Play up or play my rating?

[ALPO]

Originally Posted by mashnut

It depends on what you want out of a tournament experience. I think there's a lot of value in learning how to win. If you have the chance to be at the top of recreational, it's going to give you some good experiences either trying to hold on to a lead or trying to catch a leader which won't happen if you play in a division where you're not as competitive. If you're good enough to consistently win rec, you'll be rated out of that division soon enough, but you should never let people pressure you into moving up if you don't want to. Usually the people yelling bagger are the ones who want you to move up and add to their prize pool in a higher division.

I love this. I need an annotated version of this to motivate me for the tourney later this month.

I played Int in my first tourney ever and finished last. Dropped down to Rec for my next one and was in the middle of the pack. By my third tournament I was able to win Rec (non-sanctioned) and "bagger" comments were abound! Couldn't believe it!

So my 4th tournament coming up, and I'm already feeling (albeit completely my own) pressure to play Intermediate. Like I can hear the "bagger" comments already echoing in my head! But I still need to prove I can play under pressure, and for me that equates to trying to compete for the lead card and consistency at the top of Rec. I don't see the point in playing INT yet, as I have no chance to win it. I'm just not that good...yet.

I think, we should refrain from loosely throwing out the term "bagger" and save it for the guys who actually manipulate their ratings so that they can play lower divisions. As for me...I'm going to let my rating determine my division. And I'm going to try to finish every tournament with my lowest score possible.