Am2 vs. Am1

[Smcneil]

I have been playing for 3 years now and just won my first tourney. I won in am2/intermediate. I was more or less told that I have to move up to Am1 next year. Is this a must? Or I am just going to be ripped on as a sandbagger if I stay in Am2. This is my first year playing in tournaments and did not expect to win. I was hoping to win but everything fell into place for the win. The leader choked and I won on the first playoff hole. It was a pdga b tier event. Please let me know what you think I should do.

[Cgkdisc]

Let the combination of your rating and competitive spirit help you decide. You may not have to move up but even then you might want to try MA1 once in a while.

[GripEnemyS2K]

yea, depending upon the event there isnt a need to move up...plus like you said the win fell into place. if you won by 7 strokes and never came to a playoff hole, it would be more of a necessity IMO

[Smcneil]

I was told that if I want to get better, that I should move up. If I play with and against better people than I will only get better. I have a goal to play the am worlds in 5 years. I was in 3rd of 22 for the first 3 rounds and 1st and 2nd fell apart.

[McLeod]

Stay in MA2 until you are consistently placing top 3 or your rating raises enough to restrict you. I tried moving up to Adv not long after my first Int win and found that I made the jump too soon. Now I'm going back to Int until I get my rating up. Don't worry about what other people say. Winners in MA2 almost always get called baggers. When I got my only win in that division I got called a bagger and I had an 880 rating.

[olkok]

Play where you feel comfortable. If you feel you can compete, move up.

[Rondpitt]

Ratings based divisions is one of the best things to happen to amateur competition disc golf. (Tournament golf). When players sign up to play the division that they are rated for -- the competition is tough and tight.

But, more often than not there is local pressure (on local events) to play UP a division. And like you mentioned, there is local pressure to MOVE UP after you have done well in only one event.

I have noticed a trend in our area that shows 40%-50% of the players in each am division are actually rated for the division BELOW the one they signed up for. The result? Watered down scores.

I will explain. Half of the Advanced scores look like the top players in Intermediate, and half of the Intermediate scores look like the top players in Rec, and of course --- half of the Rec scores look like the top players in Novice. IMO, it makes no sense.

Sure, there is the occasional player that is flashing up through the divisions faster than their ratings can keep up. But, that is truly the exception.

And for the players that always play up --- don't tell me that you do it to get to play with the "better" players. You might get lucky on the first round and get on a card with the top players, but after that you will be playing with the same fellas that you always play with --- just in a MOVED UP division.

BTW, (also to the folks that always play up) you already know that you will get your butt handed to you on a big regional B or A tier.

My question is why? Why water down the divisions? Why NOT play your rating. That is never sandbagging. It is simply good solid competition.

So OP, go win a few more. Let your rating climb up. (I hope it does) But, in the mean time enjoy the fight in your division. Anybody calling you a bagger is just jealous.

Ron

PS. Does anyone else think that the names of the divisions cause some of this local pressure to move up? There are times I wish we just had AmI, AmII, AmIII, and AmIV. No weird, non-descriptive, seemingly unconnected names.

[Brall]

here is a discussion that i found very helpful about playing your rating. it may give you a few points of view that you haven't thought of yet.

[zenbot]

I would say if you're consistently winning in your division then it's time to move up. If your results are more bipolar then I would think that it's OK to stay where you're at for a while.

Consistency is the key IMHO.

[Kris C]

So last year I played my 1st tourney as Rec. I took 3rd and got an 830 rating. Earlier this year, I played my 2nd tourney, played INT cause it was just a very local event and took 12th out of 17. 3rd tourney was a huge 2-day event, so I played Rec and won by 22. I didn't play spectacular DG, 840, 874, 860. Now my rating is only 848, but people still call me a bagger for the last event. Next event (this weekend) is a 2 day B-tier and I'm playing INT due to not wanting to be called a bagger.