[jmc]

I have always looked at obtaining the rank of Life Master as being similiar to getting a black belt in Karate. It says nothing about how one will do in a real fight, but it indicates basic skills and methods have been learned. I think most life masters have more skill then they get credit. If I had to choose between playing with my social playing bridge relatives and some random life master, the life master would likely have a much better idea of how to bid, play, defend, etc. Exceptions abound, but I still think Life Master has some value. I know that rank advancement says little about one's bridge playing level, but I still enjoy it when I advance.

All that being said, I think the ACBL should keep the current system while adopting a new performance rating system. The key is to ensure that the new system does not dissuade people from playing. Chess ratings and even OKbridge lehmans sometimes discourage people from playing. This would be bad for the ACBL imho.

jmc

[blackshoe]

Karate is a sport. It is not about "real fights".

[Aberlour10]

I noticed that the winning team of the Soloway KO has been originally seeded at #20

Team Blass has won 2 of last 3 main events (Reisinger '18, Spingold '19 ) and reached QF in Vanderbilt 19

All 5 players are listed in top 30 of the WBF ranking, multiple WC titles etc etc

and #20 ? strange...

[Gerardo]

Aberlour10, on 2019-December-07, 18:09, said:

I noticed that the winning team of the Soloway KO has been originally seeded at #20

Team Blass has won 2 of last 3 main events (Reisinger '18, Spingold '19 ) and reached QF in Vanderbilt 19

All 5 players are listed in top 30 of the WBF ranking, multiple WC titles etc etc

and #20 ? strange...

I think the seeding was based on the results of the Swiss portion of the event.

[Aberlour10]

Gerardo, on 2019-December-08, 02:07, said:

I think the seeding was based on the results of the Swiss portion of the event.

That explains everything. Thanks