[FSPA] FSPA Fall Survey Results, Winners, and new rules in the works!

[steve]

Hey folks, as you recall we sent out a survey last month soliciting your insights into the last two seasons.  Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond and contribute to our efforts to make the best pinball league possible!
We also have prizes to distribute for our drawing.  Winners were selected by random number draw from eligible respondents.  Our winners of the $25 Amazon cards are:
Bob Mertz from Mustang Sally BrewingandBrian Kapinos from Ocelot Brewing
Unfortunately we did not reach the boosted levels in number of responses, so there are just two winners for this survey.  Keep an eye out soon for a follow-up (much shorter!) survey we are working on and will be sending out this season regarding prizes and your preferences.
So what about the results??You can review the responses to the survey on the FSPA Website here  
What are we doing with the results?

The TLDR version...   
   - We have formalized a new Drop2 format that includes redrawing groups at the start of the meet (Roll Call Grouping) to ensure groups are full (no 1 or 2 player groups).  This replaces the experimental Drop2 used previously.
   - If your league uses the new Roll Call Grouping model, it's essential you make a SLO aware if you are running late
   - Individual Leagues will decide if they use this new format, or use the existing FSPA preplay models.  So keep an eye on your league's announcements or talk to your SLO.

More details...
The FSPA exec committee aims to meet after each season to work through the association's administrative tasks and any topics that came up during the league seasons that may need follow-up.  You all as league players may also raise concerns or proposals for the exec committee to discuss prior to the meeting by sending your topic/proposal to info at fspazone.org.  
During our Jan 4 meeting, we discussed take aways from the survey as well as retrospectives on the experimental Drop2 seasons we ran.  A consistent message regarding the Drop2 format was the negative feedback regarding groups with only 1 or 2 players due to absences.  After discussing the feedback and lessons learned regarding the Drop2 experiments, we settled on the following:
   
   - A new DropN Qualifying format is being added to the FSPA rule set to implement a playoff qualifying model that drops a player's N lowest week totals when determining playoff spots (Like we used in the prior Drop2 seasons)
   
   - This basically brings a refined version of Drop2 to the formal FSPA rules that leagues may opt to use.
   
   - A new Roll Call Grouping model added to the FSPA rule set where player groups for the night will be formed using only players who are physically present for the league meet.  At the pre-set time prior to picking games, the SLO will take attendance for the meet.  Groups for the match will be redrawn -excluding the players- who are not present.  Absent players get zero points for the meet, but will be re-inserted into the Ladder after the meet results are computed.  This model is intended to be used with leagues using DropN qualifying so that player groups will always be full and to ensure absent players don't artificially drop in the ladder.  Players who will be late/tardy for the meet will need to contact their SLO prior to roll call to avoid being counted absent.  Existing 15min grace for late players who contact their SLO prior to roll call.
   - Leagues will continue to be able to declare what absentee model they will use for their season.  Options include the previous Preplay models (Banking or Dated) or the new DropN qualifying format.  Leagues will declare prior to their season start the format they will use for that season.
These changes are still being incorporated into the proper FSPA rules documents so these changes are not visible on the website as of yet.  But keep an eye out for announcements and the league webpages for details on what format they will be using.

More details will be available soon, but if you have more questions or would like to discuss in detail - I encourage you to join our FSPA Slack server where we have live discussions on this any just about any other pinball topic.  Join by clicking here  
Thanks again for your time and we'll see you all in the new league seasons soon!-Steve Kapinos
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.fspazone.org/pipermail/fspa/attachments/20220116/14dd477e/attachment.htm>