The teams SO FAR

[FAMINE]

Couple of things...

1. I havent mentioned any names, Never will. So kinda miffed about the teams mentioned in famines post part.

2. My point being is that as a nation we are noted as having a lower cut for divisions, Pro is inter am etc etc. Well thats screwed up. Whatever happened to, Pro, Am a, Am b, Novice and entry level.

Used to be entry for a couple of tourneys, then on to novice for a year then up the divisions respectively. I know the problems with squads etc but way i see it is if your squad has 50% long timers then get on with it, But the UK really does need to sort out a proper system.

OK hows this, each player gets a ranking. On a winning pro for an event 10 points, Am 7.5, Novice 5.

Then u can make teams with some kinda base score, kinda hard to explain but it is late. Am sure its a sound idea if a little complicated

 

[Liz]

Lots of nice ideas in here now, but unfortunately most of them have been either used or thought of & then discarded for the present.
Self-seeding. This was the traditional way teams qualified for the semis at Mayhem (pre-Millennium days). Unfortunately, you then either had the risk of very unbalanced divisions as selection was random, or you still had to use some form of seeding anyway. The current Millennium system does this pretty well.
Player rankings, giving a points total for a team. This is what's done for Polo teams! You rank the team as worth so many "goals" according to the "goal" ranking of the individual riders. Unfortunately, the sport isn't really mature & organised enough worldwide for this to work RIGHT NOW. It's easy enough to rank players according to Millennium or NPPL/PSP results, but does anyone want to try to guess the relative differences in player points for winning a 2002 Series Division C trophy (5 divisions that month), a Temple Division A first place (only 8 teams that day though), the Zap Amateur Open in Portugal top division etc etc etc. As things stand, you can ONLY rank players/teams according to their results in these top international open events. So no previous Millennium OR NPPL/PSP appearances, means you can enter Novice.

Of course, there are a few teams out there that go out & play Am even from day one due to the experience of some of their players - I'm thinking especially of Backlash & Ecstacy here, but these 2 teams are slightly different cases.

There is a BIT of a problem with sandbagging at Millenniums, e.g. any team that wins (or IMHO is runner up) in a Millennium SERIES should be made to move up the rankings automatically for the next year, as Campaign Power did voluntarily this year. But you can't expect a team that's never played a Millennium to just go out there & beat the very top US teams. It's a whole different world

 

[Coffe]

off topic; MARKH

i have a small movie clip from JOY 2002 if you like to see it.


Coffe