Season 6 Discussion

[AMRN]

There are 11 teams in Div 1 - therefore each team makes up 9% of the league table.  In the first three weeks of this current league season, West Mids had 23/216 entrants = 11% of the field, 16/161 = 10%, and 13/148 = 9%.  Therefore, I make the point that we were not overly heavy or large - we had the average team size. There were other teams larger than WM.

Over time, player volume has dropped away (including WM), and WM player ratio has increased to between 15%-18%.  This doesn"t mean the league has failed - it just means people are dropping out.

Consider that APAT National events do not sell out with the gusto that they did in S2/S3.... that means people have dropped out of the mix.... by the same token, does that mean the APAT Nationals are therefore failing? Of course not.

With respect to the league, if all 216 players who played the first round had stuck around, WM would still only be playing with the average player ratio, and the league table might look different. The fact is that people lost interest after round 1 - that doesn"t necessarily mean the league concept is bad or wrong.... just that people lost interest.

imo you will never be able to sustain the interest of so many people over a 20 week cycle. Some will get bored, some will just forget about it, some will lose interest when they aren"t top of the league, etc etc etc.   Drastically shorten the lifecycle of the league with a view to keeping it more "current", and we will have far more chance of sustaining interest throughout.  Failing that, scrap it, and add the value seats to more Online Nationals.

[Tiger-flash]

imho it dosent matter how many players you have in a team, Solent have done very well with less than 10 players and are sitting pretty with West Midlands. My team Notts are struggling and its hard to recruit players. As i live in Derby, Derby people dont want to play for Notts along with, surrounding citys like Leicester, Lincoln, Mansfield or Chesterfield etc, our captain Jack Prime is from Leicester and probably has the same problem getting players. I personally think that next season Notts should change to East Midlands poker club and then watch the numbers turn up lol, West midlands have done it so why cant us What do you think East Midlanders?

[Marty719]

Seeing as the league needs an overhaul, and bunch of 5"s was so successful...why not make Sunday nights more individual competition.  Different format every sunday over a 5-6 week period, and a leaderboard with overall points.  Prizes for top of the leaderboard at the end of each cycle.  I think this would be a great way of getting interest back in, and due to changing formats, is likely to retain interest throughout the weeks. $11 would also still make for a decent prize-pool, and the competitive element would still be there.

[AMRN]

Seeing as the league needs an overhaul, and bunch of 5"s was so successful...why not make Sunday nights more individual competition.  Different format every sunday over a 5-6 week period, and a leaderboard with overall points.  Prizes for top of the leaderboard at the end of each cycle.  I think this would be a great way of getting interest back in, and due to changing formats, is likely to retain interest throughout the weeks. $11 would also still make for a decent prize-pool, and the competitive element would still be there.

Absolutely this ^^

[scouse3465]

Think team events still the way forward. To be honest the league would have been really competitive this year if birmingham / Walsall had stayed separate. The only way to balance it out again next year is to either split west mids back up or have other teams merge.
Only other option would be to change fromat , i have said before about having nominated players ( say the top 7/8 from each team only allowed to score team points) all players allowed to play though and if do well get promoted into point scoring players , therefore this will encourage to play to keep in the team and if not in team to play and get into team, ie 1 win should put you in .
just a bit more admin for team captains to post nominated scoring players before tourney starts.
This would also eliminate a lot of soft play between team mates because you would also be playin against team mates in your own standings to keep in the team !

[PantsMan]

There are 11 teams in Div 1 - therefore each team makes up 9% of the league table.  In the first three weeks of this current league season, West Mids had 23/216 entrants = 11% of the field, 16/161 = 10%, and 13/148 = 9%.  Therefore, I make the point that we were not overly heavy or large - we had the average team size. There were other teams larger than WM.

I wouldn"t bother Steve. I pointed out last season (with the numbers to prove it) that despite all the whining about Walsall we didn"t actually have this huge team that people were claiming. This year it"s because the team became West Midlands (despite the fact people from either team could quite easily have joined together in one team anyway). They could change it back to Walsall and Birmingham, we could all join Birmingham and they"d still complain. I reckon we just change the name to BCPC, REALLY wind them up!

[TightEnd]

What is wrong with?

W Mids
E Mids
N West
N East
Ireland
S and S West
London and S East
East
Wales
Scotland

10 teams, one division. Gives each of those 10 teams a good crack at equal-ish numbers

Either 3 six week leagues or one big league

Team and Individual added value

I know you"d lose some team identity, but at least the smaller teams get put into groupings that have a chance....


(not an official view, nor a formal proposal, just throwing it out there)

[AMRN]

What is wrong with?

W Mids
E Mids
N West
N East
Ireland
S and S West
London and S East
East
Wales
Scotland

10 teams, one division. Gives each of those 10 teams a good crack at equal-ish numbers

Either 3 six week leagues or one big league

Team and Individual added value

I know you"d lose some team identity, but at least the smaller teams get put into groupings that have a chance....


(not an official view, nor a formal proposal, just throwing it out there)

Works for me, and I"m impressed that you even managed to post the end of season league table there, before concept even accepted and league started - nice one!

[Jon MW]

You keep interest in a league by making each month have some kind of prize.

Relating that to a team tournament -

If you had a 9 month league for example

Each month the individual winner gets entry into an end of season Team Championships qualifier

The Team Championships qualifier has a prize fund so that everybody wins some added money

The individual who wins this sit and go is the captain for their team - who have now just won entry into the team championships.

This would provide a financial incentive (but not too much for the sponsor to get scared of), if an individual wins more than one month then the prize pool gets shared out between less people at the end, and if a team wins more than one month they have an extra chance of winning the final stt for their team to get a place in the team championships

It would need some finessing, but this could keep interest up enough to stop such a dramatic fallaway in numbers.

[Santino67]

What is wrong with?

W Mids
E Mids
N West
N East
Ireland
S and S West
London and S East
East
Wales
Scotland

10 teams, one division. Gives each of those 10 teams a good crack at equal-ish numbers

Either 3 six week leagues or one big league

Team and Individual added value

I know you"d lose some team identity, but at least the smaller teams get put into groupings that have a chance....


(not an official view, nor a formal proposal, just throwing it out there)

Lose team identity with a Scottish Team   Not a chance! we"d be even more proud to play  

Sounds like a good suggestion Rich, even though the Glasgow team is currently going strongly. This is thanks mainly to a great recruitment drive from Capt Gerry (and NB just as importantly other team members), and good momentum running up to and following the Scottish APAT with it"s Glasgow venue. Our mini APAT Glasgow team event at the weekend (also attended by members from other APAT teams) was a great way to keep this momentum going and we"re already in early stages of planning our next get together.

In saying that, I remember the days when the Glasgow team was much smaller and there was a feeling of "letting the team down" when I missed the online games (too regularly as I work 5 weekends in each 8 week rota) and I fear this may also be the case now with the smaller teams. Why not make the teams bigger then to level the playing field out a bit? It"ll never be a perfect ratio, whichever way it"s organised but the current scenario of comparing teams like Glasgow and Dundee show"s a huge gulf in points probability regardless of any team members" individual abilities.

Agree it would be a great idea to examine the individual AV for the league also, therefore negating any drop off from people who may be performing and scoring without much contribution from their team to the league points.

[scouse3465]

What is wrong with?

W Mids
E Mids
N West
N East
Ireland
S and S West
London and S East
East
Wales
Scotland

10 teams, one division. Gives each of those 10 teams a good crack at equal-ish numbers

Either 3 six week leagues or one big league

Team and Individual added value

I know you"d lose some team identity, but at least the smaller teams get put into groupings that have a chance....


(not an official view, nor a formal proposal, just throwing it out there)

sounds good , think 3 six weeks league would work best with maybe end of season champion of champion play off maybe ??

[dwh103]

Posting from phone so gonna be quick!

How about upping the cost to 10 + 2. The extra dollar goes towards an end of season prizepool where individuals have starting stacks linked to their own points.

I think in general there should be shorter leagues and an "Ironman" type freeroll for those that play 80% or something.

In essence I believe more of an individual element is needed. By all means keep the team side of it but shifting some of the value from teams to individuals may keep numbers up a bit better.

And as someone said, any prizes won from the seats given out - a portion is shared pro-rata with your teams points scorers.

[TightEnd]

Again, just thinking out loud

3 six week leagues

At the end of Each Six week league

- the winning team wins a spot in the UK Team Championships that season
- The top player (irrespective of team) wins (UKIPT seat) (GUKPT seat) whatever added value is part of season 6
- The top x players win UK APAT National entries
- Top 25 finishing positions are scored for individuals in each of the six weeks, and all teams accrue points on a weekly basis

After three leagues three teams have qualified for the team championships

The top scoring team of those three in the team event then gets a play off where all those who have played events in their team are eligible, the winner within that team wins a (UKIPT seat)


Anyway, you get a measure of what can be done here to keep things competitive, address imbalances etc etc

Des and I need to discuss, clearly

A season 6 schedule is drafted, meetings are taking place imminently and Online national league will be part of those discussions

[AMRN]

Again, just thinking out loud

3 six week leagues

At the end of Each Six week league

- the winning team wins a spot in the UK Team Championships that season
- The top player (irrespective of team) wins (UKIPT seat) (GUKPT seat) whatever added value is part of season 6
- The top x players win UK APAT National entries
- Top 25 finishing positions are scored for individuals in each of the six weeks, and all teams accrue points on a weekly basis

After three leagues three teams have qualified for the team championships

The top scoring team of those three in the team event then gets a play off where all those who have played events in their team are eligible, the winner within that team wins a (UKIPT seat)


Anyway, you get a measure of what can be done here to keep things competitive, address imbalances etc etc

Des and I need to discuss, clearly

A season 6 schedule is drafted, meetings are taking place imminently and Online national league will be part of those discussions

er.... hmmmm.... yeah that"ll do it!! When can we start please?

[bear21]

Personally a lower buy in Maybe 5.00 plus 1.00 as a fund might be better , as has been mentioned earlier, for a lot of players 10.00 dollars ?? every time soon adds up, but whatever happens I will still be playing !!