Subject: pro bowling and pro magic
Date: Thu, 21 May 1998 14:02:15 -0400
From: Nina Cavlier <ninawc@sprintmail.com>
To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com

Well.. since it seems to be the hot topic, i figure its time for my 2 cents to be
thrown in the pile with everyone else. Now for those of you who are not very keen
about the pro bowlers tour, they have to have a PBA card that allows them to bowl
in the pba tour qualifiers for a specific event, to attain this card they must do
certain things (i.e. have a maintained average of 200 in a specific league{i think})
and also certain top professionals have exemptions to these qualifiers, which
means thta the top pro's do not have to qualify to bowl in the main tournament.
Once the main tournament starts they bowl a set amount of games and then cut to a
top 24 and those bowlers then cut to a final 4 and that is what you see on tv
on saturday.

Now in relation to magic.. this system used by the pba is very similar to the one
used by the dci/wotc for pro tours. new players and relatively unknowns have to
run the gauntlet of a pro tour qualifier event to be invited to the pro tour. but
where magic differs is that it has a field of roughly 200 people already qualified
for the next pro tour.. what i am sayin gis that once you make the pro tour its
too easy to keep it going. It should be that only the top 32 in addition to their
prize money get an invitiation to the next pro tour event and only the next pro
tour event. There should be no other exemption to running the ptq gauntlet, since
in bowling you have to have won an event in the last 3 years to have a exemption
in that sport. (yes i do believe that M:tg is a sport.. same as chess as far as i
care.) Now, to fix the ptq's to accomidate the larger amount of people that would
have to qualify.. make it like regionals in that the whole top 8 no matter the size
of the field at the ptq gets a pro tour invitation. That would make it a best of
the best pro tour event.. not just half has-beens riding in on exemptions for life
from winning a pro tour or worlds many years ago and the rest being the players
that were lucky/skilled enough to have made it through the ptq's all the way to
the pro tour.

Now.. next item on the list.. Worlds. This is THE pro tour event every year, and
as such should have a larger road to travel to get there (not just in travel time).
Only the top 8 from each pro tour should get invitiations to worlds, and as before
there should be no other way to auto-qualify for worlds, much like the pro tour.
Now i like the regionals/nationals system for worlds.. it really makes the cream
of the crop rise to the top (pardon the rhyme), and as such only the best/luckiest
players should be able to play at the highest level of competitive magic. Now
maybe the teams that go for worlds competition should also have an invitiation to
play individually.. that i really didnt think about too much, but unlike the
normal pro tour events.. only the top 8 of worlds that year qualify for the next
worlds event next year.

Now.. for the pro tour system. I have not been to a pro tour myself.. so i may
just be another whiner saying that its not fair that i suck and cant play on the
pro tour.. well.. thats too bad for me. but i do believe that the normal tournament
system is amazingly screwed up. The first elimination rounds which decide the top
64/96 should be counted normally, but when you make the cut to the top 64/96
you are playing against a higher level of competition and as such you should be
rewarded even more for a win. So a win in the second day of competition should
be 5 points instead of just 3 for a normal win, and the resistance should count
maybe twice as much, because you should not be penalized for playing a lesser
opponent in the early rounds.. this current system has that happen way too much
with too many "has-been's" and "never will be's" running around thinking they can
run with the big dogs still. and as such they will be weeded out and the real
competition begins witht he top 64/96. (side note) This also runs true with the
pro bowlers tour, since after the cut the top 24 go into match play and the winner
of each match is awarded an additional 30 pins to his overall score for the
tournament, and as such a person who wins in a top 64/96 should also be rewarded
with more points since they are facing tougher competition. Then they cut to the
finals where you start from scratch and its best 3/5 winner moves on loser goes
home (bowling is a stepladder style finals where #5 seed bowls #4,winner to bowl #3
and so forth.) Now this could just be a simple top 8 or maybe even a top 16 where
you have to win one fo the matches to earn the invite to the next pro tour event.

Comments,flames,discussions, email me at ninawc@sprintmail.com or find me
on IRC as freeko.

thank you for reading,

Bill Walter