Yeah OK - Points counting at this point all depends on what you are trying to achieve. Which is different for everyone - Hell look at the posts - we have a few different views - Ain't that GREAT!
Ok - So if you goal is to be in the Final 9 and your more than 150-200 points below the 10th highest person registered for the Grand Finale than your right - If that is someone's only motivation - stop playing now (joke). If your not registered and your ONLY MOTIVATION to be in the PS was to be in the Final 9 - than stop playing the points don't help. I doubt that is the case but I am sure there are a few that this was a biggie, to play the final 9 for added cash, in front of a crowd at this beautiful course.
What we are really discussing here is, What is a Final Event for a League Point Series? The dynamics of Leagues - A casual environment for both beginners and experience players to come together exchange information (technique, mind set, equipment...), experience a more competitive like environment than a casual round, and have a "blast" - which is a different "Blast" than a tournament environment. And have the oppertunity to do this week after week, same course, and many of the same faces.
I see much of the debate here between people who carry over the Tournament aspects into this League thing which if we look at the Leader board - 10% are die hard tournament players - 20-30 more play tournaments occasionally but the primary goal of this PS is to promote the sport and get more people to play more often - and 10-30% of the new players will move into the tournament play which helps tournaments increase but that is not a primary goal of this PS. But it's that 70-80% that we need to think first about because we know what the 10-30 like. If you figure out how to make the 70-80 happier, they will play more, they will bring their friends, they will tell their family, the media will pick up on the growth and hype and the local parks and business increase their involvement. And One day ESPN shows a Tournament at prime time - but that is not my motivation. I'd like to be able to go to play a league any day of the week at some course in the area and have a blast - I'm one of those 70-80 who likes to dream about being in that 10% but with my schedule, my back and a host of other factors I realize that the most important thing to me is to be able to escape to my walk in the park with a purpose and when I do this with some friends it is so much better and with leagues the group of friends has increased and you know when the stars aligned and I got an opportunity and I traveled I found other leagues and courses that were a "Blast" and getting better. The leagues I'm involved in helping to run are getting better because others players have been to leagues and that has increased this year. We actively talk in a cooperative manner about the different things that are done at different leagues. Ok I deviated down another topic...
So should the Final Event determine the Winner - It makes for more excitement. It could happen. But there are many factors. Without knowing how many players will registered we had to come up with several options and then detail these based on what plays out when reg closed. We could have had one large pool - mega points up for grabs. We could have had several pools at different courses with around 400 points per pool or we could have one pool that looks like another great league day with 168 points up fro grabs. People could have played every HLW and made sure they had two hot rounds every week if they were really worried about the points. People have choice and that is wonderful.
I played last night in the dark at the HLW because I wanted to play - the double points are nice but it was enough extra motivation for me and a good enough excuse for my wife to get me out of the house and play another round. It won't get me into the Final 9 - I just wanted to play a round with a bunch of friends - Don't get me wrong. I was happy to even add 4 points for just participation if that raises my point total and position on the leader board because I'm ecstatic to just be on the leader board and I'd like to be as high as I can be - on the leader board - because there is something about being able to say I played in the first MI state wide point series.
So I don't think anyone needs to have had played their final league round before they decide if they would like to attend. Everyone has their own reasons to why they would attend a final celebration of the season or play another round. If it's fun than you assess is this event fun enough for me to reg or not. If it's the Final 9 than you look at your points and decide based on who has registered to date. If it's money well if we had 200+ players it would have been there but now you'll have to wait to see how players vote by their registration next time unless we implement some other changes.
Joe I'm so happy you had fun - Your smile is the poster smile for what I hope we can achieve for everyone associated with the PS. I know I'm going to have a "Blast" when I see you at league round even if we don't get to kick footbag ever time. Thanks for the comments and the opportunity for me to try and express some of the different aspects of what we are trying to do and how this is different but built on many of the things that have been going on in the past so it really is hard to find a way to put a smile on everyone's face but with discussions like this we will get a bit closer.
Yeah OK - Points counting at this point all depends on what you are trying to achieve. Which is different for everyone - Hell look at the posts - we have a few different views - Ain't that GREAT!
Ok - So if you goal is to be in the Final 9 and your more than 150-200 points below the 10th highest person registered for the Grand Finale than your right - If that is someone's only motivation - stop playing now (joke). If your not registered and your ONLY MOTIVATION to be in the PS was to be in the Final 9 - than stop playing the points don't help. I doubt that is the case but I am sure there are a few that this was a biggie, to play the final 9 for added cash, in front of a crowd at this beautiful course.
What we are really discussing here is, What is a Final Event for a League Point Series? The dynamics of Leagues - A casual environment for both beginners and experience players to come together exchange information (technique, mind set, equipment...), experience a more competitive like environment than a casual round, and have a "blast" - which is a different "Blast" than a tournament environment. And have the oppertunity to do this week after week, same course, and many of the same faces.
I see much of the debate here between people who carry over the Tournament aspects into this League thing which if we look at the Leader board - 10% are die hard tournament players - 20-30 more play tournaments occasionally but the primary goal of this PS is to promote the sport and get more people to play more often - and 10-30% of the new players will move into the tournament play which helps tournaments increase but that is not a primary goal of this PS. But it's that 70-80% that we need to think first about because we know what the 10-30 like. If you figure out how to make the 70-80 happier, they will play more, they will bring their friends, they will tell their family, the media will pick up on the growth and hype and the local parks and business increase their involvement. And One day ESPN shows a Tournament at prime time - but that is not my motivation. I'd like to be able to go to play a league any day of the week at some course in the area and have a blast - I'm one of those 70-80 who likes to dream about being in that 10% but with my schedule, my back and a host of other factors I realize that the most important thing to me is to be able to escape to my walk in the park with a purpose and when I do this with some friends it is so much better and with leagues the group of friends has increased and you know when the stars aligned and I got an opportunity and I traveled I found other leagues and courses that were a "Blast" and getting better. The leagues I'm involved in helping to run are getting better because others players have been to leagues and that has increased this year. We actively talk in a cooperative manner about the different things that are done at different leagues. Ok I deviated down another topic...
So should the Final Event determine the Winner - It makes for more excitement. It could happen. But there are many factors. Without knowing how many players will registered we had to come up with several options and then detail these based on what plays out when reg closed. We could have had one large pool - mega points up for grabs. We could have had several pools at different courses with around 400 points per pool or we could have one pool that looks like another great league day with 168 points up fro grabs. People could have played every HLW and made sure they had two hot rounds every week if they were really worried about the points. People have choice and that is wonderful.
I played last night in the dark at the HLW because I wanted to play - the double points are nice but it was enough extra motivation for me and a good enough excuse for my wife to get me out of the house and play another round. It won't get me into the Final 9 - I just wanted to play a round with a bunch of friends - Don't get me wrong. I was happy to even add 4 points for just participation if that raises my point total and position on the leader board because I'm ecstatic to just be on the leader board and I'd like to be as high as I can be - on the leader board - because there is something about being able to say I played in the first MI state wide point series.
So I don't think anyone needs to have had played their final league round before they decide if they would like to attend. Everyone has their own reasons to why they would attend a final celebration of the season or play another round. If it's fun than you assess is this event fun enough for me to reg or not. If it's the Final 9 than you look at your points and decide based on who has registered to date. If it's money well if we had 200+ players it would have been there but now you'll have to wait to see how players vote by their registration next time unless we implement some other changes.
Joe I'm so happy you had fun - Your smile is the poster smile for what I hope we can achieve for everyone associated with the PS. I know I'm going to have a "Blast" when I see you at league round even if we don't get to kick footbag ever time. Thanks for the comments and the opportunity for me to try and express some of the different aspects of what we are trying to do and how this is different but built on many of the things that have been going on in the past so it really is hard to find a way to put a smile on everyone's face but with discussions like this we will get a bit closer.
See yeah Sunday for Double Fun! ;-)