First off, I appreciate all the time and effort you put into running leagues Louie. Sincerely... thank you. It's mostly a thankless job and it doesn't get any easier with more people. I know, I've ran it for you before, most of them @ Hilltop last year. I even tried to start another at Hilltop this year (with your permission, thanks again) which I ended after 4 weeks and rolled the money over into WND. Had I not been at Hilltop, I would have gone to WND 4 more times.
I would love to put in more time volunteering and helping out the ADGA with tourneys and all but I can't. I have 3 young kids at home (two in diapers), a wife, and a very demanding career (I haven't had weekends off in 3 years). After work I'm relief for a stay at home mom and I've literally fought to get one night a week to myself. About half of those nights I'm asked to skip my night off for various, probably legitimate, reasons. Most of the time I leave the house anyways, and when I do get away, I choose to spend it playing WND. Running a league was my insurance I wouldn't have to stay home ;-)
With that said... I am disappointed in how this league ended. Yes I understand that not everyone can play for the money and know Louie is/was in a tough position, however; this is not about the money in my mind and Louie dose not need be put in that awful position ever again. One of the problems this year is that we had a near 30 person average, up from 19 last year. The rest of this may sound like I'm angry or I want something out of all this. I'm not upset (I was pissed off Wednesday night, but thats not like me really), I would just like to see a transparent and logical selection system implemented in the future. One that fills every last slot.
Although, I think 20 spots was about right (22 maybe), it appears that only 18 played the final. I showed up for "the lottery" at Kincaid at 6:00 which supposedly took place on-line with zero witnesses. This was after not getting a response to any of the 3 messages I sent prior to the announcement of "the lottery". Its obvious I was interested in playing from those and the posts below. Jamie and Luke were the winners with the last two spots going unfilled? After driving out there I was told I couldn't even play Cali without mulligans... I was willing to even pay twice to accommodate the extra payout. Maybe I read it wrong, but I assumed "the lottery" was to be held at Kincaid for all to see (my bad I guess). Don't assume everyone checks the Scene as much as I do... and announcing "the lottery" 1 day ahead of dubs was not ideal.
Another problem was the lack of transparency to that lottery process as well as the whole "wait and figure out what the qualifiers should be" during the final few weeks. Anytime one person is tasked with quickly making decisions that effect a group, you are going to upset people. It's a tough position, also one that can be easily avoided, or, easily abused, even if they have only good intentions. Pat had 13 rounds and 88 points... he placed 7th for the league and did not "legitimately qualify"? Thats right out there in plain view, and quite frankly, from the Leagues and the ADGAs standpoint, embarrassing. I'm just gonna assume Pat and Louie aren't close, cause I'm sure 2 bonus points could have been found for him somewhere or at least he could have been told of a way to earn them (I'm pretty sure Louie's at least off his Christmas list for now).
Before everyone starts talking a bunch of crap, I'm not saying that Louie is dishonest or trying to bash him. I fully trust Louie to run any league in the future. I'm just merely sharing my observations. If it looks or sounds bad, thats what I observed. A few easy rules could be followed to establish absolute fairness and transparency in the final dubs selection process, which would leave no one feeling cheated or left out. On paper, this year was far from fair and transparent. Make the rules known at the start of the league on the league page. That way you can tell every whiner, myself included, "sorry, go read the website," rather than, "I don't know what to say."
The following suggestions are based on the fact this year only 6 people qualified with 90 points prior to assigning bonus points (one of them during the last regular league round). Clearly the league shifted toward a support based qualification, rather than point based, since the remaining people qualified with rounds played or bonus points given for support of the league. The original 6 naturally would have also qualified using a completely support based approach rather than using points. Also, 90 points was the mark last year when we played 20 rounds (10 qualified), this year we played just 17 rounds.
Suggestions:
1) The number of players in the final WND shall be closest to a set-in-stone percentage of the season average. Looks like no more than 60 or 70% from the last two. (Sounds like thats being followed already, great! Make it part of the rules.)
2) Qualification shall be based solely on support of THE LEAGUE ONLY (read: number of rounds played), with points earned being the tie-breaker for rounds-played. Bonus points are still OK using this format, see below.
3) Points shall ONLY determine league standings and tie-breakers, not actual support of the league. (No more of the "you need this many points 2-3 weeks from the final," please)
4) Players can receive bonus points from the League Administrator for supporting the league in ways other than playing league rounds. Contact the League Administrator for opportunities to volunteer. Female league players receive extra points for (Obviously this already takes place but details are lacking.)
I was going to ask for a break down of how bonus points are awarded for fairness to everyone that may need them in the final weeks, but its not all that important. All I know is you get 60 points for having a vagina. OK, before everyone hates me for that as well... I can support that decision, or at least something similar for the ladies. I'm truly grateful that the they all come out and play and support the league (sincerely, please don't hate me for stating the facts in a comedic but somewhat offensive way. If you do, I apologize). However, the key to successfully establishing something like that would be to do it BEFORE the first league round, not AFTER the last one. Cause when the "ladies 60 point rule" is equal to the amount of points needed for a certain female to "legitimately qualify" and its announced only after the last round is played its questionable to say the least. Wait it gets better...
Following the "ladies 60 point rule," and the suggestions above, Kelsey would have "legitimately qualified" for the final dubs along with everyone else that played (except for "the lottery winners"). Go figure. I'm willing to bet there are at least 18 people that are happy with they way dubs ended, but I'm sure some of the 90 people who played this year are smart enough to see it was pretty flawed and open to playing favorites. I hope a few of those 18 can see my point.
As for my self, whatever whatever, I was on the edge for qualifying so I'm not too bent up about. It's water under the bridge. Like I said, I fully trust Louie to keep doing what hes been doing for so many years. I was more disappointed not being able to play disc golf, and could care less about the money. Yes everybody likes winning cash (my goal is to have fun and hopefully break even), but I was mostly upset I lost my Wednesday night out with people I enjoy playing disc golf with. And no, I wasn't going to tag along on a card of my choice to "play for fun" as suggested. Thats probably only slightly less annoying to some people than this post.
There it is... hate it, love it, ignore it, take it with a grain of salt, or call me a whiny b*tch. Tell me I should focus my time on something else than writing crap like this. I DID NOT write this in my free time, but down time, when I really can't do much else (otherwise I never would have spent more than a few sentences on the subject if anything at all). I was just gonna let it go, (which is more my style anyways), but honestly, I kept seeing the final standings with Pat in 7th place before the final and for some reason couldn't.
My sole purpose of this is to IMPROVE the league, NOT pick it apart. Thanks for putting up with my opinion... we all got one, if you know what I mean.
