Sunday, November 3, 2019

Don't sell yourself short; don't sell 19.5 short.

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.

1 comment:

  1. Well, I don't delve deeply into the scoring program I know basically how it is set up to work and that's about it. As a mentor says,"They call my name, I shoot. They don't call my name, I don't shoot." I have also never seen the fascination with standings as long as the match is going on. One should know the elimination factor and one should know his own X count. No need to look at standings until final X count is reached and it does not matter then either, one has plenty of time to find out where one "placed". The only exception to this is the way categories may be run or specifically the way the Shootist category and shoot off is run at FGA. There the standing is of some interest during the match. But it has been said my drummer doesn't always know what band he is playing with.

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