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From: Ian Stebbing  <Ian_Stebbing@gb.coopers.com>
Date: 24 Oct 96 18:28:03 
Subject: Qualifying, Formats etc.
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This debate seems to be raging again about whether the top teams should have to 
compete at regional qualifiers. As a member of one of the so called elite teams 
I personally feel that we should qualify. The benefit is two fold
1) Those teams who will qualify anyway can take a more relaxed attitude, 
everyone can see what standard they need to reach and can learn from those 
teams.
2) If a teams standard drops or picks up rapidly (i.e. UTI reaching the level 
they have in under a year who would certainly not have pre-qualified on 
previous results because they didn't exist to have them or STAN who failed to 
qualify for the National Indoor Finals 1 year having had a top 4 finish the 
year before) they will still be placed in the correct overall position in the 
most important tournament of the year.

If the top teams do not wish to play many one-sided games they can organise top 
teams tournaments or go abroad to play in higher average level tournaments the 
rest of the year. This was a criticism aimed at Hombres/Shotgun some time ago 
because they turned up to very few British tournaments one year. On reflection 
it must have been very boring for them never to get competition at home and why 
should they "waste" their time on something they were not going to enjoy. It 
was up to the rest of British Ultimate to try and raise itself to give them a 
game.

As for tournament formats and game lengths these will forever be a problem. For 
the top teams who wish to compete outside the UK, playing short games (1 hour 
or 13 points) damages their ability to play in the larger European or World 
tournaments where formats require large squads playing games to 21 or 2 hours+. 
Short games can also often lead to dissatisfying and premature conclusions to 
highly competitive games. Alternatively if you are winning or losing a game 
13-0 there is probably little point continuing to 21-0. Games which are 
expected to be tight or where the result is of great importance (i.e. the 
Headrush vs Monks semi-final) should be of an appropriate length. This year at 
National Finals I think we will achieve this. Given that it is the qualifiers 
for World Clubs, playing games of a similar length to those at World Clubs is 
the most appropriate method of selecting the teams.

Ian Stebbing
Druids.