[P.J. Baker]

I'm not sure I get the arguments that this years system is more complicated because won-loss record and QP's must both be calculated. The avereage Joe in the stands is not keeping a runnning calculation of the rankings going, so they don't have to worry about it.

If a team is trying to keep track of the rankings, its's not too hard to do with a spreadsheet and the match scores. This is no different than it has been in the past. It would be nice though, if F.I.R.S.T. could consistently push the scores out to their website or at least to an open wireless access point at the event. For Philly, the scores on the website were up to date, but I don't think this has been the case everywhere.

If you can get the ranking data from F.I.R.S.T., I think that this years ranking system actually provides much more useful information for teams preparing for the draft. You always know what your highest and lowest possible rankings are, which has almost never been the case before. For example, after Friday's rounds at Philly, I knew that 177 could not finish the competition ranked lower than 15th. It seemed a god bet that the team would end up having to draft, so they worked on their list. After the first match on Saturday, we knew that the team could not finish lower than 6th, so the focus shifted to trying to set up an alliance with one of the teams ranked ahead of us (which didn't happen) and finalizing the draft list.

Some have complained that a team could fall out of a drafting position at the last minute and then be over looked for the draft. This has always been a possibility. This year though, it is easy to see that it might happen to you and head it off by making sure that you are talking to the teams ahead of you and the teams that might be ahead of you so they know that you might be available in the draft.

This has gotten way to long (the baby is taking a nap, so I have a few minutes to type away), so I'll cut it off here. I really do like this year's system a lot and hope it sticks around for a while.