So, call it sour grapes, or whatever you want, but after my mediocre 6-3 Nationals campaign and an otherwise great season, I'm sitting at home for Worlds. Considering I won 4 of 6 events I attended in California, it's very possible that I could have gained a trip to Worlds had I had the opportunity to attend more events. Even with a 6-3 at Nationals, none of my losses were "bad" and I was very nearly correct in the end when I guestimated 1975 would be the cutoff for ranking invites: it was 1974.
I saw this coming the whole time, so I'm going to propose some ways to make the ranking system and next year's invite system in the U.S. fair to everyone.
#1: Regionals winners should be given Worlds invites - This is the most obvious one that has been discussed many times. I'm the prime example of this, though. I won the only Regional I attended, didn't get to go to a States, but I'm "the best player in my Region". Shouldn't this mean I get a trip to Worlds? I mean, Ross and Kettler dominated theirs by going to 10's of events, and I'm punished because I can't do that?
#2: Limit State Championships - In order to make it fair for everyone, places like the NorthEast shouldn't be able to go to 4 State Championships because their states are the size of San Bernardino County, California. This is one of my biggest beefs with the "system". It is simply not fair in any way that States be counted at a high level if people get to go to 1-4X as many as someone else.
My proposal(s) for the States issue:
1. Only allow 2 dates for State Championships to be run, not two weekends
2. Limit the # of States someone can attend if the above is not possible (unlikely)
3. Give a higher K value or more prizes to those State Championships with a higher attendance (more on this later)
#3: Lower the K value on City and Battle Road tournaments - This can be done, as long as the problems with States and Regionals (coming up) are fixed. Otherwise, lowering the value of these events just punishes the areas that have to travel far for multiple States/Regionals. I really don't even think that Cities and Battle Roads should be a part of the rating system whatsoever, especially if States and Regionals can be made fair to everyone (I believe they can), but I doubt that CCs and BRs will be cut from the rating system.
#4: Make Regional Championships more accessible - Basically, States and Regionals should be flip flopped. What I mean by this is, Regionals should be the tournament that takes up 2 full weekends, and not States. I know it wasn't possible for me to go to 2 Regionals because they were back to back Saturdays and 6 and 10 hours away. I'm sorry, but the West Coast has a whole lot of people, and our Regionals are 6+ hours apart. I'm sure that the Midwest can share this problem this particular year, as well. There needs to be more dates available for Regionals, and we have to shake up some of the Regions here.
#5: Make U.S. Nationals worth even more - We saw an astounding 418 players in the Masters division at Nationals this year. There were 4 automatic trips given away -- less than 1%. We had 7-2s missing the T32 cut. At least T8 should be given invites, and if Regional invites come back, then we will possibly have a few passdowns. That makes it a lot better than just T4. Also, if Nationals is going to consistantly be by far the biggest tournament in the World, I think it is due for a prize increase. A little more scholarship $$, maybe some more Nintendo products, like Wiis, DS, etc.
#6: Give more prizes or a higher K value to events with high attendance: I know this "isn't Magic: The Gathering", but their game uses attendance to determine how many prizes/invites/etc. to give away. Why can't our game do this? This would solve a lot of the problems with some areas getting a lot higher attendance than others and eliminate the complaining about tournaments with 30 players getting the same amount as a tournament with 150 players. On top of this, *MAYBE* tournaments with a higher attendance could be given a K value bonus, or even something along the lines of when you Top cut, you gain a bonus amount of points.
Other Possible Ideas (that I'm not going to expand on right now):
-Byes for Regional/State Winners at Nationals
-Bring back Intentional Draws
-3-5 turn clock similar to M:TG when time is called
-Increased Top Cut time limits (I see Worlds is doing this)
-Implement something like the Stadium Challenges again, or even a Continental Championship
These are all possible things to consider for the future. I don't claim that all of these things should happen, it's just stuff I think could possibly be added that would make things more fair. I don't have to show everyone, all you have to do is go look on the rating system and see who's being invited, and look at those U.S. Nationals attendance numbers. Chad is out
I saw this coming the whole time, so I'm going to propose some ways to make the ranking system and next year's invite system in the U.S. fair to everyone.
#1: Regionals winners should be given Worlds invites - This is the most obvious one that has been discussed many times. I'm the prime example of this, though. I won the only Regional I attended, didn't get to go to a States, but I'm "the best player in my Region". Shouldn't this mean I get a trip to Worlds? I mean, Ross and Kettler dominated theirs by going to 10's of events, and I'm punished because I can't do that?
#2: Limit State Championships - In order to make it fair for everyone, places like the NorthEast shouldn't be able to go to 4 State Championships because their states are the size of San Bernardino County, California. This is one of my biggest beefs with the "system". It is simply not fair in any way that States be counted at a high level if people get to go to 1-4X as many as someone else.
My proposal(s) for the States issue:
1. Only allow 2 dates for State Championships to be run, not two weekends
2. Limit the # of States someone can attend if the above is not possible (unlikely)
3. Give a higher K value or more prizes to those State Championships with a higher attendance (more on this later)
#3: Lower the K value on City and Battle Road tournaments - This can be done, as long as the problems with States and Regionals (coming up) are fixed. Otherwise, lowering the value of these events just punishes the areas that have to travel far for multiple States/Regionals. I really don't even think that Cities and Battle Roads should be a part of the rating system whatsoever, especially if States and Regionals can be made fair to everyone (I believe they can), but I doubt that CCs and BRs will be cut from the rating system.
#4: Make Regional Championships more accessible - Basically, States and Regionals should be flip flopped. What I mean by this is, Regionals should be the tournament that takes up 2 full weekends, and not States. I know it wasn't possible for me to go to 2 Regionals because they were back to back Saturdays and 6 and 10 hours away. I'm sorry, but the West Coast has a whole lot of people, and our Regionals are 6+ hours apart. I'm sure that the Midwest can share this problem this particular year, as well. There needs to be more dates available for Regionals, and we have to shake up some of the Regions here.
#5: Make U.S. Nationals worth even more - We saw an astounding 418 players in the Masters division at Nationals this year. There were 4 automatic trips given away -- less than 1%. We had 7-2s missing the T32 cut. At least T8 should be given invites, and if Regional invites come back, then we will possibly have a few passdowns. That makes it a lot better than just T4. Also, if Nationals is going to consistantly be by far the biggest tournament in the World, I think it is due for a prize increase. A little more scholarship $$, maybe some more Nintendo products, like Wiis, DS, etc.
#6: Give more prizes or a higher K value to events with high attendance: I know this "isn't Magic: The Gathering", but their game uses attendance to determine how many prizes/invites/etc. to give away. Why can't our game do this? This would solve a lot of the problems with some areas getting a lot higher attendance than others and eliminate the complaining about tournaments with 30 players getting the same amount as a tournament with 150 players. On top of this, *MAYBE* tournaments with a higher attendance could be given a K value bonus, or even something along the lines of when you Top cut, you gain a bonus amount of points.
Other Possible Ideas (that I'm not going to expand on right now):
-Byes for Regional/State Winners at Nationals
-Bring back Intentional Draws
-3-5 turn clock similar to M:TG when time is called
-Increased Top Cut time limits (I see Worlds is doing this)
-Implement something like the Stadium Challenges again, or even a Continental Championship
These are all possible things to consider for the future. I don't claim that all of these things should happen, it's just stuff I think could possibly be added that would make things more fair. I don't have to show everyone, all you have to do is go look on the rating system and see who's being invited, and look at those U.S. Nationals attendance numbers. Chad is out