the creativity in today's game by adding rules that are intended to negate luck. Bonus Ball doesn't have nearly as much luck involved, so we're able to reinstate older rules that are advantageous to players who have clever shot selection.

It's a different mind set, almost the complete opposite of what's been going on in 10-ball. We're not interested in robots playing pool. We're interesting in watching players like Scott Frost play aggressive creative shots.

We could be wrong, but we're willing to take the game in the opposite direction and see what happens.
 
JB Cases said:
I think that the defensive shot rule needs to be changed. It's highly unfair. The reason is because it's almost always an automatic two-way shot but with one really nasty difference.

The shooter can shoot a hanging ball INTO the opponent's pocket and still keep shooting. And the ball made spots immediately.

So the situation happens often that the shooter can play shape for the spotted ball into his pocket or play shape for another ball going towards his pocket while simultaneously clearing the opponent's pocket and he gets to keep shooting. Either I fail to to see the rationale for this rule or it's incredibly and overly advantageous for the shooter.

Furthermore while you can only do this on a combination or carom shot you cannot directly pocket a ball in your opponent's pocket as a defensive shot. Doing it is a ball in hand foul.

So this sets up situations where balls lay in the pockets and make it almost impossible to remove the balls except with combinations which then offer the shooter too much of an advantage.

There is a ton of skill required in this game but there is also a LOT of luck and lucky rolls here too with the way it's set up now. My recommendation would be to allow an outside committee to examine the rules and suggest some tweaks to balance out the relative fairness for the shooter/incoming player so that there aren't situations where it's way out of line.
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The defensive shot is a very important part of Bonus Ball as it gives players options to move balls that lie over opponents pockets. I have never seen anyone ever put balls over opponents pockets. I have witnessed probably 10,000 games. It was added to the game by an outside committee, the professional players themselves. I certainly agree with them and after seeing no problems with this shot, I see no reason to re-address this shot. It's the very same shot as found in Nine Ball when you pocket the 6 ball with say, the 4 ball. You get to continue your visit.

This game was developed over the past 4 years and by the finest minds in billiards. To watch one or two videos on demand and think that there is something wrong with the rules, is a bit premature. After one season of watching the professional players in action, we will sit down and continue to fine tune this game. For now, the defensive shot will continue to be part of the game. It is a very important addition to a three pocket game. I know this because I have seen this game played with and without it! It is by far a better option to have it than not. Thanks for your observations though and I appreciate all opinions. That is how we got the game this far.

As far as a lot of luck to this game, just try and play this game and rely on luck to win! That simply does not happen. The best shooter will win every match. Like other pool games, every once in a while someone will win from the break but don't hold your breath.
 
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Wow its just like Larry said it would be, they fired well over a million at this, before a ball has been hit. the exhibition matches dont count. the only thing that pisses me off is, i lived a mile from there last year for years and now i'm 1/2 hours away.:mad::mad:


I'm sure once people watch the game enough and see the 2 way shots and proper position play etc. and "get it" it should catch on as a game. i'm beyond board with rotation pool, thats why i started playing 1P.
 
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