Jeremy wrote:First and second place get large rewards for finishing in those places. But it goes both ways. Those same large rewards can make it easier for someone to catch up.
That's sort of the point, I think. People are perceiving that championships are often won 6 events into the season. (and if we were to drop half the events, that would certainly be even more true)
So in this example the old style would actually make it a closer race. I am just not seeing a problem with the old style.
Maybe if you could point to specific examples in the points table and show me someone who is not in the hunt for a championship and deserves to be, I would understand it more. But just from looking at the season points. I don't see a problem.
This is in response to grumblings I've heard from some people at events. I didn't really look at it from the perspective of "how is this going to effect people like Jeremy who only want to attend half of our events in a season and still win".
Yes, the new style will make the points closer for people that come to every single event, but it's also going to make it impossible for people to catch up who miss a few events. So you are making the season championship even more of an attendance award than it already is.
Okay, since nobody wants to start a new topic to discuss dropping events, first, let's all read this:
Prior discussion about dropping events from the points
For those who don't want to read that, it says that the majority of forum posters (which isn't necessarily always a strong cross-section of the club as a whole) supported a shift to dropping 3 events rather than 1. But, when it was put to vote at our annual membership meeting, the decision was made to stick with dropping 1 event.
Personally, I'd still support going to 2 or 3 drops. But, the discussion has been had (go ahead, read it, it's all there... lots of good points from both sides). And the decision was made.
Now, let's expand your example to a full season:
New Style with 1 drop
Driver 1 gets 0,9,9,9,9,9,9,9,9,0 = 54 - 0 = 54
Driver 2 gets 9,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,9 = 72 - 8 = 66
New Style with 2 drops
Driver 1 gets 0,9,9,9,9,9,9,9,9,0 = 54 - 0 = 54
Driver 2 gets 9,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,9 = 72 - 16 = 58
New Style with 3 drops
Driver 1 gets 0,9,9,9,9,9,9,9,9,0 = 54 - 9 = 45
Driver 2 gets 9,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8,9 = 72 - 24 = 48
In full detail, I can see your point. Maybe we do need to have more than 1 point of difference between first and second place. If change it so that 2nd gets 7 points: (and that's a really "hard to get" 7 points, we're not just giving it away)
New Style (7 for 2nd) with 1 drop
Driver 1 gets 0,9,9,9,9,9,9,9,9,0 = 54 - 0 = 54
Driver 2 gets 9,7,7,7,7,7,7,7,7,9 = 74 - 7 = 67
New Style (7 for 2nd) with 2 drops
Driver 1 gets 0,9,9,9,9,9,9,9,9,0 = 54 - 0 = 54
Driver 2 gets 9,7,7,7,7,7,7,7,7,9 = 74 - 14 = 60
New Style (7 for 2nd) with 3 drops
Driver 1 gets 0,9,9,9,9,9,9,9,9,0 = 54 - 9 = 45
Driver 2 gets 9,7,7,7,7,7,7,7,7,9 = 74 - 21 = 63
Okay, I'm almost out of time here... but I'm seeing a trend.
New Style (6 for 2nd) with 1 drop
Driver 1 gets 0,9,9,9,9,9,9,9,9,0 = 54 - 0 = 54
Driver 2 gets 9,6,6,6,6,6,6,6,6,9 = 66 - 6 = 60
New Style (6 for 2nd) with 2 drops
Driver 1 gets 0,9,9,9,9,9,9,9,9,0 = 54 - 0 = 54
Driver 2 gets 9,6,6,6,6,6,6,6,6,9 = 66 - 12 = 54
New Style (6 for 2nd) with 3 drops
Driver 1 gets 0,9,9,9,9,9,9,9,9,0 = 54 - 0 = 54
Driver 2 gets 9,6,6,6,6,6,6,6,6,9 = 66 - 18 = 48
After all of this... I'm concluding that the original system that I sort of emulated from another club (9 for 1st, 6 for 2nd with 2 drops) was a well thought-out system that worked. My original error was switching it to a single-drop, which "broke" it by actually making it easier on the regular attendee who makes all events. 2 drops makes things pretty fair. 3 drops rewards non-attendance too much IMO.
And if we're going to stick with 6 points for 2nd... the only thing we gain (?) by going with the new system is the ability to award 6 points to more than one driver. Every driver who finishes well enough to meet the criteria would get the points. I still sort of like that notion, but I could take it or leave it. It's not likely to affect first place for the season very much, but it could make the battles for 2nd and 3rd more interesting.
It's waivering me to just stay with the current points scheme.