so i was in a tournament today. played mixed doubles. well, i am an ok player, my partner is ok as well, but rusty and a little bit inconsistent. i'd say i am in between B and C, and she, probably a C player. so we entered both the B flight and C flight. while i have a few good looking shots, i am by no means a solid B player. at the end of the day. the tournament organizer came up to me and scolded me, saying i should not have entered the C flight. and i was pissed. firstly, we didn't even do that well, we lost B first round. lost first B consolation round match. the 1st round match was ok, we lost something like 16-17, 6-15. the cons match was ridiculous, i dont' think we went over 8 points on both games. in C, we won first two round pretty ok. the other two was real tough, we had to fight for 3 games. we got into finals, and was completely trashed by two 13 yrs old. their combine age is younger than me! anyway, the organizer claims that "i am B player", and i shouldn't enter C at all. i said, well, my partner isn't that good, and she said it is the higher that count. so in her logic, if a A player combine with a D player, the pair should be playing A. i think we were honest with our level by entering both B and C flights. and the results shows that quite clearly. we are not up to B standard yet. so i was a little bit annoyed coz i was scolded while i think i did the correct thing. i was also annoyed by myself coz i was too pushy during the game. my partner and i did make a lot of mistakes, but i should've stayed cool. anyway, my partner and i think we did pretty well. got 2nd place in C. perhaps if we practice more and improve our consistency, we will play better. and i don't need some whiny tournament organizer scolding at me.
Hope you are feeling ok now after venting your annoyance. Tournaments that I had particpated before indeed agree with your tournament organizer's perspective, ie the higher rank will be the determinant. However, I've never partnered with a lower or higher rank from me before so I can't relate with your experience. In your case, however, I am curious how did your organizer determine that you are a B? Cheers.
Yah, it is better to vent them here than going postal. Humor aside, i think there is a proper way to decide on kwun's situation. Since i don't know about that tournament's rules, i have to make general comments only. Unless the tournament rules specified state or local ranking limits for the A,B and C catergories, i dont see what the fuss kwun's tournament organizer is raising. Without seeding, it should be players choice as to which catergory to enter, IMO. I'm sure kwun enter the tournament for the fun of it rather than for the BIG money prizes. As far as i know, the phrases 'badminton' and 'BIG money' don't go together very well. On Master Tournaments, age defines the catergory and there is no confusion here.
jayes... i am not sure. she just 'thinks' i am a B player. i've played a few B tournaments before. and sad to say, i think i have gone passed the first round once. it is not like i don't try. but talent really isn't on my side.
state or local ranking? me? now that's humor. there isn't any big money prizes for this tournament, at least not for level B/C/D. i think the organizer lady should just relaxed and not wind too tight about people's level. and if she really want to, go pester the #1 pair instead of us!
So it is all subjective then, she "thinks" you are a B player... Hmm, for all I know you could be an A or higher player - just doesn't want to show off, to let the other team wins. You are too humble! Cheers.
Yo Kwun, Point her out to me during the tourney. I will be there tomorrow to play A and B doubles. I would like to give her a piece of my mind for you. If you are playing tomorrow let me know ok. Later, see you tomorrow. Jerome aka: smashguru
Jerome, i am not into arguing. hurts feelings and stuff. i just vented my annoyance and i think that's cool for me. i can see her frustration. coz there were a lot of "sandbaggers" today. one pair who played a very close match with us in level C were also playing level D! we almost lost to them. this pair is a high C pair. and since we tried our luck with B, i think they should too instead of sandbagging to D. i will be playing B tomorrow. hopefully we will pass the first round this time!! good luck to you too.
So you lost first B match and B consolation. As I understand it, if you were playing a BCD tournament, you would have dropped down to C after losing in B, and if you had lost yr first C match, dropped to D level at that tournament. So by this criterion your self-classification was completely justified. I'm surprised that the organizer lady had time enough to get in your face about this. I've helped out at a few tournaments and the organizers had more than enough work just scheduling matches to keep things moving and at the same time giving players who had just finished a 90 minute match a little break before calling them out on the court again. Not to mention providing line and service judges when necessary, ruling on what to do when a doubles pair got crossed up and served/received from the wrong court or explaining what does and does not constitute a carry or a double hit (need an up to date rule book for this one), or my personal favorite, why player A's singles bracket won't start at the time listed on the entry form (which was printed 2 months ago and did not foresee that the earlier matches would run as long as they did). And then listen to A's gripe that he had prepared to peak at precisely this time, and playing in the afternoon would unfairly hamper his performance. As I read over the preceding paragraph I see that this lady was behaving just as unreasonably as a very few competitors do, and making an issue up in her mind where none existed in the real world. Anyway, you got to the finals. Keep an eye on those 13 yr olds, though.
well well well... so i was in the same tournament today, the same lady who told me that i am a B player and even when partnering with a C player should be playing B and crap like that.... guess what? her husband was partnering a A player playing B men's double. what a load of crap. i think i should enter all her tournament and deliberately enter C all the time, and from now on, i can just tell her to PO. anyway. vent enough already. thanks for listening. oh. and we lost B first round and B cons first round *again*. guess i should be dropping down to C now.
Re: well well well... Just as i first thought, it was her subjective call on you in the first place. I would be fuming too to see that double standard. There is a name for those kind of person but it is no use calling it here as she is not reading this forum.
Having read through all the posters here, I have to agree with Kwun that he rated himself correctly. Being told is an annoy thing. However, I do feel that perhaps Kwun is a bit of nagtive in his attitude. I am sure you can make progress in B. You may be able to see where my feeling is from. My son and I just played our county ABC tournaments last weekend. There were no rules for classifing on entrance. However, in C tournament, majority players were either over 40 seniors or under 15 juniors. Quite a few father-son partnerships. The tournament was competitive with good spirit. In the end, we have gaven all we got, but lost (2:3) in the final. It was a good match of 7x 5, could go either way. I just wondered what were the winers of the C men's doubles who are in their 20's thinking about themself, and should someone say something to them? I personally hope them improve their skills and play B next year. Should they hope the same?
Lao Liu. thanks for the encouragement. i want to clarify in case your misunderstood. despite not having much success, i have been trying to play level B for the past year. so i will continue playing and trying. maybe i will improve and get somewhere sometime.
Hi Kwun, Congratulation on your winning. To me, if you're winning (or near the top) in one flight, you probably can play in the next flight already. So I see you can be in either level, depending on whether you want to win or you want to gain more experience (by playing possibly much stronger opponents). As for the other pair that played C and D, perhaps this is their first tourney? That they don't quite know where to place themselves? OK, maybe they're really sandbagging, Kwun. I did see you and your partner play. While more practice would certainly help, but my observation is that, you were playing more consistently in the club. So perhaps you've not played any tourneys for a while (and perhaps your partner as well)? I saw quite a few unforced errors that I didn't understand why they would occur, as I'm sure they normally won't. I still remember my first tourney many years ago; I was so nervous that I found myself hard to move my body, my legs, my arms etc. Also, every time I played tourney, the night before I always had sleeping disorders, one time even injured my neck during my sleep that way. But then, hey, I played 2-3 tourneys a year. If I had played more often, I bet this would not have happened. So what it means is, play more tourneys and you'd be better (i.e. at least you perform like you normally do), even if you don't spend any extra time to practise. Alright, who am I a D-level player to show a B-level player what to do?? ;-). BTW, how do you guys put those smilies on your posting? As for the lady organizer and her husband, I think I know who you're talking about. Oh well, they may be reading this forum as well....
One more comment to make before I part. I'd think it's the weaker partner that determines the level. How many times in the games do you see a weaker player being isolated and attacked? Percentage wise, he/she would get more shots and hence his/her consistency etc would play a more significant role, the more the skill differential is. A chain can only be as strong as the weakest link. In that sense, if your self- classification is correct, perhaps your particular partnership really belongs to C-level, and they should ban you from B-level, not the other way around ;-) ?? On another note, who in the right mind would play C-level just for the sake of winning, if they "know" they belong to B-level. The victory in such a case is really hollow. So her comments were moot. I hope you feel much better by now
