This has been a really good thread to follow guys and it"s nice to see the passion coming through.
The official line on the key questions in the thread as they relate to WCOAP 2014 are:-
- Team Size
We have to go with four members. I"ve spoken at length to the captain of every country who has taken part in our international team competitions since we launched them in Brighton in 2008. On the whole, the European countries struggle to find the quantity of runners required to meet the expenses and cover for late drop outs etc. So to protect the integrity of the event, we have had to move back to four. Wish we didn"t, but we need to get back to making as many good decisions as we can, and moving to four players per team is one.
- Defending Champions re-enter
I"m open on this, albeit with the decrease in team size I guess it"s not such a question now. I"m a fan of the captain being able to decide his / her line up as that is part of the challenge of being a captain that is equal amongst all teams - whatever their catchment area. That said it makes sense for the rankings to determine some of the places where applicable. We"ll look at this again for next year - this year it is solely down to the captain.
However the teams are selected, there would not be the opportunity for an England "B" team to enter if England were the defending Champions. That would be a complete non starter for APAT - each country should only have one competing team in the event.
- Scheduling of team event.
It"s very difficult to schedule this event anywhere other than the two days prior to the main event. That gives the European players the opportunity to play both and the only other solution I can think of would be to run the team event following the main event. That would take just those players and the organisers into a new week and that would be very complicated for those with work etc. Aside from that we could potentially restrict POTY points to four events at the WCOAP, or similar, but we"ll get plenty of time to debate that once the WCOAP thread goes up. Soon obviously.
- Adding extra formats into the team event.
Think it would act as a barrier to the growth of the team event. Very few players know how to play Stud etc and the thought of playing it live for the first time and not letting down your team mates will put players off.
- Captains
I don"t necessarily think captains should change each year. I guess we are largely talking about the England position here. My belief is if the captain has done a really good job, then he deserves to keep his job. So while Carl is England skipper for season seven, Steve has been offered the chance to captain the team at the WCOAP. Both of these decisions were taken in parallel at the start of the season. I don"t believe the captain should automatically select the same players the following year though. Lots of variables change and loyalty alone is not the only skill required in a good Captain.
