To be honest, the whole dividing thing is a little strange in my opinion. Yes there were 3 events held over the 2 days, which requires a lot of effort and time to attend. But the current system massively impacts those events going to those lengths of holding more than 1 comp. I understand it was in the rules prior, I just think it’s wrong. Surely how hard it was to win each comp has been made clear by the points awarded by the IFPA? I also get that you want to encourage people going to all the events, rather than just those holding multiple tournaments. It just seems a crazy penalty at the moment and not indicative of the actual skill involved. To win all 3 tournaments at Neil’s would be worth 7 points less than winning the one tourney at EC! That’s a bit crazy right? I think separating them into 3 separate comps would probably be fairer, but I do understand the decision that was made and why
And I respect all of those decisions and know that you make the decisions with due diligence and consideration for wanting to grow the UK scene.
I just don't think it's a true indication of skill. Which surely will always impact what the UKCS is and can be. Surely more pinball is always better, in this instance it absolutely isn't. The UKCS is actually discouraging multi day events (in terms of the points being distributed) happening which I think is wrong.
Personally, I agree with everything
@roadshow16 has posted.
The fact that out of 3 competitions at Neil's, Craig came 2nd in one and won another, gaining a total of 50.67 IFPA points, yet gets 16.89 UKCS points, whereas
@Jackpot came 3rd in the one Electric Circus event and gets 19.91 UKCS points doesn't accurately reflect the level of difficulty involved. I mean, even 4th place at EC was worth 16.63 points!
Looking forward to the UK Open, it's entirely possible (mathematically) that someone could win the main competition, beating some of the best players in the world, (taking Peter Anderson's score from last year of 75.42 points), and end up with 18.75 UKCS points, less than 3rd place at the EC event.
Don't get me wrong, I do understand that the rules were set at the start of this year, and that for 2023, the rules are the rules.
I also understand that the aim of the UKCS is to promote pinball and encourage people to go to as many different venues as possible.
I think it's also the case that when the rules were decided, they probably seemed ok, but as the season unfolds and actual scores are recorded, the reality then becomes far clearer.
I'm not claiming to have any answers to what should happen in 2024 (I don't), and I also understand that if multi competition events were counted individually, then someone just attending a few of these could score highly and there would perhaps be a disincentive to travel to more single comp events, which is counter to the aim of the UKCS.
I just think that given how things are panning out for 2023, there should be some careful thought put in to revising the rules for 2024 to achieve a more balanced outcome than the picture that is unfolding for this season.