Well Tim, you just lost me with your last comments. I guess the home town
crowd has gotten soft in Texas (was raised in Arlington). Here in OVSS land you
live and die to get the low save, downwind escape, faint read that no one else
gets. We are flying 6 to 7 rounds a day of 10-13 minute flights at most of
our contests, so we fly alot, and the guy who gets that fantastic flight is
held up as the hero, not the zero. With our seeding, it is like watching golf,
the last group is the big boys and literally, everyone watches and enjoys the
battle. I wish we could seed out the Nats, but just too big to make the time
work.
This sounds way to politically correct for me, we do not fly outcome based
soaring here. Your heart is in the right place for club events, but please do
not do this at TNT when I finally get to come back.
Marc
--- Begin Message ---
Jim Bacus wrote:
>
> "Shafting" the other fellow competitors by completing the task
> time? "Unethical?" ;-)
>
> I see it as maximizing my available flying time during a contest
> event, and playing by the rules of the contest attempting to
> maximize my score.
Jim makes a valid point while at the same time highlighting one of the
weaknesses of seeded MOM as currently practiced. The format creates a
structure that encourages or even requires what would seem to some as
unsportsmanlike behavior which belittles and demeans the unsuccessful
competitor. The rules encourage exploiting any opportunity to "bury" someone
who has a bad flight by putting on a show of being the only one flying for
as long as possible while everyone stands and watches. This kind of
structure is unnecessary and disproportionately rewards the single episode
of good luck or heroic effort as opposed to consistent superior performance
round after round. There can be no greater turn off in competition than
being shafted or buried. While it may be fun for one guy, it is at the
expense of everyone else. If playing by the rules makes the competition a
turnoff to many, maybe better rules can correct this. This is an issue of
the design of the contest format which my earlier idea seeks to address.
By assigning scores that are limited on the low side, a competitor is not
able to lose or win the whole contest in one round and there is no need nor
opportunity to bury or shaft anybody. I think this is a better way to
structure a contest if you want to insure all competitors have a good time
and encourage participation while not artificially limiting the performance
of any competitor.
I guess a key objective I left out was:
"Respect for the dignity of all participants."
I also think "...maximizing available flying time during a contest..." is
better done by increasing the pace of the event so more rounds can be flown.
Tim Bennett
LSF IV
RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and
"unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and
unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off.
Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in
text format
--- End Message ---
