Announcement: ASRA Downhill Rankings

Premium Member Comment by Dave M on February 7, 2011 at 14:33

I have not seen any events yet that are invitation only

I would imagine that the outcome of any invite only events are going to effect the ranking of the top to middle order runners and those on the cusp of this may have an issue by not getting an invite.

The outlaw series is a great idea and I only bring this up as you seem to be fine tuning it at the moment for the future.

What could cause more of a problem was if for example the rejion of Timbucktoo put on regular events that qualified for  points and attracted enough local competators (16 outlaw) to count for an event but did not attract enough of the top ranking ranking riders. For one reason or another (location, timing, quality of run, amount of events at the time, etc)  and the results of these artificialy inflated the point scores of riders.

Timbucktoo may put on an outlaw race every month on a rather ordanary course with 16 core riders and gain themselves 180-?? points every month artificialy infalatinfg there rankings.

I knowI finnished 10th in slalom last year but that was only by attendance at events and not nessisarily on skill.

A lot of far better riders finnished lower than me but only due to the fact that without money or sponsorship it can be hard to get to all events.

Im all for more events but putting added pressure on the top guys to get to even more small events may cause problems

ASRA Admin Comment by Bugs on February 7, 2011 at 15:21

Phil, I'm happy for the details to be worked out here.

For an invitational to be included in the rankings it should include the top riders. If those top riders were invited, but preferred to attend another event, then the invitational wouldn't be eligible for the rankings - it would be a sham. I don't really see a problem here. It just shows the inherent riskiness for a race organiser in running an invitational.

(Note that I'm speaking only in terms of general principles rather than hard and fast rules. I'm not going to get involved in defining what "the top riders" means at the moment.)

Dave, I agree that the issue of invitationals is going to be controversial for people on the cusp of being invited. But I'm reluctant to try and control things too rigidly at the moment. My main preference is to be as inclusionary as possible when it comes to races, and see how things develop and then tinker as necessary.

Your Timbucktoo example is a reasonable concern. We'll see what happens. It could result in putting pressure on people in the more populated areas to put on races. And if it doesn't we can tinker with the rules, for example by limiting the number of races to be included from any particular geographical area.

There's a heap of ways that people could try and game the system, but I'm starting from the assumption that people in this community are basically honest and decent rather than a devious bunch who must be controlled with a long list of rules that anticipate every possible way for them to be devious.

Comment by riffraff on February 8, 2011 at 6:55

"There's a heap of ways that people could try and game the system, but I'm starting from the assumption that people in this community are basically honest and decent rather than a devious bunch who must be controlled with a long list of rules that anticipate every possible way for them to be devious." I fully agree Bugs.

Comment by CANADA on February 9, 2011 at 10:34

Rubbish! Sounds like a double standard. If i undetstand this correctly ASRA woud like to use points from gravity events that include all disciplines, and then put on there own events that dont include gbikes or inline. As i have been told on more than one occasion asra is a skateboard association that doesnt want anything to do with rest. To me it makes more sense to have 2 series, a gravity series wich includes everyone and asra can jave there outlaw series. 2 series means 2 chances to win, 2 trophys, and best of all 2 lots of prize money.

Premium Member Comment by Trav on February 9, 2011 at 12:13

Firstly the Oz Outlaw National series is not affiliated with ASRA, it was organised by an individual (me).

Secondly this rankings is just recording results from races put together by ASRA and other groups of people / individuals. - there is no prizes or trophies at the end of the 'season', just perpetual ranking number.

Its just a ranking system, if you're not happy that there isn't a ranking system for other gravity disciplines, then START ONE YOURSELF - you've just got to record results from races.

ASRA Admin Comment by Bugs on February 9, 2011 at 12:24

There is no double standard. Event organisers can choose whether their event is included. So far they seem keen, probably because they recognise that it will attract more riders to their event.

And this isn't a series - it's a perpetual rankings. Other people can create series, and there won't be any conflict with this at all.

Comment by CANADA on February 9, 2011 at 22:27

Thanks for clearing that up bugs. I would have to think that you might recognize that you would get more riders if you included other disciplines as well.

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