Q1. How do I know at what Division level I should Play?
Q2. Why did you place our teams in this Divisions?
Q3. Is there a place in League Republic that I can see a player’s historical rankings?
Q4. How can how do we know if a person is an appropriate substitute for my team to use?
Q5. How can my team move up in the Divisions?
Q6. Why do we have 5 team divisions? We want to avoid having 2 Byes in a season.
Q7. Why do I to pay a full PADA Association fees if I’m only playing half the year?
Q8. What are the Awards and why are the different in Fall 2014 then Spring 2014?
Q9 . Will we ever go back to the AA, A, B, C divisions naming convention.
Q10. How does PADA communicate with its members? (FB, WebSite, email … etc.)
Q1. How do I know what Division I should Play in?
… PADA uses a system that is based on your winning or losing of Legs in a division with players of similar skills. We take the division average and based on your win / loss you will receive a season rank number for that season. Your current ranking is the average of the last 24 months of season rankings. So you will be placed in a division where your skill level is similar to that of the division. For more detail see on PADA Website under League>Current Players Statistics the PADA Members Ranking System and the most resent PADA player rankings that are updated after every season.
Q2. Why did you place our teams in this Division?
… Today, we use the player’s current rankings to build a team ranking average and then stack them against each other. We still use other factors as judgment when placing a team, (e.g. team preference or previous season division winners) but this is limited to reduce the possibility of introducing deviations to the player ranking algorithm. For more detail see on PADA Website under League>Current Players Statistics the PADA Members Ranking System. You should also look on the PADA Website under “League” look for a links to find the Current Seasons Placement Analysis.
Q3. Is there a place in League Republic that I can see a player’s historical rankings?
… Unfortunate League Republic does not have a system for doing rankings today. We use League Republic exclusively for managing the season’s play and tracking Match and Player statistics. We do have a database that we maintain with records going back as far as 2006. If you would like to see the last 24 months of players seasonal rankings you can find them on the PADA site under League>Current Players Statistics (PS… we are talking with League Republic about the possibility of them having a ranking system in the future)
Q4. How can I know if a person is an appropriate substitute for my team to use?
… The current league Rules in the Captains Packet or on the PADA Website attempt to cover this question. But ultimately it is at the discretion of the league director to approve any substitute prior to the match. The basic guidelines are intended to ensure that no substitute is significantly better than the division they are substituting in. There are several tools at our disposal to try and do is. If the player has a current PADA ranking, we can use this ranking to safeguard against that substitute being more than one division higher than that division’s average. (e.g. the substitute for C division should not be higher than the B division average… See League>Current Players Statistics ) If the substitute has played for PADA previously but not in the last 2 years will look at their historical data to determine if they are viable candidate. And finally if they have no PADA ranking at all we have to make our best guess based on whatever information we have. However what carries the most weight in any substitute decision is if both Captains agree the substitute is appropriate. Once the matches played there are no do-overs!
Q5. How can my team move up in the Divisions?
… Teams are placed in divisions based on their current teams ranking average. If you want to move up in divisions it is important that your team is winning matches. This also holds true when we apply judgment. If your team finishes in first place for that season’s division you have first right of refusal in moving up to the next division regardless of your teams ranking. If that team does not want to move up, we offer the second right of refusal to the Divisional Playoff Champions. When appropriate you can add player(s) with a higher rank to your team raising your teams rank average to that next level division. See “PADA Member Ranking process” on the PADA web site under League>Current Players Statistics
Q6. Why do we have 5 team divisions? We want to avoid having 2 Byes in a season.
… This is a challenge. Our desire is to have perfect divisions with six teams playing 10 weeks with no byes. Unfortunately we don’t always get the 30 teams required to fill out every spot in the divisions. Typically what we end up with is some number of 5 and 6 team divisions. For those divisions with only five teams you end up with a season that has 10 weeks with two byes for each team. In the last couple seasons we have seen a lot of movement with teams taking seasons off or players changing teams. In Fall 2014 we lost four teams taking our number down to 26 active teams. We’re looking at how we can get more teams formed to bring this number back up. There are players out there who are looking for teams but can’t find them. We’re trying to figure out how we might bring these players together to form new teams. We have looked at the possibility of creating divisions with only four teams so you can fill out the other divisions with six, however the four Team Divisions end up playing the same three teams over and over again. We’re also looking at how we might form the divisions differently having some form of crossover between the divisions. Where your team would play both in conference and out of conference Teams. B Teams could potentially play A Teams. E Teams could potentially play D Teams. There are a number of details that would have to be figured out regarding the point system for the division playoffs. If any of you have any ideas or can help promote the starting of more teams, please contact the League Director or any PADA Board member.
Q7. Why do I to pay a full PADA Members Association fees if I’m only playing half the year?
… This was a well debated conversation by the board. There were arguments on both sides. But what it ended up coming down to, are you a member of PADA or are you not. Much like a PGA membership or a Costco membership, being a member is a singular one time yearly thing. So the board ratified the decision to not make half year memberships available. This reduces the overhead on the board to manage who has what type of membership and how long is it valid. It also aligns us in paying for our yearly fixed costs like ADO Association Fees, our PO Box, our Website, the monthly shoots, our charitable donations, … etc.
Q8. What are the Awards for League? Why were they different in Fall 2014 then Spring 2014?
… Frankly the new League Director in Fall 2014 messed up. He misinterpreted what awards were to be given out. We are in process of correcting this as best as possible. However there was an upside to this mistake. The board has taken the opportunity to review and update the current awards being presented and documenting them in the league rules. For the Regular Season we wanted to award the Players for their hard won, week over week consistent season performance. Additionally we wanted to award the venue for their sponsorship of PADA teams. For the Post Season Divisional Playoff Champions we wanted to treat this as that super bowl opportunity amongst their peer teams to throw everything they have at that one time winner takes all match. And then having that Bragging Rights plaque for the Venue.
Awards :
Regular Season Awards per Division
First Place 1st Place Patch for each player
– Large 1st Place plaque for the Venue
Pins White Horse, Dead Eyes, 9 Counts and Ton 80s
Post Season — Divisional Playoff Champions Awards
First Place Divisional Playoff Pint Glasses
– Divisional Playoff Champion Pennant for the Venue,
Q9. Will we ever go back to the AA, A, B, C division naming convention.
… This has been a regular discussion over the past couple years with the Board and the membership. Originally we were having trouble with people insisting their teams were a specific division level. Unfortunately this did not correlate to the ranking process PADA uses. When we looked around at what other dart associations were doing, we found many of them did not use ranking letters to characterize their divisions. In some cases they used colors, numbers or even titles to label their divisions (Orange, Green, Blue… Division One, Division Two… Masters, Strong Bow, Knights, etc…). To break this connection between skill in division letter, the board decided to use a simple A, B, C, D, E, F… scheme to stack the teams easily by rank. With that said, we have no plans to go back to the old naming convention. However there is no reason not to either, as long as members understand that if you’re playing in B division that does not have anything to do with your Players or your team’s skill level.