Given Up Cont.;Lesson from Colorado

I am going to respond to some of the comments with lessons from Colorado. I do this because there are some really good illustrations for this discussion.  Colorado is really one of the best run events using the current formats.

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"
In the past several years there have been more than a half dozen events where the event winner had been eliminated with four x s only to be put back into the event by the CFDA resurrection to fill the magnificent shoot off.  The most recent was the 2018 Southern wherein Quick Cal was resurrected and then won the event.  This happens frequently. What this tells you is that sometimes the best shooter at the event is eliminated before he or she gets to the shoot off.  What we don't know is how often the best shooter is eliminated by the format and he/she is not resurrected to fill the vacancy.

From Colorado: I and Okie Ed were each shooting well enough to win the State Championships but neither of us made to the shoot offs because of the luck of the draw.  In the final rounds of the main match, we drew each other in consecutive rounds. We were evenly matched, matches going 2 to 2, final shot on quickness, splitting the matches, each missing out on the shoot-off because of those two matches.  Okie Ed won the shoot off for place between us finishing 7th.  Since it was a Fubby Five instead Magnificent Seven, Okie Ed, did not get the opportunity to see if he was the best gunfighter there.  (My distain for the Fubby Five does not come from Colorado, but from the last Arizona State Championship where I finished 7th)

Also from Colorado an illustration that the format may not be working as well as we think is the final standings of the State and Territorial.  The top two shooters in the standings of the State did not make the final shoot-offs of the Territorial.  The top two shooters of the Territorial did not make the shoot-offs of the State.  If these four shooters were truly the best four gunslingers at these events you would expect that they would be in the shoot-offs of both events or at a minimum at least one of them would make the finals of both event.  

Luck of the draw is such a big factor in how you place.  I did well winning the jackpot shoot and placing 2nd in the Master Gunfighter Bracket, but I have no illusions.  "I was lucky in the draw, but then I have always been lucky when ....."  When it gets down to the top 20% of an event, not only do you need to be lucky in your draw, but you need to be lucky in who the rest of the field draws. It really helps when someone else takes out that shooter that you can not handle, whether by speed, accuracy, or mental toughness. In the jackpot shoot and the bracket shoot the draws were favorable for me, in the main events not so much.

" I get fourth seed in the main match...stripped of qualifying seed.." 
This is a valid concern but stems from our difficulty of accepting change.  It is no different from the 6th or 7th seeds in fubby five matches.  At least in the format changes I am proposing those almost made it places have two more days of shooting to make it to the shoot offs. The fact that repeatedly eliminated shooters win events means there is a need for a resurrections element in our formats.

At Colorado only one shooter, Two Buck Chuck, made the magnificent shoot-offs in both events.  Expanding the fubby five to a Magnificent 7 does not change it, only one still made both. 

Time, Time, Time: 
When you consider event format and match format, it is a balancing act.  To mitigate the adverse effects of luck of the draw you need a higher elimination factor.  To get more x s, you need more range time. That can be done by either shortening match length or eliminating side matches.  My vote would be to eliminate side matches.

At Colorado we shot a jackpot shoot on one range with 47 shooters in 4 hours.  It was Nevada Eight 2x shoot.  Since the time taken for Nevada Eight is about the same as Three Winning shots, I am sure we can easily shoot 100 shooters on two ranges 2 x in about five hours. I really think we could shoot 100 shooters on two ranges 3x the first day, shooting down to three. The second day we could again shoot 3 winning shots 3x down to three shooters.  There have been a lot of state shoots shooting 4 x three winning shots in one day.

Side matches consume range time and we shoot side matches just to occupy eliminated shooters.  It is really unnecessary.  It you don't eliminate shooters until noon the third day you  don't need the side matches.

Another thing that takes range time is place shoot-offs. At Colorado, there were a lot of shoot-offs for place.  The rules say place for recognized places must be determined by a shoot-off and not by x count and time out.  The solution to this is how you structure recognized places.  If your recognized places are the Magnificent 7 and the top three places in the bracket shoots, then all the recognized places are determined on the line by the format without shoot-offs. That would be 29 places recognized on the line although some of those places would be taken by the same shooters. (Ladies 7, Men 7, and five brackets 3 each, Master Gunfighter, Gunfighter. Sheriff, Deputy and Shootist for a total of 29) For 100 shooters that is 29% of the shooter which is comparable to what most shoots do now.

Thinking about time again, there is no reason we can not shoot 100 shooters on two ranges, main match 3x three winning shots, resurrection 3 x three winning shots and then on championship day shoot five brackets, 2x two winning shots.  Bracket winners, men range A and ladies range B, magnificent five at high noon, and then start the Magnificent Seven Shoot-off at 1:00. Awards at 3:00.

We have the time and the ranges.  We can have an 8 x match.  It is not hard.  Just cut out shoot-offs and side matches.  Keep all shooters in play to the morning of the third day.

Administrating ease:
I am sure this is easier to do that what is done now because there are fewer matches and less shoot-offs, but I have not punched the keys.  My question to Wench and Miss Betty is can the same matches be run the second day with the same shooters on the same computer. How do you reset the computer with the same shooters?  My simple solution would be to get a second laptop.  Computer 1 runs the first day.  Same shooters entered into Computer 2 and it runs the second day. During the second day the brackets are set up on Computer 1 for the third morning.  Brackets are run and posted on the second day for the morning of the third day from first days shooting since that is the main match.  Seems simple and easy.

Enough for now. "Bring me another shooter!"