2004 ILLINOIS OPEN SERIES

[CEValkyrie]

I was leaning towards playing Int for these instead of Adv Masters anyhow, but the new price structure pretty much settles it  

Thanks Damon! We'll have new flyers ready to go ASAP. It was very hard to put together a schedule this year. For this reason, we decided to sanction all 3 Am days as B-Tier. This will lock in our date for next year.

This may alter your decisio as well Damon.

For the $10.00 mandatory B-Tier player pack you may choose
A. $10.00 Cash
B. $15.00 Funny Money

[Jon Brakel]

I was leaning towards playing Int for these instead of Adv Masters anyhow, but the new price structure pretty much settles it   

Thanks Damon! We'll have new flyers ready to go ASAP. It was very hard to put together a schedule this year. For this reason, we decided to sanction all 3 Am days as B-Tier. This will lock in our date for next year.

This may alter your decisio as well Damon.

For the $10.00 mandatory B-Tier player pack you may choose
A. $10.00 Cash
B. $15.00 Funny Money

Basically the player's pack is a choice of putting together your own player's pack (you can even hold onto your funny money and combine with your winnings--if you win) or taking a player's pack that everyone can agree is worth $10!  

Upgrading the series to B-tier not only gives us protected dates for next year it also protects our dates this year. C-tiers this year do not have a mileage protection, but B-tiers do.

[damonshort]

For the $10.00 mandatory B-Tier player pack you may choose
A. $10.00 Cash
B. $15.00 Funny Money

That's good to know. I was wondering (hoping) if y'all were going to take that approach with the tournaments in IL.  

[Bruce Brakel]

For the $10.00 mandatory B-Tier player pack you may choose
A. $10.00 Cash
B. $15.00 Funny Money

That's good to know. I was wondering (hoping) if y'all were going to take that approach with the tournaments in IL.

Damon, Intermediate Masters was abolished with the 2004 format changes.

Damon's comments underscore the importance of advertising the player pack options.  $43 is pretty steep for Advanced Masters but it is straight off the PDGA entry fee schedule.  $33 is just about right and it is what you actually pay if you take the $10 rebate for your player pack.  

[Jon Brakel]

Bruce,

I think Damon was thinking of playing Intermediate instead of playing Adv Masters.

[damonshort]

Damon, Intermediate Masters was abolished with the 2004 format changes.

Bruce,

I think Damon was thinking of playing Intermediate instead of playing Adv Masters.

I know, and I am.

I know, therefore I am.

An am.

[D]

Can't wait!

[Jon Brakel]

Website updated for B-tier status. Flyer coming soon! Thanks to everyone that has posted flyers so far!

click here to go to the Illinois Open Index

[damonshort]

Re: ace pool rollover

The latest flyer says 'rollover to next day/event'. While I think rolling it through all 3 events is a cool idea within each division, i.e. pro/am, Sat/Sun, it's a little unfair to have one combined pool (if that's the intention) since the Sunday players could be taking the Sat players money (or vice versa) when the Sat players wouldn't be getting a shot at it on Sun.

I'm not expressing this well, but I think you know what I mean. I'd suggest having two separate pools, one for Sat, one for Sun.

[Jon Brakel]

Re: ace pool rollover

The latest flyer says 'rollover to next day/event'. While I think rolling it through all 3 events is a cool idea within each division, i.e. pro/am, Sat/Sun, it's a little unfair to have one combined pool (if that's the intention) since the Sunday players could be taking the Sat players money (or vice versa) when the Sat players wouldn't be getting a shot at it on Sun.

I'm not expressing this well, but I think you know what I mean. I'd suggest having two separate pools, one for Sat, one for Sun.

Everyone except for the top pros (i.e. over 960 rating) can play both days if they don't want a chance that someone playing a day that they are not playing might hit an ace. I'm not sure what difference it makes though whether you are there or not when the ace is hit. We all play rolling ace pools all the time at league and we all know that we won't be at every league. The last couple of league aces were hit when I wasn't there.

[Bruce Brakel]

Re: ace pool rollover
... it's a little unfair to have one combined pool (if that's the intention) since the Sunday players could be taking the Sat players money (or vice versa) when the Sat players wouldn't be getting a shot at it on Sun.

It is fair in the sense that the rules are simple and spelled out in advance, and the game is optional.  Unlike taxes and death, which both seem unfair when specifically applied to me, the ace pool is optional.  It is also fair in the sense that the rollover applies equally to Saturday players and Sunday players.  So to the extent that it is unfair, it is equally unfair.

If the Streamwood Starter rolls $200-$300 over to the Crystal Cruise, that should help boost attendance.  Higher attendance is good for players wanting PDGA points and accurate PDGA ratings.  If the Streamwood ace pool rolls over from Saturday to Sunday, none of the Sunday players will say it is unfair.  If it rolls over from Streamwood to Crystal Lake, none of the Saturday players will say it is unfair either.

[damonshort]

Re: ace pool rollover
... it's a little unfair to have one combined pool (if that's the intention) since the Sunday players could be taking the Sat players money (or vice versa) when the Sat players wouldn't be getting a shot at it on Sun.

It is fair in the sense that the rules are simple and spelled out in advance, and the game is optional.  Unlike taxes and death, which both seem unfair when specifically applied to me, the ace pool is optional.  It is also fair in the sense that the rollover applies equally to Saturday players and Sunday players.  So to the extent that it is unfair, it is equally unfair.

If the Streamwood Starter rolls $200-$300 over to the Crystal Cruise, that should help boost attendance.  Higher attendance is good for players wanting PDGA points and accurate PDGA ratings.  If the Streamwood ace pool rolls over from Saturday to Sunday, none of the Sunday players will say it is unfair.  If it rolls over from Streamwood to Crystal Lake, none of the Saturday players will say it is unfair either.

I understand your arguments, and it is optional, and it's your tournament(s) after all, but I still think this could piss some people off  

I've never played Crystal Lake, but it's pretty unlikely that there won't be at least one ace at Streamwood on Saturday anyhow, so it's probably all a moot point.

Unless no one hits it in all 6 tournaments. Then what? If there's a throwoff (unless the $ is going to 'charity'), only those in attendance the last day (potentially half of whom wouldn't be playing) would be eligible, so that's a bit less than equally unfair. (I know, you could make the same sort of case with separate pools if you don't play the last leg...)

I assume one would have to pay into the ace pool for each leg? i.e. if you enter for Streamwood and no one hits, you'd have to pay at CL/RL to still be eligible?

[Jon Brakel]

I assume one would have to pay into the ace pool for each leg? i.e. if you enter for Streamwood and no one hits, you'd have to pay at CL/RL to still be eligible?

You don't have to pay into the ace pool for each leg, only those that you want to have a chance to win the pool. If there is no ace hit at Fairfield on either day there will be a jumbo toss for the ace pool. Saturday only players would be welcome to come back and throw off if it hasn't been hit.

[CEValkyrie]

Jon, Bruce, & I have discussed the IO Series a ton. Our goal is to draw as many players as possible. I think our philosophy is to advertise everything that we are doing. We don't want to surprise anyone on the day of. What you see is what you get.

I'm not for sure if the running ace pool will ever roll over. Streamwood is a tough course and has no really easy ace holes. If it happens, it would probably be at that course. Crystal Lake has a ton of ace holes & Fairfield has #8 & all the wide open holes. There are no gurantees though. We are hoping that if the ace pool would roll over a few times that is would build up BIG. How cool would it be to have a HUGE ace pool. There would be more incentive for players to play both days as well. We hope this helps attendance. Well attended events = greater competition, more points, bigger payouts, & builds reputation of the event. I envision this series becoming bigger. We hope this is one way it helps.  

[jim]

You guys are doing a bunch of work WAY up front.
I'm looking forward to all three events!

[Bruce Brakel]

You guys are doing a bunch of work WAY up front.
I'm looking forward to all three events!

It really helps that none of us really have a life, doesn't it?

[Jon Brakel]

Flyer is done. Please feel free to distribute to anyone who might be interested. For those that have put up the old flyer, I would appreciate it if you replace with this one at your convenience. If you posted it at a course that you won't be going back to, please let Brett or me know so that we can make arrangements to replace it.

Click here to go to the flyer post: Illinois Open Flyer

[damonshort]

Flyer is done. Please feel free to distribute to anyone who might be interested. For those that have put up the old flyer, I would appreciate it if you replace with this one at your convenience. If you posted it at a course that you won't be going back to, please let Brett or me know so that we can make arrangements to replace it.

Click here to go to the flyer post: Illinois Open Flyer

Jon,

It looks like the 'new' flyer still has the 'old' entry fees - not the same that Brett posted a few days ago. Am I looking at the right one?

[Bruce Brakel]

Flyer is done. Please feel free to distribute to anyone who might be interested. For those that have put up the old flyer, I would appreciate it if you replace with this one at your convenience. If you posted it at a course that you won't be going back to, please let Brett or me know so that we can make arrangements to replace it.

Click here to go to the flyer post: Illinois Open Flyer

The information on your webpage is good.  The flyer you are linking us to has the C-tier entry fees on it.  

[Jon Brakel]

Flyer is done. Please feel free to distribute to anyone who might be interested. For those that have put up the old flyer, I would appreciate it if you replace with this one at your convenience. If you posted it at a course that you won't be going back to, please let Brett or me know so that we can make arrangements to replace it.

Click here to go to the flyer post: Illinois Open Flyer

Jon,

It looks like the 'new' flyer still has the 'old' entry fees - not the same that Brett posted a few days ago. Am I looking at the right one?

Thanks for catching that. I updated the table but forgot to apply the change. It's fixed now.

You can link to the 2004 IO Series flyer by clicking here.