The 2020 season is shaping up to be one of the most interesting fun years yet.
Arizona:
There will be an Arizona State Championship at Pioneer Village, Arizona Territorial on March 28 and 29, 2020. It will be 100% CFDA compliant but that does not mean it will not be unique. Don't believe the ad you see in the gazette, the prizes will exceed $7,500, prizes for the main match alone will exceed the minimum. And that is real value. There will be no name tags, door prizes or other frills. As the assistant general manger of the Oakland As said in Moneyball, "We believe in keeping the money on the field."
There is no lollygagging at Pioneer Village. Shooting will start promptly at 8:30 and the rounds will be brisk. We intend to shoot down to the final seven on the first day so that the Second Chance shoot will start promptly at 8:30 on Championship Day. Magnificent shoot-offs will start promptly at high noon.
What will be unique about Arizona is that all shooters will still be in play for cash and awards on the morning of Championship Day. The cash prizes for the second chance shoot equal the cash prizes for the main match. In addition to the cash, the awards will be a pound of copper from the copper state with appropriate inscriptions. When you think about it, a shooter's chance of winning substantial cash and an award will be four times better on Championship Day than at the start of day one. If the luck of the draw gets you in the main match, in the second chance shoot you will only have to face one fourth of the eliminated shooters. (This is the format used at the 2019 Nationals.)
Holli has something planned on site that includes chuck for the evening on Saturday. You can be sure it will be fun. Most gunfighters are not aware of what is all at Pioneer Village. In addition to the town where we shoot, there is a Spanish town square, two other town squares, a church, shops, banks, and about a half dozen homesteads all moved from their original site to Pioneer Village. It is worth the stroll if you have the time, but as I said shooting will be brisk, but after the fourth x a stroll would be worth your effort.
For those who like to warm up there will be a Arizona Jackpot Bracket Shoot on Friday the 27th for the paltry entry fee of $20. There will be 5 brackets for the short gun and a shootists bracket. "We like keeping the money on the field" so the payout will be 80%. This state being a state true to the republic principles of the founding fathers, the division of the prize money among the brackets will be equal.
When the application comes out I suggest early entry. Entries received prior to March 1, 2020, will receive an extra chance in the drawing for the CFDA gun, part of the main match prize package.
Texas;
I hear that Bret Maverick is out raising his entry fee for some poker game in the vicinity of Austin, Texas. They tell me that this state championship had to be moved from March because a movie was being made at the venue until the end of April. Sound like a great place to have a gunfight.
Arkansas:
It is a small world, I overheard a couple of boys at Shady Mountain planning a raid on the Arkansas State Championship. Seems like the dates fit with my plan to abscond with the Maverick money, so maybe I can catch up with them on the trail to Warren, Arkansas.
Oklahoma, Louisiana, Oregon, and California:
Not to be overlooked is Oklahoma on March 13th-15th and California on May 15th - 17th, Louisiana, April 3-5th, Oregon April 24-26th. Oh, so many choices.
Personal Schedule: My dilemma for Thanksgiving is whether to shoot in the club match on the 30th. My children tell me that I would be a delinquent grandfather if I do, so I may skip it. My real motivation for skipping it is that it gives Shady Mike and Dirty Dan a chance to catch me in top gun points. If they don't stumble, there will be three gunslingers within several point of each other on the 28th of December. I understand Dan has completed his garage range so he must be taking this seriously. The Ladies race is equally tight. If I were handicapping it I would not want to bet against any of the top four gunslingers. Anyway, looks like the 28th will decide the top gun awards, both men and ladies.
I write this post to be helpful, not to criticize. Please take this that way, I do not want to be banished from another site.
At most titled events the host shoots seven rounds then quits for the day. The eight round is shot on championship day and anyone going out can sign up for a second chance shoot, which is a shoot to occupy those that have been eliminated. Two problems with this being, one: the second chance shoot starts late thereby delaying the Magnificent shoot off and, two: those going out in the ninth and later rounds can not shoot in the second chance shoot.
The Loess Hills Paladins (not a CFDA club) held several events this year with a main match followed by a CFDA bracket shoot. What was unique was that the second chance shoot started just as soon as there were enough shooters in a bracket (normally 6). By doing this the second chance shoot did not delay the main shoot. These events were last man standing affairs and both the main match and the second chance shoot ended at about the same time. All eliminated shooters shot in the second chance shoot.
Some critics say it is not fair to allow a shooter in late in the second chance shoot, but it is very fair. It is much easier to advance four rounds in the main match and six rounds in the second chance shoot than it is to advance 10 rounds in the main match. A shooter who advances 10 rounds in the main match deserves to get in the second chance shoot at a later point. We do not score by wins, we score by losses. What matters is that every shooter gets the same number of losses. For last man standing, it does not matter when you are Xed out, what matters is that you have the chance to X out.
When we tested this we found that 19.5 functions fine adding shooters after the shoot starts. The only problem was that the match standing report during the event was not entirely accurate, new shooters being added at the top of the standings, but this is not a huge problem since the shoot is normally last man standing. You don't need this report during the match to run the event. Colorado State had this problem and the event ran fine without these reports. At World, the computer crashed in round 7 and the event did just fine without these report. I am not sure, but I think the program may correct itself in later rounds. In any event, the match standings can be adjusted at the end of the event.
I post now because there is about four months until the next titled match and some may want to test out the capabilities of 19.5. Don't sell yourself short and don't underestimate the capabilities of 19.5
A local event: The Association of Arizona Gunslingers will have its last shoot of the year on December 28. A good estimate of the number of shooters would be about 60 shooters. We will have two ranges available.
A good event would be a 2x main match and a 2x CFDA second chance bracket shoot all using Nevada 8. (Arizona Five would have been better, we could have raised elimination factor in main match to 3, but that was a good idea that died a untimely death at the muster.) As with any event you need to consider range time.
A 2x main match with 60 shooters requires 119 losses to complete. With 60 shooters you get 30 losses per full round, so it takes 4 full rounds to complete the main match. (A full round may contain more than one nominal round.)
Another way to look at it with Nevada 8 you get 25 losses per range per hour so the main match will take 2.4 hours of range time assuming 60 shooters on two ranges. The second chance shoot will take not more than 116 losses to complete, so it will take 2.3 hours to complete. Total range time is 4.7 hours. We shoot from 8:30 to about 1:30 which is 5 hours of range time. For 60 shooters with two ranges, the time requirement fits nicely. If 75 shooters show up the elimination factor would need to be adjusted. We would probably go with a 1x main match and a 2 x bracket second chance shoot.
The way that it would be run would be you run main match on both ranges for the first three rounds. After two rounds you run your bracket report to seed the shooters into brackets for the second shoot. After three rounds you have enough eliminated shooters to start the second chance shoot. You move the main match to Range A and start the second chance shoot on Range B. Both matches end about the same time. By format, the main match ends not later than two round after the second chance shoot. This is important to us because we have two ranges to take down and pack away and it is important to have most of the shooter still around.
Anyway, just a thought. If you don't test your abilities, how will you ever know what you can do. Don't sell yourself short, you are a better gunfighter than you know, and 19.5 can do more than you may think.
For a related discussion, see post "What we learned and fragmentation" a post on a similar format being used in a true resurrection event, a matter that I now believe to be "a good idea that can not be implemented," a quote from Dick Cheney.
