pmm711:The only thing wrong about advancing the Top 100-200 Money Earners, as Lonnie suggests, is that there are cheaters amongst that group. And my feelings about them...well...F 'em
I haven't followed all of the top 100 - 200 players, so I can't speak to this completely. But, my impression is...despite the presence of "cheaters" in the champion tier the top players that I have learned from watching on youtube appear to not only be playing the game clean, but they are still winning against the cheaters. Sometimes the cheaters may get an edge and that remains problematic but are they winning all the time against the champion tier players? It doesn't sound or look like it but they do win some of the time no doubt, especially if there is unlimited entry available to that tournament where they can set themselves up to go low and have a better shot at winning in the end. Now some, but not all top champion players do this as well, out of necessity somewhat to remain competitive in the final round...
Of course unlimited entry is popular because it uses up more hits on balls and keeps people playing, but what would the difference be between holding 10 single entry events versus just 1 unlimited entry event? The one event would still get lots of play, but the single entry event would minimize or restrict the chances of cheaters by removing their option to restart countless times. I have not doubt WGT will not do away with unlimited events, but to an extent they have done so with Ready Go's, which I believe are single entry.
Given the top champion players are still winning credits in large amounts, I don't see where Lonnie's suggestion of promoting all of the top earners is necessarily problematic... The champions are far more likely to win and raise a ruckus over suspected cheaters, but why should lower tiers and Legends be expected to play against both champion tier caliber players that are sandbagging even if they are playing clean and honest. These type of players stand out like a sore thumb they are easy to identify.. And, to me this is almost as offensive as the cheaters because WGT is allowing them to remain in a tier well below their playing ability even if they are playing the game clean or honest. So, in this case both cheaters and champion caliber players in the Lower tiers should be promoted on a discretionary basis by WGT if they notice something like this...if they are going to give developing players a reasonable chance to win credits in the lower tiers.
And, yes I feel Legend is a "lower tier" and has a very large distribution of skill levels because of the forced promotions by WGT through saturation. And, yes as others have pointed out there are red tee champions, but they know what they are getting themselves into by doing that. However, given the length of time WGT has been around there are likely even champions who have been promoted by WGT through saturation due to years and years of playing WGT but they don't feel they can compete with the top tier champions on a regular basis because they are as others have shared playing at an entirely different level.
I don't presuppose it is a complete straight forward topic but it does seem as though WGT could use more discretion regarding those players that are specifically targeting ready go tournaments, holding a scoring average in the 50's without saturation, and winning hundreds of thousands of credits in the Legend tier, especially when they are winning credits in tier less ready go's against the top champion players.