SMDGA Points Race

[Dean Anderson]

Hey everybody!

I’m going to take the bull by the horns and offer to manage an SMDGA Points Race. After reading through the discussions about doing a points race, I want to assure everyone that this is not meant to be overly competitive. The purpose is to simply recognize players and TDs that standout in southern Minnesota and to encourage participation. Obviously, the points leader will be recognized, but I will also keep track of other fun and interesting statistics in order to recognize other players and TDs too.

As for the points race, I propose that every tournament in the MFA’s south zone be included. For players to be eligible, they need to live in the south zone and simply have a profile on the smdga website. What we ask of TDs is that they post a flyer on the smdga website and their tournament on the smdga calendar and send me the results of their tournaments.

To keep it simple this year, there will be a men’s and women’s division where each entrant will receive 10 pts for participating and 1 pt for every person they score better than, regardless of division. I would post a monthly tally on the website of included tournaments, points totals and other interesting information. At the end of the year, a plaque/trophy would be given to the points leader and awards/certificates given to others for their accomplishments.

Under this plan, no money will be exchanged. I don't want to take any more money from TD's and players than what already is taken, so I also want to suggest that we hold off on soliciting for paid memberships this year. We already have 83 people on the smdga site and it didn't take much effort. So why not simply make the website be our membership? (this is just a suggestion - if other people think we can get a good member base, then let's do it).

If we go this way, I also want to suggest that we promote MFA membership and tournament sanctioning so that we become more involved with them and get our voices heard (and be eligible for the Mider Cup). MFA memberships ($20 new, $15 renew) and tournament sanctioning ($2 per player) is relatively inexpensive, especially when compared with PDGA sanctioning. The MFA does not limit the number of MST's, so I say we should encourage our area to do this. I won't encourage or discourage PDGA sanctioning as I believe that is TD preference.

I’m open to suggestions. It is early enough that it can still be tweaked.

Dean

[Derek Tonn]

Awesome idea, Dean!

Two questions/clarifications:

1. Does an event formally need to be on our SMDGA calendar (Google Calendar, on this site) to be eligible for inclusion in the series? It couldn't be easier getting events on that calendar (simply telling me to add it)! However, I'm just wondering about a situation where somebody says they want their results included in the Series when nobody on the site knew in advance that the event was happening (or at least nobody who hadn't been personally contacted by the T.D.). I think it should probably be all events publicized on this site and CALENDAR...so that it is something where everyone who is a member of the site knows it is happening, but I just want to make sure we're crystal clear on that issue.

2. Would the series also include South Zone events on the MFA/PDGA calendar? Those events should all be on our calendar already. However, if you play in Spamtown or the Cedar Creek Open (as examples), I assume that they would also count towards the Series, right? I'm just not sure how you would score the "1 point for everyone you beat in your class" in a situation like that...unless you'll manually have to weed-out non-SMDGA site members to calculate those SMDGA Series points...and it's one point for every other SMDGA member that you beat. (?) But in that instance, the TDs might not be coming in here to post their tournament results...since they might not know to if they live outside of the Zone and/or are not active on this site.

Great idea though! I'm 120% behind the idea of getting more of our events as MSTs too. Bring more cash back down here to the South every November without having to log a few thousand miles on the car every Summer. ;-)

[Dean Anderson]

Good questions Derek.

I'll be checking the website and calendar at least weekly, usually Monday nights, and keeping notes on which events are on here. If there isn't an event on the website or calendar for that past weekend, then they won't be included.

All south zone events are eligible. You get a point for every person you beat, regardless of zone or division. So if there are 30 people from all over the state and you beat 20 of them, you'll get 10 pts for entering and 20 pts for scoring better than 20 people. That means I will have to sort the entire tourny by scores, but that won't be too difficult.

Is this alright? If people don't like it, we need to change it now. I just wanted to keep it simple, but it might be too simple. If anything, we can use it for this year to see how it works.

I do want to clarify that a person does not need to live in the south zone, which is different than what I originally stated. They just need to be a member of this site. All tournaments must be in the south zone though.

Dean

[Dean Anderson]

Attached is a map of zone bourndaries, per the MFA.

[Derek Tonn]

All works for me. I just am trying to think of "devil's advocate" stuff that could cause avoidable waves in the middle of the process. Hmm....like some left-handed INT with red hair announcing that he was running five tournaments/week on M-F afternoons in Springfield from April-October while playing hookie from work...just to score the 1,800+ points! :-) j/k

So....as a map-maker, can I say that the MFA Zone Boundaries map in .pdf (from the MFA Yahoo site) is UGLY?! LOL. I'd volunteer to make 'em a better one...but every year I hear rumblings about boundaries possibly shifting just a bit. I personally wish they'd go with County boundaries as opposed to highways (would be SO much simpler figuring out which Zone a course is in if it is close to the "line")...but for now, it is what it is. Like Hudson, Wisconsin being included in the MFA East Zone. Er, it's in the "Metro," but not a part of "Minnesota." Is it in or isn't it?! :-)

[Dean Anderson]

Yeah, no league-like tournaments! We're not playing for money or anything big, so all we can do is ask that people keep it honest. We really can't enforce anything, so hopefully people don't try to pull any shananigans like that. It does kind of worry me though. What do you suggest?

[Derek Tonn]

Not sure how to formally avoid shenanigans. That is a tough one.

I don't think we have too much to worry about unless the prizes at the end of the year are a new Audi TT and 50 free hours of putting lessons from Dean Anderson or 50 free hours of thumber lessons from Jason and Dustin! :-) We all seem to get along very well and shenanigans would probably burn a lot of bridges (and none of us want to lose the friendships and support we currently have with others in the Zone). It's just something that we should be aware of going in...so that if it does start to rear its ugly head if the Points Race is successful and becomes MUCH more competitive, we've had time to think about nipping it in the bud.

[Derek Tonn]

Dean,

Not sure if this is useful, but I am adding a link to a .pdf file of all the nuts and bolts associated with the MFA's MST series. The info describes some of what is required to have an event formally be a part of that Series...though not all of those requirements are in there. At any rate, see if that file is of any use! Thanks again.

[jpedersm]

this looks easy enough I like this way better. When will this start is fairmont going to be on this system or not?

[Dean Anderson]

Thanks Justin. Fairmont will be included, assuming they're ok with it. I contacted Boese about the Pipestone event, but that was a just for fun get together, so it looks like Fairmont will be the first one.

[Clint Froderman]

ok so in the blizzard bowl, i beat two ppl, justin and luke, but i tied with with tony, but that don't count so i would have 10 for entering plus 2 for the 2 ppl I beat, totaling 12pts. Correct??

[Matt Vogel]

I really like this idea.. I was thinking about something like this the other day when I was looking on the Website.. It adds a little competition but not enough for people to be greedy and mean about it.. Sounds Great!

[Dean Anderson]

You are correct, Clint. I'll have points up tomorrow night.