ABC Points Ranking Details

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Gary Fluitt
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Post by Gary Fluitt » Wed Mar 12, 2003 9:13 am

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<B>ABC Points</B>

The ABC points ranking for 2003 is posted up at http://www.asphaltplayground.com/home_points.html for your review.

The purpose of the ABC points ranking is to recognize races and racers from all over the world in a more comprehensive ranking system. Points will not be used qualify racers or otherwise seed racers in any events at this point. The ABC rankings are a way to recognize competition and to award racers for significant accomplishment.

All the details are at the URL above. Thanks to those who helped devise the system. We look forward to a great season of racing.

Gary Fluitt, Jack Smith.

Leonardo Ojeda
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Post by Leonardo Ojeda » Wed Mar 12, 2003 4:18 pm

Congrats on this idea!!

Now i know we can get points for our local races!!! yay


thanx for internationalize the sprot.

leo

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<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Leonardo Ojeda on 2003-03-12 10:18 ]</font>

Brady Mitchell
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Post by Brady Mitchell » Thu Mar 13, 2003 5:13 am

Gary and Jack,
I post with trepidation as for saying what goes against the grain but I see a disadvantage in the awarding of points to those not living closely to california.

First off, to qualify for an "A" race, it is mandatory that racers from the 2002 FCR series be in attendance. While I applaud Jack, Don, and John for thier efforts in 2002, it seems quite clear that most west coasters have shown little desire to attend races outside of driving distance fron cali. The flip side is that it takes great amounts of excersize to attend the FCR races if you live an extended distance. And many did in fact go through those efforts.

Secondly, there is no incentive for west coasters to travel east or across the pond for that matter. West coasters could just black ball those far away events and have a very negative impact on them and thier points awarding status and thus ensure thier success in scoring points at thier local events.

I may be reading more into this but I think your goal is to have a global thing that promotes slaloming to our global community.

Take the 1st World Championship and the swiss` success thier. Now how many of those guys routinely attended this past years events of the FCR`s? And if the swiss comps had no racers from the 2002 FCR series attend any of thier events in 2003, how fair would that be to thier awarding of points?

I know I only proposed problems and no solutions but maybe a discussion of this could be fruitful?

Maybe have racers attend races that are over 1500 miles away in a certain percentage of the races they attend? Would that draw West Coaters over east or across the pond? Would it draw more racers from outside cali to the FCR races of 2003?

Still, I aplaud your efforts. Good luck, Brady

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Post by Hans Koraeus » Fri Mar 14, 2003 3:36 am

Just a small comment about the name ABC. Isn't that a TV channel or something "over there". Even though very long I had prefered the full name "Asphaltplayground Bahne-Cadillac Ranking".
Better publicity for the sponsors too. :wink:

Gary Fluitt
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Post by Gary Fluitt » Fri Mar 14, 2003 7:17 am

Brady - thanks for your comments.
As for the example you raised that no FCR ranked racers (or not enough of them by the criteria) traveled to Europe so they can't qualify for A level, I think I called that out specifically as a flaw in the criteria FOR EUROPEAN RACES ONLY, and that we would work with those guys to find an equitable solution.
Even so, the guys in Europe would likely agree that the level of competition in Europe has been a little soft as compared to the U.S. in 2002. Would you disagree with that? I'm not being derogatory here, I'm just saying, right now the West coast is where the talent is. So how am I suppose to compare the Tunnel Race in Switzerland to say La Costa? Wasn't Paul Price one of the fastest guys there? Paul raced in the Amatuer class in the U.S. So how do I compare that with Chicken, Dunn, Carrasco, Ransom, Mollica, Gilmour and all those guys?

So you see my dilema. Honestly I think it will take about 18-24 months for the Europeans to get competition revived on the continent to the level of the FCR races from last year. Jani and Chris and Micheal and all those guys will definately get it going. Then we'll have the AFC and the NFC and we have some interesting global comps. I hope it happens sooner, but even more importantly, I hope US racers go over there and race the Euros on Euro courses and get our asses handed to us, so we can get a good comparrison.
And I understand your point that pinning more points on East coast races might incent the West coast guys to travel out East for some "easy points". I would love it if the ABC points had that much of value to the west coast guys, but I'm not so optimistic. I think it would just piss off the west coast guys if we said the DC Outlaw series was an "A" race, and then eveyone would blow this thing off. ABC points are not how we're going to get the West to travel East. PRIZE MONEY WILL. Find a couple of minor sponors and I can guarantee you that Dunn will be on a Frontier Airline flight to race you.

Oh Yeah- Tie Breakers. There could be a tie for points. Wes is helping with this. We're thinking first tie breaker criteria would be # of races raced. Those with the greatest number of races advance in a tie. If both racers have the same # of races, we look to see if they've ever faced each other. Faster racer in all occurances when they've been in the same race would decide. If their still tied, hell if I know. Flip a coin at that point.

Eric Groff
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Post by Eric Groff » Fri Mar 14, 2003 8:10 am

Gary-The likelyhood of there being ties with the ABC system is pretty hard to come by, for instance, look at the 2002 FCR points system, 5 thru 8, 9 thru 16 and 17 thru 32 all recieve the same points, How many ties were there in the 2002 season?

The ABC system alots individual points thru out, If there was a tie, it would probably be within the bottom feeder ranks and big deal? its just a tie! if there is no money, no trophy, then those that tie are simply TIED, so what!

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Post by Chris Eggers » Fri Mar 14, 2003 8:26 am

Just as a reminder not only for Paul Dunn: the organisers of the Grueningen/Switzerland Race on June 21st/22nd will give out 1.000 Swiss Francs to the fastest racer. It is up!

Secondly, I am sure we can offer free transportation from Frankfurt, Germany or Zürich Airports to Grüningen and the accommodation for the whole weekend is free, too. I am very sure that there can be free sleeping places and car seats (maybe with gas sharing) arranged in a great number. Just try to sort things out well ahead of time.

[quote]
ABC points are not how we're going to get the West to travel East. PRIZE MONEY WILL. Find a couple of minor sponors and I can guarantee you that Dunn will be on a Frontier Airline flight to race you.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: chris eggers on 2003-03-14 07:50 ]</font>

Brady Mitchell
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Post by Brady Mitchell » Fri Mar 14, 2003 1:28 pm

Gary,
First off, it`s a gargantuan task you and Jack have taken on. I am greatful youse guys did.

But lets take an example of what-ifs...

An east coast up and coming skater, who may be perhaps of top quality as lets say one of the top 5 from 2002 FCR series. He races only back east as travel expenses and time off are too much for him to travel west for the FCR series of 2003. Now, since there`s a bunch of races already scheduled on the east coast but none of the top 20 riders of the 2002 series show up. And why should they? They have a better chance of earning points on the west coast because those races EARN more points.

I agree that east coast races currently don`t offer the high caliber of racers that the west do. But there just is no incentive for west coasters to travel. Maybe the trick is not saying so and so race is an "A" race to draw out west coast contestants. Maybe something like "a so and so percentage of races MUST be from a distance of greater than 2000 miles in order to qualify for ABC points". That way, all racers are encouraged to travel. And thus offer a truly world competion to all.

But to say that races are qualified buy a predominately californian top echelon and those racers don`t travel, then you`re just encouraged a west coast only participation.

In must "world" sports, the participants do a lot of traveling...soccer, auto racing, bicycling, etc.

Anyhoos, I`m sure you`ll work the bugs out.
Regards, Brady

PS, maybe the same lattitude extended to the euros should be extended to east coast USers?

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Brady Mitchell on 2003-03-14 07:51 ]</font>

George Gould
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Post by George Gould » Sat Mar 15, 2003 3:12 am

if I wanted to race some kinda car that went around in circles real fast i would have to go to Indianapolis, surf the pipe go to Hawaii, Formula 1=Europe, it doesn't snow around the equater, Eskimos don't do very well in skimboard competitions, and Eddie the Eagle didn't ski jump very well because England has zero ski jumps. if i wanted to ride a bull i'd move to Texas, there aren't too many pro golfers from Greenland or Iceland for that matter. if one wants to climb a mountain you must find a mountain to climb...

The point is sometimes one has to go where the action is.

Eric Groff
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Post by Eric Groff » Sat Mar 15, 2003 3:48 am

well said george

John Gilmour
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Post by John Gilmour » Sat Mar 15, 2003 5:16 am

You must go where the action is- because there are few Arizona skaters right now. But when you start to hit "critical mass" of say 30 skaters- you have to stoke the fire and try to bring that up to 40 skaters.


That is the East coast right now. Look at the numbers for "da farm 2. The scene definitely needs an injection of more racers because you can't alwys have the same 30 guys racing each other.

Europe has skaters as well- and could use the addittion of USA skaters competeing.

The biggest slalom mecca I ever saw. Switzerland. Ask Chris Yandall- he saw it. But we should try and have a few good competition scenes- not just concentrate everything in one place or the thing will stagnate.

Sr. Gould- you've gotta start collecting all those frequent flyer miles- hope to see you at "da farm 3.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: John Gilmour on 2003-03-14 23:17 ]</font>

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