Poker Forum > General Discussion
WCOAP TEAM EVENT
fandango:
Just wanted an unbiased discussion about the International team event, if this is removed by mods I understand.
Last season as you may/may not know I was lucky to be involved in the winning team England squad at WCOAP, I also have been fortunate to win a national title aswell, but hand on heart winning team gold has been my greatest thrill to date.
So when announcements where made for this years WCOAP the team Steve contacted all four of us Asa, Stu, Tony and myself and explained the situation that he would not captain this years team if we all could not go back as defending champs.
So as a team who had formed a great bond we all agreed that when a new skip was announced we would not apply for the squad.
We where told that the reason for teams being cut from 5-4 was that countries are finding it difficult to find 5 players to play for them..
Well over the success of ECOAP all 10 countries I has he pleasure to play against where excited and ready for WCOAP, the French, Swiss, Cz, Slovaks, Belgium etc all said that they wanted to play and would have no problem finding 1 other player, Germany and Italy had awesome numbers there and many of the supporters who travelled with them also played the ME.
So are the teams struggling to find 5 players just the international teams?? Canada, USA, Malaysia? Or am I wrong is Scotland, Wales and Ireland also struggling?
Are we thinking of the minority rather than the majority?.. Obviously I"m thinking with a biased head as it effects me and the other members of the team more than anyone else, but I know if it was a strong group of friends like say Scotland or Ireland where in the same boat I would sympathise 100% with them in the same situation.
Surely if teams where given 3 months to find 1 extra player this would be acceptable.?
Discuss...
Edit.. Could this prehaps get moved from this board to another? Prehaps live or general discussion?
AMRN:
I know Des had feedback from some teams that sourcing 5 players was too much of a stretch, and that 4 was more achievable. I can"t really comment on that feedback, however would suggest that if any country is having difficulty, then there isn"t too much difference between 4 and 5.
With respect to the home countries and Euro countries, I firmly believe, and have stated elsewhere, that our multiplicity of team events has caused a level of saturation meaning that the prestigious nature of the events is lost, and the attraction for people to play is not so strong. If we could return to a point where these international team events carry a certain level of prestige, I suspect it would be less of an issue to get a team together.
On a personal note, when I heard that the teams would be reduced from 5 to 4, I realised my options would be to either pick a new and different team; to pick the same team but to drop a player; or pick the same team and be a non playing captain. None of these are viable options for me. I discussed with the other members of our winning team, and we agreed that if we couldn"t defend as a complete team, then we wouldn"t defend at all.
If the event does end up being 4 per team, I will be gutted, but will understand. I"m hoping that the event of last year is replicated with 5 per team.
TheSnapper:
Nice post Carl, really captures that special vibe of winning an International gold.
Having been in your shoes once I fully understand the nostalgic appeal of defending with the same line up. We were unable to field the same team thus denied the privilege and tbh that"s exactly what it is, a privilege.
I would fully understand the very same Team defending the title for England but it has to be acknowledged, there are many many top players that haven"t had the good fortune to taste that experience. Should these players be a consideration?
Paulie_D:
I have been proud to be selected an APAT team event as part of an England team on a couple of occasions so, perhaps, I am not entirely unbiased but here"s my 2 cents.
Firstly, I completely understand Steve"s desire that the winning squad would wish to defend their title but, by the same token, and I absolutely mean no disrespect, it was an England Team that won...so England were the defending champs NOT necessarily the same individuals that made up that team.
Of course, the squad that made up the winning team want to defend BUT the overriding factor (IMO) should be picking the right/best squad to defend England"s title whether that constitutes the same squad or not.
If teams ARE having issues getting a squad of 5 perhaps an option could be implemented that you can have a squad of 5 but only 4 can play at a time. Haven"t we done that before at team events?
Does this give a 5-man team an advantage?...Perhaps...but, then again, extra support should, arguably, be rewarded.
As for the number of team events..APAT has 3 "country based" team events at most..does it not?
* Home Internationals
* ECOAP
* WCOAP
At each stage/level the "range/area" is expanded from just the UK (and Ireland)...to the whole of Europe and then the World.
I kind of like that....if we had to drop a team event, I would rather it was the forum event but I understand the reasons why that event still exists.
As always, my opinions are my own, regardless of whether you agree....or not. :)
AMRN:
The any four at a time from a team of five was used for ECOAP 2012, and in my humble opinion it turned out to be a bad approach. Some teams had 4 players, which meant that all of their players were always involved, whilst the home nations had to have 5 players (4 + the highest online league player), which meant they always had someone sat out, including during the final MTT round.
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