[FSPA] League questions - player opinions wanted

[Wei-Hwa Huang]

On Sat, May 11, 2024 at 8:08 AM Sergio Johnson via FSPA <fspa at fspazone.org>
wrote:

> The private feedback that I’ve gotten so far is that folks really hate the
> wide disparities in skill levels seen in the early weeks of the new system.
> It was not a fun experience for them. Unfortunately that’s the cost of
> doing business with the IFPA. If anyone has any additional feedback on that
> or other topics, I’d love to hear it!
>

Encountering the wide disparity in skill level was the first big culture
shock when I moved from FSPA to BAPA twenty years ago. Over here at BAPA
there's not really a ladder; everyone justs get re-sorted based on the
previous week's score.  So I was often playing against players of much
wider skill level, and frankly, I hated it too.

But in those early years, when I asked around if people would prefer a
system more like FSPA's ladder, the common refrain I got was "I like being
able to play against a wide range of players and meet more people in the
league.  Playing against the same group of people week after week sounds
boring."

I highly doubt this is due to some Washington vs. California culture clash;
I think this mostly goes to show how strong factors like tradition and
"what you're used to" matter in things like this. So my perspective on that
point is, if the league is growing, don't worry too much about people who
don't like the new system. There are good and bad things about it, and
after a few years most people will get used to it. There will always be
some folks who like the "traditional ways" but they'll be offset by the
folks who like the new ways more.

Having said that, though, I would be curious to know what specific
interaction with the IFPA caused the redesign. Based on my interaction with
the IFPA, my understanding is that they are rather generous with giving
leagues free rein in how league competition is structured.  Some structures
may result in fewer WPPRs than others, but that doesn't seem to be
your problem.  Looking at the league rules for IFPA (
https://www.ifpapinball.com/definitions/ ), the only thing I see is the
rule "All participants of an IFPA sanctioned tournament must have a chance
to win the highest division available if they want to be included in the
results submitted to IFPA."  But that doesn't prohibit the ladder system
per se, it just means that, for anyone who doesn't have a chance of winning
(say someone in the lowest groups on the ladder system), you can't include
their names in the IFPA submission and they don't get WPPR points.  But for
those people, WPPR probably doesn't matter anyway, they're in the lower
groups!  So what am I missing here?  Why did the FSPA decide that the old
system wasn't compatible with the IFPA?

-- 
Wei-Hwa Huang, onigame at gmail.com
-----------------------------------------------------------
Mad scientists are often wrongfully accused of using science for evil.
We're using evil for science; that's totally different!
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.fspazone.org/pipermail/fspa/attachments/20240512/3fca8004/attachment.htm>