Sportsman's Division

[Lohman446]

[shives007]

Hear hear...

I'm not sure such a division could be much more than a local, isolated success, I applaud the sentiment. That would absolutely be where I would play.

Shives

[jade_monkey07]

If this were to become part of the tourney scene i would definitely take part. im not that happy about the team selection process because i have friends that i enjoy playing with. but this is WAY better then the way it is currently

[Lohman446]

I need any ideas anyone has in making this concept better in practice

[athomas]

A Sportsman division can be just an open division with nothing more than trophies. Have a reduced entrance cost, to reflect the lack of prizes. If there is another open division with a high prize value, teams that want to prove they are the best will be in that bracket, just because that is where the money is. Stacked teams will always play where they think they can win money. If you have a division where there is no return on the investment, then you will never have stacked teams. In that division, you will only have players that are there to have fun and realize there is a cost associated with that. Everyone wants something for nothing. Take the "something" away and you are left with the real loyal players.

[Lohman446]

We tried that a couple years ago - reduced entrance fee open division tournaments. We found that the highly competetive teams still used it as an open practice and would blow through the lower division teams.

[grEnAlEins]

When are you planning on starting this up? I am still at Ferris State through May and would certainly make the trip to come over and play in a tournament like this. Team AO Mafia again?

[Lohman446]

When are you planning on starting this up? I am still at Ferris State through May and would certainly make the trip to come over and play in a tournament like this. Team AO Mafia again?

Right now I am trying to talk him into doing it at the major tournaments - however I am thinking a test run outside of the regularly scheduled tournaments might be a good idea.

May 4th is the first regularly scheduled tournament - that being said Im not sure the idea is going through.

[Old School 626]

While I hate the idea of "not keeping score" and "we're all winners here" that is so prevalent in kids sports today I like this idea.

Perhaps one tweak that you might consider is putting age into the team make up or possibly doing it as a 40+ "Silverback" bracket .

[Lohman446]

While I hate the idea of "not keeping score" and "we're all winners here" that is so prevalent in kids sports today I like this idea.

Perhaps one tweak that you might consider is putting age into the team make up or possibly doing it as a 40+ "Silverback" bracket .

I thought about the age requirement, However part of the constraints are that I may not just add a division and I must make a place for true rookies to play as well (as I'm basically replacing the lowest division). That, and I would not meet most age requirements .

Im thinking of a big cup type trophy where I can add little plaques with each events winners names on them and keep it at the field. That way, in five years, one would be able to look back and see all the different people who had been on the team with the top score. Play for pride rather than prizes.

[Chaos_Theory!]

Randy does a great job with trying to make things fair but i can still see peopel trying to exploit the division and sandbag. Admitedly i did not read your entire post if you covered that issue. Im on break at work so i dont really have the time. lol

EDIT: I read more of it and that would take a lot of work to say the least. Randy wont let me play any lower than D2 with the people i currently play with (unless i drop down a bit to play with some new tournament players) but itd be cool to see this work out for the less experienced players out there.

Randy already has a lot going on so its hard to say if this concept will see the light of day.

[rabidchihauhau]

I wouldn't make it so complicated:

NO money, no prizes, no nothing except play.

pick the team members randomly (and if you like, do it after every round of play)

disqualify anyone who: isn't overweight, doesn't have a damaged limb, hasn't just started playing, doesn't wheeze audibly, obviously has money, hasn't been playing for more than two decades...

[zondo]

No prizes? C'mon... how about a patch. Better than a T-shirt or ball cap you'd never wear. Just sew it on your gear bag and bring it to the next tourny. You'd walk away with something that really isn't all that extravagant.

[Scott Hudnall]

All else aside, the REAL issue that keeps many, if not most of us away from the tournament scene today is the wiping and cheating to win at all costs attitude. Instead of calling it the "sportsman" division, or "silverback" division, how about simply calling it the "honest play" division? I've never minded getting beat by a good team that plays honestly. It's just when you see the obvious wiping, that...ahem....the ref's apparently were unable to see, that it makes your blood boil.

Make it an exclusive division - HONEST PLAYERS ONLY.