Thu Jul 31, 2014 11:23 am
I've read over the various comments - thanks to everyone who posted, including the original post by l.strether.
This tournament is called the Players Championship, so its important that it is inter-active and accessible to all of the participants. I will always welcome "constructive criticism" and ideas as long as I am the commissioner, and I hope that's how the tournament will always feel for everyone!
My sense is that this idea is perhaps 60% or 67% liked by the participants who commented, although there are a few that would prefer a straight auto-draft. There were some logical reasons expressed by the players who are in favour of the 2-round draft.
The main counter-argument, as expressed by l.strether, is that it provides a big advantage to people who do well in event 1, which is only 1 of the 5 events in the PC tournament.
I think I understand this concern. It makes it a little bit like a card game in which the people with the advantage from winning a round or hand or "trick" keep the advantage into the next round, hand or "trick". I think the argument is that this might not be the right approach for a PC tournament, and might discourage people from continuing to participate into event 5.
I would point out that the rules were articulated and posted as soon as the sign up sheet was posted. More importantly, I don't see this 2 round draft as being a very big advantage - ESPECIALLY if it is a serpentine draft, in which the person with the 12th pick also has the 13th pick (i.e. the last pick in the first round, but the first pick in the second round, and so on). It's important to me that, of the people that support the two round draft for event 5, many of them expressed preference for the serpentine draft. I also note that a preference was expressed for a system in which you can pick EITHER a player OR a ballpark in round 1.
I believe that this two round draft introduces an element of additional strategy for event 5, which I think is inherently interesting and fun.
I could go on, but I'm under time pressure at the moment. I can take more time for Q and A later.
Ruling - two round draft stands, but serpentine, with the option to pick either a player or a ballpark in round 1, with the round 2 pick being used to pick a ballpark if not already taken in round 1.
Thanks to everyone who posted!
Geoff Brookes
commissioner