Dennis "Whitey" Young
Verified Member
in our town we play bcapl 8 ball league, and we went to their fargo handicap system. Each team has 5 players. You total up each player's fargo rating on each team. Say a team has a total of a 3000 pt. fargo rating, and their opponent team has a 2000 pt. fargo rating. 3000 - 2000 = 1000.
Now divide 1000 by 50, and that gives you the handicap per round of play, which is 20.
This system really helps the slightly higher than middle of the road local small town players and their teams. It can also benefit teams with much less skilled players. But teams that have higher skilled players it is devastating.
Bcapl has 3 different types of handicap systems, which I have studied. We use to play by a 10 point system, but it heavily favors the higher skilled teams, they have never lost. The reason being is that we did not rate the lesser skilled players low enough to offset this disparity, for it was run by a president that believed the higher skilled teams should win, and boy did they. But still the league thrived for mainly the players play for fun.
But the fargo system works nice if you adjust to fit your league, and in accordance that a fair handicap system makes every team play well to win. A lot of players feel that the less skilled players should get better if they want to compete, but where is the incentive for the higher skilled players/teams if they always win.
So, the bcapl fargo system is easy to adjust, you just divide by a greater number, say 60. 1000 divided by 60 now creates the handicap to be 17 balls vs. what was 20.
My team is loaded with talent, and if we lost 1 or 2 games out of 25 games we would lose the match severely. We raised our win/loss percentage up by 20% and still did not get into the top 4 teams for a payout. Whereas other teams that made it into the top 4 did not have to play any better.
So it can be adjusted!
I should conclude with; bcapl does have a few towns that do have OP leagues. I do not know how it works, the handicap, format. But as you can see; a 650 fargo plays a 550 in OP, you divide the difference of 100 pts. by 50 and you get 2. Would this translate to an 8-6 handicap, I have no idea.
Or, 8 games to 6, and reduced would be 4 games to 3.
Then in a short race to 3, would then the alternating break be a consideration; 1 break would be 8-5, the next 8-7, averages 8-6.
Whitey
Now divide 1000 by 50, and that gives you the handicap per round of play, which is 20.
This system really helps the slightly higher than middle of the road local small town players and their teams. It can also benefit teams with much less skilled players. But teams that have higher skilled players it is devastating.
Bcapl has 3 different types of handicap systems, which I have studied. We use to play by a 10 point system, but it heavily favors the higher skilled teams, they have never lost. The reason being is that we did not rate the lesser skilled players low enough to offset this disparity, for it was run by a president that believed the higher skilled teams should win, and boy did they. But still the league thrived for mainly the players play for fun.
But the fargo system works nice if you adjust to fit your league, and in accordance that a fair handicap system makes every team play well to win. A lot of players feel that the less skilled players should get better if they want to compete, but where is the incentive for the higher skilled players/teams if they always win.
So, the bcapl fargo system is easy to adjust, you just divide by a greater number, say 60. 1000 divided by 60 now creates the handicap to be 17 balls vs. what was 20.
My team is loaded with talent, and if we lost 1 or 2 games out of 25 games we would lose the match severely. We raised our win/loss percentage up by 20% and still did not get into the top 4 teams for a payout. Whereas other teams that made it into the top 4 did not have to play any better.
So it can be adjusted!
I should conclude with; bcapl does have a few towns that do have OP leagues. I do not know how it works, the handicap, format. But as you can see; a 650 fargo plays a 550 in OP, you divide the difference of 100 pts. by 50 and you get 2. Would this translate to an 8-6 handicap, I have no idea.
Or, 8 games to 6, and reduced would be 4 games to 3.
Then in a short race to 3, would then the alternating break be a consideration; 1 break would be 8-5, the next 8-7, averages 8-6.
Whitey
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