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Tournament Format Discussion

• nivlac 2,188 Posts

  Fri, Jan 16 2009 9:14 PM

  Alright, so the match play tournament has ran pretty smooth overall but, I think we're going to run into some problems eventually.  The fact of the matter is there is an elite group of players that will most likely win every single one of these tournaments.  Eventually I think the idea of constantly having to match up in the early rounds against folks like AvatarLee, BrandonW and CKEVIN2 is gonna wear thin for some people after a while.

  In order to combat this I'm thinking about creating a flight system moving forward.  The ideal set-up would be to have three flights (much like we have tiers) but instead we base our groupings on your averages.  Average isn't the greatest thing to use I suppose, but it's all we have at the moment.  Flights are how folks are separated (by handicap) at the local country club tournaments and such, so it is fitting to do so here.  This gives everyone a chance to compete in an event that they have a legitimate chance to win or at the very least, go deep in the tournament.  Here's how I would set it up.

  Championship Flight (Avg <= 66.99)

  The Championship Flight represents the elite group of players.  Folks in this flight are generally capable of shooting under par every single round and are well within their means to shoot 29, 30 or 31.  My only concern here is there is the fewest amount of people in this group, thus tournaments will be small, but competitive.

  Professional Flight (Avg 67.00 - 70.99)

  This would be the largest populated bracket, thus the smaller window.  Folks in this flight are capable of shooting under par about 80% of the time and might drop a 30, 31 or a 32 on a real good day.  No real concerns for this bracket.

  Amateur Flight (Avg >= 71.00)

  This is the flight for everyone else.  Folks in this flight may struggle to get under par.  My concern for this bracket isn't group size, but participation.  Would there be enough interest?  If there's only enough interest to fill 2 flights then this would simply be combined with the Pro flight.

   

  Every so often we could revert back and do a big tournament like we did for January but, I think doing flights will be more fun and it will keep more folks playing for longer.  What do you guys think?

  I'm also looking for any ideas on how to execute different types of tournaments besides just match play format.

• seveking 983 Posts

  Sat, Jan 17 2009 7:53 AM

   I agree with what you have said, nivlac, the only issue is whether we'll have enough people to dicide tournaments into three. I think it's necessary to play two or three tournaments a year in which we all play together. We could call them the "Match Play Majors".

  Also, just a suggestion of different type of Match Play, at some point we could organise a sort of a Ryder Cup. As there are more american players at WGT than europeans we could make it America vs The Rest of the World. We could have one week of single stroke play, one week of single match play and one week of match play in pairs.

  Just an idea for the future... :)

• nivlac 2,188 Posts

  Sat, Jan 17 2009 7:59 AM

   Yeah, I think that's a good idea.  I do want to still have a big tournament now and then to give everyone a chance to play some top level folks. Calling it a major is a cool idea too. :)

  For January, we had 42 entries plus 7 additional folks who didn't get signed up in time.  Writing on folks walls really helped bring people in and we got a few random signups from folks seeing us writing on other people's walls.

  I think expecting a +50 turnout next month isn't out of the question, especially if I could recruit one or two of you guys to help me direct tournaments.  If we can get that many people signed up I think it'll work.

  I like the Ryder Cup idea though be aware I think we only had 5 internationals in the January event.  I don't think I counted Canadians though, so that might bump that number to 7 or 8.  Work out some details about how that would flow start to finish and let me know what you come up with.

• nivlac 2,188 Posts

  Sat, Jan 17 2009 8:12 AM

   Sorry for the double post, but this is completely unrelated.

  I'm looking for two Assistant Tournament Directors.  Organizing and running a 42 person tournament on my own took a little bit of work and I have a feeling it's only going to get bigger from here.    I need folks who spend a decent amount of time online with availability in the late evening and/or early afternoon hours.  Applicants should be extremely comfortable navigating the site and should be able to do simple computer things like cut, copy and paste.  FTP experience is a plus.  If you fit the bill, then drop a note on my profile.  Thanks.

• dmace2 44 Posts

  Sat, Jan 17 2009 1:53 PM

   NIvlac---

  I like the idea, as one of those "not a chance in hell of winning" participants.  I'd certainly be interested in being in the amateur tier.  At the moment that's probably the only way Amateur describes me; my play seems to be getting worse rather than better!

• marioh 1,055 Posts

  Sat, Jan 17 2009 2:07 PM

  I agree with the 2 tier system.

  And perhaps for the Majors, make it where you have to qualify in order to play.   Maybe the qualification being a top 4 finish in one of the previous tiered tournament.

• nivlac 2,188 Posts

  Sat, Jan 17 2009 2:13 PM

  Interesting ideas guys.  Keep 'em coming.  I appreciate the input.

• AvatarLee 1,644 Posts

  Wed, Jan 21 2009 10:36 AM

   I don't know if it feasable or not but.... I think there needs to be separation based on time zones (maybe just for earlier rounds).  Some of the time differences are just making it too hard to hook up with opponents.  I found myself rushing through my match just to get it in because my opponent and I couldn't get together at a decent time.  Not to take anything away from him, but I was not fully in the game....

  Just a thought.

• seveking 983 Posts

  Wed, Jan 21 2009 10:48 AM

   This was suggested in the previous tournament, AvatarLee, and Ii think my answer is still the same: one of the purposes of this tournament is to get people from all over the world to play each other and have fun. This is my opinion, although I understand there are others who think europeans shouldn't play americans until the later stages.

• nivlac 2,188 Posts

  Wed, Jan 21 2009 10:55 AM

  I agree with you there.  Are you suggesting that I regionalize the bracket for the "majors", kinda like the NCAA?  Hmm, that's an interesting idea. 

  I introduced the flight idea because I thought that smaller tournaments would give us wider windows to work out the scheduling.  If match windows were an entire week long rather than just 3 or 4 days, would that make any more of a difference than regionalizing the brackets would?

  No worries, seve.  It wouldn't be that regionalized and it would probably only be done in the major tournaments.  You would  still likely be playing Americans or Canadians in the first round, just those on the east coast instead.  It makes sense from a scheduling standpoint. 

  Honestly, more of it depends on how many problems arise from trying to seed the bracket that way.  Even in the NCAA sometimes Maryland gets shipped off to the West Region.  I'll need to look into it more.