Hello,

I wanted to wrap up the discussion of the Mega-matchplay format that was discussed prior to teh tournament on an earlier thread.  

First off, I thought it was one of our better events.  I felt a really good 'vibe' all day long, thought the shot was interesting, and thought Peggy and Deer Valley were gracious hosts. I want to thank the Warren family and DryLanes.com, and Storm for sponsoring the event, which allowed us to award over $2,800 in scholarships.

Ok, here's the good stuff:  Below is a list of the actual finishers (before stepladder) of the event, and then on the right what they would have finished in our 'normal' 3-game semi format (given the same match results based on scores, obviously that may or may not have changed with individual match pressure), and lastly the change +/- that the 'mega-matchplay' gave them:

Rank    Mega-Finish     Regular Finish (score)     +/- benefit from Mega
1       Jensen          Douthit (+252)             +2
2       Warren          Caldwell (+182)            +2
3       Douthit         Jensen (+181)              -2
4       Caldwell        Warren (+172)              -2
5       Black           Grant (+154)               +1
6       Weyrauch        Black (+153)               +2
7       Anderson        Florez (+138)              +6
8       Ornelas         Weyrauch (+136)            +8
9       Florez          Saunders (+131)            -2
10      King            Donnelly (+99)             +1
11      Saunders        King (+95)                 -2
12      Grant           Baker (+54)                -7
13      Cote            Anderson (+50)             +4
14      Jefferson       Byer (+49)                 +4
15      Peck            Schoenfeld (+40)           +4
16      Wilson          Ornelas (+36)              +8
17      Byer            Cote (+25)                 -3
18      Baker           Jefferson (+10)            -6
19      Mason           Peck (-5)                  +3
20      Schoenfeld      Sheffey (-21)              -5
21      Donnelly        Porter (-29)               -11
22      Porter          Mason (-31)                -1
23      McPherson       McPherson (-41)            0
24      Sheffey         Wilson (-41)               -3
25      Varholdt        Garbera (-57)              +1
26      Garbera         Varholdt (-62)             -1
27      Rubin           Rubin (-79)                0
28      Kremer          Kremer (-91)               0
29      Thurber         Thurber (-130)             0
30      Wiltfang        Wiltfang (-150)            0

A couple of clear points to make:

1) If you had a bad round, you finished near the bottom no matter what the format (the bottom third had little or no change in their position).

2) The top four REMAINED THE TOP FOUR in BOTH FORMATS, though in slightly different order.  Theo went on to win the stepladder in mega-matchplay, so I guess it all worked out.  Good bowling was justly rewarded.

3) Of the 30 semifinalists, only 6 bowlers had changes of 6 or more spots up or down.  The biggest gainers (+8) were Ornelas, Wilson, and Anderson, all of who had excellent semifinal rounds, and were rewarded for them through the mega-format.  Similarly, Grant and Baker had not-so-hot semifinals to drop 6 and 7 spots, while the big dropper, Donnelly, had an awesome qualifying round, but a terrible mega-round, and thus paid a commensurate penalty.  20 of the 30  bowlers didn't move up or down more than 3 places, reflective of so-so semifinal rounds.

So...

   I think it was a great format.  Good results were rewarded even more than usual, and bad results were punished even worse.  If you were so-so in this format, you were so-so in any other format.  If you stunk in this one (to be honest), you stunk in any other one.

  Shouldn't the point of a different format be to reward different aspects than a different format?  Why else have a different format?  

  I know those bonuses are eye-popping (Christian qualified first at +2450 or something), but it's not as big as it sounds since the bonuses were awarded in INCREMENTS of 30.  The high game got 870 bonus pins, but DIDN'T GAIN 870 pins on the field, he gained 30 on 2nd place (who got 840), 60 on 3rd, etc.  It was quite easy to make up (or lose) big ground, therefore.  A blown spare could cost you 3 or 4 spots in the rank of scores, thus 90 or 120 pins vs. the field.  I think this put an absolute premium on 1)both spares AND big strike strings, a rare combo, and 2) mental toughness, and I think it was an excellent test.

  An everyday format?  Heck no.  A great twist?  Yup.  But, if everyone hates it (and let me emphasize this message board is an awfully poor representation of 'everyone'), we won't do it.            

  Alright, that took forever to work out-- I want some feeback!  Especially AZBowlr and others who didn't like it before the event even happened (I'm not calling you out dude, I just want some response  :-)  !!).  If you still hate it, that's cool, but I'm pretty happy with how it came out.

Thanks,
Jeff, JBT SW
www.jbtsw.com


Edited on 11/1/2005 1:13 PM