I believe that there needs to be a handicap system on funkypool.com. This way it will even the playing field between higher and lower ranked players. Tournaments should be included until quarter finals, semi finals, and finals. Clan games should be also excluded from the handicap system. This way we can all play on this site and have fun but when it comes down to it the most the best player wins.

In ranked games...there is one

Yup.


Tournaments are a test of strength to find the best player in that tournament. If there's a handicap, that defeats the purpose of the tournament in the first place!

Not strictly true since in golf, for example, there are lots of tournaments played using handicaps week in week out. As the first person said, it is to give everyone a fair chance of competing and winning.

Certainly not sure how you could handicap in pool though, with the exception of straight pool, as the game formats are too short.

Could certainly be done on snooker though if desired.

EDIT - The problem obviously would be in identifying genuine and appropriate handicaps. In my experience the most common word heard at a golf society day (apart from 'fore', obviously from me when I tee off!!) is 'bandit' in respect of those that win.

Edited at 07:34 Thu 24/09/09 (BST)

Only newbie golf tournaments include any sort of handicap - most serious ones are pure stroke competitions.

Problem with handicap here on FP is what on earth would you base it on? Certainly not rank since players can so easily get a far lower rank than their skill level (which is 100% the same thing as handicap cheating in golf - playing tournaments with higher handicap than you should have)

We even have a reset feature for gods' sake - which should of course be removed, but pointless as long as people can just deactivate and play on new accounts anyway.

Basing it on tournament win (or win percentage) would be better, since resetting that stat would kinda defeat the point of winning, but even that would be massively exploited.

I would say the tournaments on here are actually more akin to the golf competitions held every week in clubs around the world, using handicaps, than the 'pure strokeplay' ones. You will find the full range of abilities ranging from the very good to the very bad rather than where everyone is guaranteed to be of a certain level of competence.

I have certainly played in lots of handicap snooker competitions in the past and been able to compete, even with semi-professional players, using handicaps.

However it is all irrelevant unless, and until, someone can come up with a fool proof method of ensuring a fair handicap score for players, which is extremely unlikely to ever happen.

Do you know what I'd love to see? Some sort of tournament for those that have never won one before. This would give everyone a real chance of winning at least one tourney as there would be (in theory) no real favourites, and one more person becomes disqualified from partaking every time.