Some teams were in Vegas this week for the BCA tournament. Many of these teams did not contact their scheduled opponents to let them know they wouldn’t be available to play their league matches. Unfortunately, much of this is due to a miscommunication that I – Mike Schwartz – am personally responsible for. The officers became aware of this situation a few weeks ago, and we discussed rescheduling week 18, but didn’t actually do it, which is 100% on us. Because I thought this was going to happen, I told the captains of the no show teams who contacted me that we, the officers, would take care of it, which we didn’t.
That said, quite a few teams showed up for their matches last week and didn’t have opponents. They did nothing wrong and some of them had to stand outside in the rain while waiting for a team that wasn’t going to show up. This is a somewhat complicated issue, with shared blame to go around. As such, the officers and grievance committee are discussing options. There isn’t a single solution that will please everyone. The teams who showed up expect 16-0 forfeit wins. The teams who were in Vegas expect that, both because I told them the officers would handle the situation, and the fact that they were playing in the very BCA tournament they pay fees for through this league, that the matches would be rescheduled.
This many 16-0 forfeits will likely be very disruptive to the league. Teams that had nothing to do with this will suffer as a result. Due to the obvious extenuating circumstances, the standard no show rules may or may not apply, depending on the decision of the grievance committee and officers.
This situation came about because usually the BCA Vegas tournament is held in the summer, but this year the dates changed. That isn’t an excuse, as we knew these date changes were to happen, but that’s why it wasn’t originally scheduled as byes. For future, the officers will make sure not to schedule matches during the week(s) of the BCA tournament.
I personally apologize for my role in this issue, and I hope that whatever the decision is, it’s understood that there are many factors involved, that we realize not everyone will be happy with the decision, and, at the end of the day, this is a recreational, small money pool league where the main goal is fun. We hope that the majority agree that the goal is to actually play pool. While we understand the desire to take a 16-0 forfeit win, especially in these circumstances where the people who showed up did nothing wrong, we request that everyone take a look at the big picture, understand that a lot of human error was involved, that we’ve got a plan in place so that this doesn’t ever happen again, and that the ideal situation is that the matches are made up and played. We are looking at ways to incentivize the teams who met with no shows without a major disruption to the league, and hope to have a resolution soon.