Paper or Plastic Sports.com Top Nine of '09 Series

[dana]

Thanks to Scott and his crew!  Things ran nice and smooth.  It seemed like the 2nd round was an hr faster than the first...also have to give a shout out to Frank for all his work he did and does at Channy!  And thanks to Jason Poole for shoveling the pads.

[DiscGolfSchodt]

Thanks Scott and staff. Great event and thanks for getting the scores up that night. That's awesome!!!
Also the large pro field builds a good case for having open players play on Sundays. Even the people at Discraft took notice of the large open field.
(They mentioned it on their home page)

[stpitner]

That's awesome!  Thanks for pointing that out   Chris won over $400 - don't have the exact amount handy.  I know it paid out to 16 pro's (one am taking reward dollars instead of cash) ranging from about $425 - $58.

[dana]

Also the large pro field builds a good case for having open players play on Sundays

Don't get ahead of yourself now.

[stpitner]

heh - it was a Pro B-Tier with $500 added cash to the pro fields - I think that's why there were more pro's.

[Bruce Brakel]

Also the large pro field builds a good case for having open players play on Sundays

Don't get ahead of yourself now.

Reasons why the Illinois Open Series put pros on Saturday, back when we did that:

1.  A lot of Wisconsin, Indiana, Iowa and Michigan tournaments had pros on Sunday for their split-weekend tournaments.  By flipping our divisions, we avoided problems with the zones of exclusion.
2.  Also, it gave more players a chance to play in their preferred division on their preferred day on any weekend where there was another tournament going on somewhere not too far away. 
3.  Back then, when the split was Pro-Adv // Int-Rec, it gave the top players first look at all the new merch. 
4.  After we tried it, Brett decided that it worked fine for him, and Jon and I thought it worked good for us, too.  This series has always been about running and playing the kinds of tournaments we want to play. 
5.  Pros and Advanced travel more than lower divisions.  They are more likely to plan on playing two tournaments on a weekend.  We wanted ours to be the one they would most likely actually play any time they were planning on playing two. 
5.  We didn't NEED to run pros on Sunday, so other good reasons could prevail.  Some TDs have countervailing reasons for running pros on Sunday that we don't have. 

We apologize for the inconvenience this creates for those players who cannot play on the day we run their division.  I think those players exist in equal quantities no matter which day which divisions play. 

[stpitner]

One event remaining to maximize your points!  I have all of the scores and points entered on an individual tournament basis, now I'm just working on putting those scores on the overall leaderboard.  I have Intermediate points done, but I won't post those numbers until I have everything ready.

There will be trophies for 1st through 3rd place for each of the big 5 divisions (Open, Adv, Int, Rec, Nov), and then probably just 1 trophy for the bigger micro divisions (Adv Master, Adv Grandmaster, maybe an overall Juniors Trophy).  If time allows I'll investigate if I can go 4 or 5 deep on the big 5 divisions, but right now I'm only going to guarantee top 3.

For intermediate, 1st and 2nd place is locked up, but there is still a fight on for 3rd.  Congrats to Jon Boster and Spaz Kutella for locking up 1st and 2nd, respectively.  Right now Jason Riley holds onto 3rd, but there are a couple lurkers not far behind!

The AM's are counted for their best 6 events out of 9 total events.  The Pro's are the best 4 out of 7 events (2 events did not offer a Pro division).

I'm still working on the trophies, so in case what I want doesn't work out I'm keeping mum on what they are!

I should have the current standings posted LATE tonight or sometime tomorrow.

Points are based on the following: you score 100 points for winning, 0 points for DNF'ing.  You take the place you finished (plus 1 for yourself) divided by the number of players in the division.  Multiply that by 100 and round.  The result will be a number from 0 to 100, and that's how many points you scored for that tournament.  People that tie all get the same # of points.  The benefit of this is that even if the division had a small turnout - if you won you still got 100 points.  It rewards those that attended the event.

Thanks to all that attended one or more of these 9 events!

Irish You the Best of Luck @ Community Park - Channahon
Oswego Spring Fling @ Eagle Ridge - Oswego
Chicagoland AM Championships @ Adler - Libertyville
Nothin' But Chains @ West Park - Joliet
IOS #3 - Sinnissippi Open @ Sinnissippi Park - Sterling
Challenge at the City of Lights @ Jericho Lake - Aurora
Grip It & Rip It @ Goose Lake Park - Roselle
22nd Annual Channahon Classic @ Community Park - Channahon

and last but certainly not least
Joliet Disc Golf Championships @ Highland Park, Trinity Links, Community Park - Joliet

[stpitner]

The points are ready!  You can expand/collapse each division from the left hand side.  The closest right now is a 1 point difference between 1st and 2nd in Novice!  The top 3 in each of the major 5 divisions will get a trophy at the conclusion of the Joliet Championships.  Right now there will also be a Pro Master and Adv Grandmaster trophy for first.  There will probably also be an Advanced Master trophy for first.  Beyond that, there were not enough events played or enough players for other divisions.

Thanks everyone for your participation!

[Dan Michler]

Thats actually a pretty cool points system.  I wish I would have been able to play a few more events.  How about a 10 for '10 series next year!   

[stpitner]

Just giving out a heads up that unless I miraculously find a couple extra days worth of time between now and Sunday, the points series trophies will not be done in time.  I *think* I should be able to get all of the 1st place ones done (8 of those).  I have most of the pieces cut, a good part of the trophy assembled, but they still need to be painted.  I don't like having to paint after assembling, but I think it's for the best in this scenario.  I'll have to find out a way to distribute the 2nd and 3rd place ones in addition to the 1st place ones to players who do not play this weekend.  I'm not sure how fragile these things are.  It WAS frequently breaking, but now that it's had time to let the glue and solder set, it hasn't broken.

I've been real quiet about what this trophy would be because I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make it work.  I have one assembled, and either the unfortunate thing (or the fortunate thing) is that you can clearly tell that it's handmade.  It took me a long while to find all of the parts that I needed.

The attached is a 1st place trophy (or will be).  It's a 5" diameter.  The 2nd and 3 place will be a 4" diameter and have a smaller chain.

Hopefully someday I'll find something better for the nameplate, but it is what it is for now.

Thanks all for playing in this year's Top 9 of '09!

[stpitner]

if anyone is good at working with metal (especially small metals) or knows where I could get a better faceplate to use for the bottom of the basket, I'd love to get an email from you.  Once people see these baskets I'd also welcome any comments (not enough chains, bucket looks terrible, it would be cool if it had this, etc etc).  I'd like to continue making these for future tournaments, and I'd love to always make improvements to them.

The one you see in the picture is 12" tall.  I think 2nd and 3rd will be closer to 9 inches tall since it's only a 4" diameter set of chains.

[Bruce Brakel]

I think those are very cool. 

[stpitner]

Point series final totals are in!

Congratulations to the following winners!

PRO Open
1st - Brett Comincioli (358)
2nd - Matt Coyne (342)
3rd - Jason Gordon (317)

PRO Masters
1st - Joe Tomecek (339)

Advanced Masters
1st - Ron Miller (150)

Advanced Grandmasters
1st - Frank Grimes (313)

Advanced
1st - Chris Brenholtz (453)
2nd - Taylor Cimala (370)
3rd - Eric Bassett (330)

Intermediate
1st - Jon Boster (577)
2nd - Mike Kutella (534)
3rd - Jason Riley (456)

Recreational
1st - Eric Fite (486)
2nd - Benton Lindquist (400)
3rd - Jason Smith (313)

Novice
1st - Robert Radtke (365)
2nd - Kyle Chapman (286)
3rd - Mark Onstad (216)

I will make arrangements to ensure that these players get their trophies once they are ready!

Final standings are attached