sack316
06-19-2006, 02:04 PM
This may get long and unorganized, so I ask your forgiveness in advance for that!
Well we just wrapped up the APA 9-Ball city tournament yesterday, and honestly I feel my team may have suffered a huge injustice. It's been a grueling 3 full days of playing, but I'll explain it all as best I can. A few things have rubbed me the wrong way, and I would like to get some outside opinions about it from you guys and gals.
First off, as I said this is a City tournament (Montgomery, AL), with all the top 9-ball teams from the last year playing for Vegas. The first "problem", which isn't huge, would be that teams from Auburn were included in it. Were this a "District" or "Regional" team tournament then fine, but it is in fact a city tournament. I'm not sure how big the leagues are in Auburn (which is operated by the same LO's as here), but apparently it's not big enough to afford their own tournament to earn a place for nationals. But at any rate, their greens fees and such are not contributed to anything here at all, and have no relation to us in any way. When my team won the Money Cup a little while back, none of the money for that tournament was contributed from Auburn's fees either. Yet somehow they can play in our City Tournament? Again, the fact of them being there in the first place isn't a HUGE deal, but a minor annoyance yes--in my humble opinion.
OK, now Auburn is a bit of a drive, but not more than ten minutes longer than coming from Prattville-- which is where myself and many many others in the league drive from on any given league night to play. Well, when they drew the brackets up, they decided to give all the Auburn teams a bye through the first round (which was played Friday night) due to the travel. Now is it just me, or is it only fair that if they are going to play in the same tournament that they should be subject to the same random draw everyone else playing has, rather than getting some special treatment?
Alright, now it gets more complicated. Late Saturday a friend from another team comes and tells me that they got screwed. Apparently they had one player get bumped up two spots and another bumped up one rank. The LO's told their team they were flagged and would be watched. If they won a match they would have to forfeit because of the SL changes. Well that actually sounds fair to me, since it keeps out teams full of sandbaggers. Remember part that for later...
Alright, so my team chugs along through some tight a great matches to make it to the final day. Sunday we are down to two matches away from finally making Vegas. We pull our morning match out by the skin of out teeth and find that we will be playing one of the Auburn teams in the finals. So of course we've got every Montgomery player coming to tell us about that team, and here's what I found out:
First after their bye Friday, they decided not to show up to their second round match Saturday morning. This was a modified single elimination tourney, so you could lose in the first two rounds not not anytime afterwards. I learned that they forfeited their match because their ranks were very close to going up. Well this didn't seem right to me either. On top of that it turns out that even though they had only played 3 or 4 matches to get to the finals, they had a 3 jump up two spots to a 5, and another three move up one rank to a 4 (hmm... sounding familiar). So while we were playing them I called the captain from my friends team that was in the same situation just to make sure the scenario was the same. After hearing his story it was indeed the exact same thing. So I asked the LO what the difference between this team playing for the championship was from the team they told would forfeit. I never really felt I got a straight answer that would justify them being eligible. Things like "the 5 was only a tenth of a point from being a 4 when he was a 3, so it's really like he only moved up one rank." Well sure, but at any rate he moved up two spots. On top of that some of their players were obviously underranked. I'm not a sore loser saying that, I've played these a lot and have seen people underranked before and you just deal with it. But this was to a rediculous extent. They had a 4 that was up there friday night gambling on the big tables with some of Montgomery's yop players. Another 4 on their team I chatted with said he spots this other guy the 7 and the 8 when they gamble! I'm a pretty good 6, and I don't spot the 7 and the 8 to anyone, forget the fact of a SL4 giving that much weight. Even reguardless of that, you see that every tournament. The main problem was that one team was told they'd forfeit because of their SL increase, but this other team had the same jump (or the way I see it, the underranked players were actually being found by the system) and were allowed to play on without even being watched.
Well, obviously they waxed us. I pulled out the only win of the match, and they still finished us off in only four matches. They were a fun team and I liked all their players, actually. But we've played in these so many times and have lost with no quarrels. When we're beat we know we're beat, and have never complained in the past even when something didn't seem right. But this time there are so many little things that went along with it that I just can't accept it. I know there's even a few things I'm forgetting to mention right now, but I think I got most of the stuff covered.
So what do y'all think? Was my team (and in turn obviously many other teams) jipped this weekend? Or are we just blinded by the fact of losing and possibly overreacting to the whole thing?
We plan on setting up a meeting with the LO's tomorrow before our league match to discuss it all a little more when there are less emotions involved. We did stay cool after the loss, in fact the team that beat us said we had the best sportsmanship they've ever seen! But the more it sets the more frustrated me and my teammated are getting. So I'd love to get some outside thoughts from ya'll on here and see what you think about the situation, and also what the proper course of action may be. I'm thinking of emailing the national office, but I think I'll wait until after talking to the LO's again. But after that I don't know what to do (if anything).
Y'alls thoughts are appreciated, and sorry for such a long and probably sloppy post! Hope everyone is doing well and look forward to seeing you guys at the CCB tourney!
Sack
Well we just wrapped up the APA 9-Ball city tournament yesterday, and honestly I feel my team may have suffered a huge injustice. It's been a grueling 3 full days of playing, but I'll explain it all as best I can. A few things have rubbed me the wrong way, and I would like to get some outside opinions about it from you guys and gals.
First off, as I said this is a City tournament (Montgomery, AL), with all the top 9-ball teams from the last year playing for Vegas. The first "problem", which isn't huge, would be that teams from Auburn were included in it. Were this a "District" or "Regional" team tournament then fine, but it is in fact a city tournament. I'm not sure how big the leagues are in Auburn (which is operated by the same LO's as here), but apparently it's not big enough to afford their own tournament to earn a place for nationals. But at any rate, their greens fees and such are not contributed to anything here at all, and have no relation to us in any way. When my team won the Money Cup a little while back, none of the money for that tournament was contributed from Auburn's fees either. Yet somehow they can play in our City Tournament? Again, the fact of them being there in the first place isn't a HUGE deal, but a minor annoyance yes--in my humble opinion.
OK, now Auburn is a bit of a drive, but not more than ten minutes longer than coming from Prattville-- which is where myself and many many others in the league drive from on any given league night to play. Well, when they drew the brackets up, they decided to give all the Auburn teams a bye through the first round (which was played Friday night) due to the travel. Now is it just me, or is it only fair that if they are going to play in the same tournament that they should be subject to the same random draw everyone else playing has, rather than getting some special treatment?
Alright, now it gets more complicated. Late Saturday a friend from another team comes and tells me that they got screwed. Apparently they had one player get bumped up two spots and another bumped up one rank. The LO's told their team they were flagged and would be watched. If they won a match they would have to forfeit because of the SL changes. Well that actually sounds fair to me, since it keeps out teams full of sandbaggers. Remember part that for later...
Alright, so my team chugs along through some tight a great matches to make it to the final day. Sunday we are down to two matches away from finally making Vegas. We pull our morning match out by the skin of out teeth and find that we will be playing one of the Auburn teams in the finals. So of course we've got every Montgomery player coming to tell us about that team, and here's what I found out:
First after their bye Friday, they decided not to show up to their second round match Saturday morning. This was a modified single elimination tourney, so you could lose in the first two rounds not not anytime afterwards. I learned that they forfeited their match because their ranks were very close to going up. Well this didn't seem right to me either. On top of that it turns out that even though they had only played 3 or 4 matches to get to the finals, they had a 3 jump up two spots to a 5, and another three move up one rank to a 4 (hmm... sounding familiar). So while we were playing them I called the captain from my friends team that was in the same situation just to make sure the scenario was the same. After hearing his story it was indeed the exact same thing. So I asked the LO what the difference between this team playing for the championship was from the team they told would forfeit. I never really felt I got a straight answer that would justify them being eligible. Things like "the 5 was only a tenth of a point from being a 4 when he was a 3, so it's really like he only moved up one rank." Well sure, but at any rate he moved up two spots. On top of that some of their players were obviously underranked. I'm not a sore loser saying that, I've played these a lot and have seen people underranked before and you just deal with it. But this was to a rediculous extent. They had a 4 that was up there friday night gambling on the big tables with some of Montgomery's yop players. Another 4 on their team I chatted with said he spots this other guy the 7 and the 8 when they gamble! I'm a pretty good 6, and I don't spot the 7 and the 8 to anyone, forget the fact of a SL4 giving that much weight. Even reguardless of that, you see that every tournament. The main problem was that one team was told they'd forfeit because of their SL increase, but this other team had the same jump (or the way I see it, the underranked players were actually being found by the system) and were allowed to play on without even being watched.
Well, obviously they waxed us. I pulled out the only win of the match, and they still finished us off in only four matches. They were a fun team and I liked all their players, actually. But we've played in these so many times and have lost with no quarrels. When we're beat we know we're beat, and have never complained in the past even when something didn't seem right. But this time there are so many little things that went along with it that I just can't accept it. I know there's even a few things I'm forgetting to mention right now, but I think I got most of the stuff covered.
So what do y'all think? Was my team (and in turn obviously many other teams) jipped this weekend? Or are we just blinded by the fact of losing and possibly overreacting to the whole thing?
We plan on setting up a meeting with the LO's tomorrow before our league match to discuss it all a little more when there are less emotions involved. We did stay cool after the loss, in fact the team that beat us said we had the best sportsmanship they've ever seen! But the more it sets the more frustrated me and my teammated are getting. So I'd love to get some outside thoughts from ya'll on here and see what you think about the situation, and also what the proper course of action may be. I'm thinking of emailing the national office, but I think I'll wait until after talking to the LO's again. But after that I don't know what to do (if anything).
Y'alls thoughts are appreciated, and sorry for such a long and probably sloppy post! Hope everyone is doing well and look forward to seeing you guys at the CCB tourney!
Sack