A Magic Team Selection Combination,

Is it possible to combine all the ideas floating around: single Finals, regional contests, the best X out of Y contests into a workable framework? I think it’s doable as follows:

First, the Finals. The last meeting a Finals with two separate 7-round contests plus flyoffs was extensively discussed. Increasing the number of days to four makes it workable: fly-time or rest-fly-rest or time.

Second, the regionals. Each flier gets his best score out of five regionals, held over two years in different states, say California, Texas, Colorado, Indiana and New York. The scoring in all contests (regionals and the two Final contests) is based on ranking: first place gets 1, the second gets 2 and so on. And scores are summed. So the best possible score would be three: winning a regional and winning both of the Final’s contests. (This actually appeared as “And the FAI Teams Members are ...” in NFFS mailbox of the May 2010 Digest.)

A regional would be held on a weekend, with B flying on one day, A and C on the other – using cross timing. A B-flier would CD the A+C contest, and an A or C-flier would CD the B contest. We would probably need and pay-for an outside head jurist, from the rank of retired program fliers.

It’s certain that regionals would end with ties, given the time and most field size constraints. All these ties will be resolved in the first Finals contest by tied fliers’ relative placing. For example if fliers X, Y and Z tied in a regional, say Muncie, then if Z > X > Y at the first Final’s contest, Z will rank first a Muncie, X second and Y third. (It will also work for ties across regional contests.)

Now, to the crux of the matter. Each contestant can have up to three scores (ranks) but only his best two are counted! So a flier can make the team by skipping all the regionals and doing very well in each of the Finals contests. On the other hand, winning a regional contest assured a team position if that flier also wins one of the 2 Final’s contests (1+1=2). Note that there might be up to five fliers entering the Finals with a score of one.

OK, but if there is only one F1C flier in Colorado, why should he walk away with a rank one? Yes, regionals will require at least five flights and a minimum number of fliers in each event: for example: F1C 3-5 fliers, F1A 5-7 fliers and F1B 7-10 fliers.

This is the big picture, devoid of many important details for clarity. It eliminates the lottery and awards hard work, as well as requiring reasonable out-of-state traveling, fair and in my opinion, doable in the next cycle.

Aram

famous last words

Wouldn't a fairly simple team selection series look like...(And other famous last words.)

The goal of being the best team thru MORE people competing in the process over a wider range of competitions, time, conditions and fields.

We would pick the best team on the flying field(s), rather than by eliminating flyers prior to the contest day by administrative fiat: one event held in one geographic location, at one time of the year, Year after year. In my business we call this a "convenience sample".

It is about constructing a system that picks the best FLYERS rather than picking the best FLYING FIELD. Although fields must be adequate, there is a difference.

It is about expanding the number of competitors in the pool. More people = more competition. More competition = the best picks. This is ALWAYS the case. The guiding hand of nature will out pick the smartest man's attempt to command and control over time, every time. We just need to loosen the controls, get more people into the process and let it happen.

Some of this is plagiarized from what has already been written:

- Only 5 results from a select list of 10-potential contests count toward your score. (you could do more, but only 5 count). 5 and 10 are arbitrary but sounded about right.

- At least 1 of your 5 chosen contests has to be out of your zone (net the regions into 3/4 roughly by time zones). I'm unsure as to whether the chosen 5 contests have to be picked by the competitor prior to the start of process or declared on game day throughout the year.

- Select contests can be picked by the powers that be and meet some uniform (Americas Cup?) standard. But, they've got to be in all regions. There are obvious choices. I don't think they necessarily have to be evenly split, but some consideration may have the desirable impact of getting more fingerprints on the murder weapon.
- SCORING. To account for contests where maxes had to be shortened due to weather and other variables, ALL scores for ALL contests are normalized into percents of the winning score, or highest placing American as some contests have international guests competing (a good thing).

- Top 3 average percentage scores for each event are team members. 4th is the alternate.

It would not take much to look at the last 5 years, pick some contests and model 1) how much larger the pool of competitors is over the existing format; and 2) who would have made "fantasy" teams to test the notion.

It would not take much to design a simple web site that is used to monitor and calculate results. Broadcasting who is atop of the Leader Board may have a positive impact on competition and further open up the process. Hot shots who have great scores early on would need to keep competing to prevent the rest of us mere mortals from getting good scores. Layering on another level of competition to the results.

...Or, we could keep doing what we are doing and expect a different result?


Gene Ulm, 

Team Selection - How to do it ?

Prince SCAT,

I have enjoyed reading the proposals about US team selection. Needless to say in GB we have had similar discussions over the years and they were raised again recently as our numbers competing for a team place continue to decline.

To help put these discussion in perspective I would like to refer the readers of your fine organ to an excellent paper written on this very topic for the BMFA Free Flight Forum by Mike Warren. Mike got information from 15 countries about their team selection methods as well as other useful stuff. The conclusion ? Well there was, and probably still is, no consensus on what method should be used. At the time (1988) I figured this pointed to the fact that there is no best method to pick a team and what I read now on SEN, and via our GB discussions, is that there still isn't. But then we all know this don't we.

Copies of the report are probably still available from Martin Dilly.

EoB

PS In case we ever go independant, us Scots have already determined out method of picking our FF team. Needless to say it does not involve flying a single model for a single flight.

Editor : I presume it involves both Haggis and Whiskey?

That F1A Trophy