Quoted from SHOOTTHEPYRAMID:last year in texas, the vast majority of points were created by local leagues and a few large events (tpf and bat city open). both events brought a large number of players from out of state who performed very well. This year nationals were in texas, tpf was a PAPA circuit event, and bat city open will be huge im sure. despite this, the vast majority of these 1 dollar entry fees will come from local leagues (35+bucks a month, plus whatever small tourneys pop up in austin, dallas, or houston) yet players who visit once or twice a year could potentially earn enough points to make SCS at a few of our large events. if this happens will it be essentially locals paying year round to make traveling to texas worth it to play in our SCS? i understand this is a longshot scenario, but it seems like this could happen to texas in 2018, and maybe some other states which have local leagues but also big national events?!
This seems like at best a double edged sword for everyone involved
Speaking from experience....
People coming from out of state to Texas to play in SCS is a rarity. It's well known that our frequent qualifiers for SCS are nothing to sneeze at. A little over a year ago I was telling people, who weren't even in TEXAS, to calm the f down because it was known Bob Matthews was coming here... well, Bob did not walk with our championship. I think that will scare a lot of people off from doing the same, because if a Top 50 player can come here and get shut out in his losing round....you better think twice about that risk/reward.
I think you're right about a double edged sword specifically for Texas, though, for a related reason. Assume the value of our SCS price skyrockets. That does make it extremely lucrative if it's near 2 grand for someone to fly here and try to grab it, leaving less slots for in-state players due to high profile events like TPF and BCO giving people a ton of points to try and qualify. I do think regular leagues will PROBABLY outpace everything but the most ridiculously synchronized wins (Same guy won Nationals AND Pin-masters? 100 points? Aw hell...), but at the same time, you can arguably have a lot of under-skilled players being pushed much higher ranked than arguably they should be for their actual skill level, just for consistent participation. I should know...that's how I got into the top 100 for a while.
Anyways, point is, if a lot of unknowns or lesser skilled players make SCS, and the pot is huge, that's GOING to encourage people to fly out of state and try to take ours. It's going to be a juicy target to come to Texas if the SCS is not seeded with the 'regulars'. I'm not sure if this is really what the intent of the SCS should ever be, but.... Sharpes DGAF and do what they want, and there's not really any recourse aside from venting on Pinside and hoping something sticks, or just packing up and not dealing with IFPA. I can't think of a single time they have backpedaled on changes they put forth BEFORE they at least had some time in the system. They literally hold all the power, and we have nothing except the threat of not participating, in an age where competition has been EXPLODING, making our threats meaningless. /shrug
As far as I understand, Nationals/Pinmasters being here this year was just an (whatever convention is called that Sharpe has to go to for his job with Raw Thrills)-related fluke and isn't likely to re-occur. Convention center in Vegas is moving or getting renovated or something this year so the show had to temporarily move, which means we got the tournaments with it.
I'm just so over having to think about this stuff. It drives me nuts, and it's really ultimately not worth the stress. I want to go back to the good old days where tourneys WERE for points, BUT I *also* got to enjoy playing against highly skilled people without it becoming some kind of personal vendetta in terms of making SCS or not, where tournaments and leagues happened, and weren't monitored for any little flaw in execution or rules by people 240 miles away in hopes they could get them disqualified and improve their own standings by NOT playing pinball, and a loss was frustrating, but not devastating, because there was no extra BS attached to every single thing you played in.