Jess Ducky

Statisticians would be the first to reiterate that old saw, you can prove anything with numbers. In fact, two good statisticians can prove oppoosite sides of the same question to be true, just give 'em a pile of numbers and a a glib pen and watch the decimals fly! I note this old saw for the point that all discussions of scoring systems occur outside of the those systems. We look at them and say, "If...but...woulda...coulda...mighta" etc. And when we pick examples to shore up our ideas, we tend to skew the "numbers" to demonstrate our points. The original premis of this post is that a safety penalty under rank scoring can go to naught. It can end up not being a penalty at all. And this is based on a particular example. My point is that the base premis of the post is in error. It is an example of "begging the question", only using a contrived example to make the point. One could also argue that the ten second MSV actually over-penalizes a shooter under the rank scoring system in some cases. I am sure all of the armchair strategists out there can understand this...how about a shooter who gets the MSV, even though running neck-and-neck with his buddy, and the rank scoring system dumps hundreds of points on him, because no one else in the major match he is at goofed much on that stage. We've all seen it, some of us have felt it, the slap across the ego when at EOT or WR, a miss, a proceedure, a MSV whacks the heck out of your score with hundreds of match points. Did the fact that the MSV or double misses or proceedural "only" cost ten seconds matter much? Heck no, it mattered enough to slide your score into perdition and heap dirt on it! I do agree with Bud's notion that safety, as concept and chief working mechanism of our sport, is important. Changing the scoring system to further penalize a shooter for an MSV is not necessary. A minor safety violation is just that, minor. Important in its context, yes, but it should not be a hanging matter. If you turn a minor safey violation into a stage or match DQable offense, you will discourage many from playing the game. Personally I dislike Rank Scoring. It is a throwback to a time when scoring was done by hand, with a calculator. In those days, we issued six individual score sheets to each competitor for a six stage match, and at each stage the posse would turn in the score sheet to the score keeper for that stage. Scorekeeper marks them all as the shoot progresses, then the pile of score sheets gets put in a pile at the scoring shack with all the other individual sheets for that stage. Scoring crew simply arranges the stack in order of fastest time on top, then records the names in order. Simple, direct, and saves the score crew the task of adding up seperate times on every stage for every shooter. When computers came along, those of us who scored those original matches thought we'd gone to heaven. But the system stayed on. A scoring system must be transparant, easily understood by the rank and file, and it must be fair to all. A system such as rank scoring, which allows folks from different categories to determine the outcome of categories other than their own is by its nature unfair, and irrational. It has outlived its usefullness, and we need to change it. Ducky