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PGF Qualifier Berths?

Questions and discussions involving PGF

by newbi » Thu May 15, 2014 8:24 am

We are a 16U team trying to earn a berth to PGF from Southern California. We are entered in the Las Vegas event that has maxed out at 48 teams. Why are they only giving 2 berths at a tournament of this size? They just had a qualifier in Northern CA for the 12U division that had 29 teams and they awarded 4 berths. They have a 16U qualifier in CO this summer that has 9 teams signed up and they are awarding 2 berths. If PGF is interested in getting the best teams it seems like the number of berths at these tournaments should be based on the size of the qualifier. What tournament is going to produce the best competition - 48 teams in Vegas or the 9 teams in CO????? Teams shouldn't have to travel various states looking for the smallest amount of entries to try and improve their odds!
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by AlwaysImprove » Thu May 15, 2014 8:41 am

It has always been about smart managers finding under attended tournaments to increase their chances. That is the racket.
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by GRANADAFAN01 » Thu May 15, 2014 2:35 pm

I agree, the more and more we chase PGF titles, the more and more ridiculous it seems.
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by NumeroUno » Thu May 15, 2014 3:43 pm

Back in the day teams would chase the berth all over the country. I would look for berths as far away from California as possible. During the ASA days we signed up to play in some God forsaken land and no one else signed up and we got free berths. I don't think it is rediculous to chase the berth if you and your team have their mind set on playing in a national tourney with the best of the best, it just depends on what your goals are for the year.
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by Fastpitch4Life » Thu May 15, 2014 5:20 pm

NumeroUno wrote:Back in the day teams would chase the berth all over the country. I would look for berths as far away from California as possible. During the ASA days we signed up to play in some God forsaken land and no one else signed up and we got free berths. I don't think it is rediculous to chase the berth if you and your team have their mind set on playing in a national tourney with the best of the best, it just depends on what your goals are for the year.


Please provide the names of those "God forsaken land(s)" so we know better where to chase our berths. :lol:
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by fastpitchdad05 » Thu May 15, 2014 5:28 pm

Fastpitch4Life wrote:
NumeroUno wrote:Back in the day teams would chase the berth all over the country. I would look for berths as far away from California as possible. During the ASA days we signed up to play in some God forsaken land and no one else signed up and we got free berths. I don't think it is rediculous to chase the berth if you and your team have their mind set on playing in a national tourney with the best of the best, it just depends on what your goals are for the year.


Please provide the names of those "God forsaken land(s)" so we know better where to chase our berths. :lol:


I'll start with the easy one...MIDLAND TEXAS. :shock:
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by PDad » Thu May 15, 2014 7:07 pm

newbi wrote:We are a 16U team trying to earn a berth to PGF from Southern California. We are entered in the Las Vegas event that has maxed out at 48 teams. Why are they only giving 2 berths at a tournament of this size? They just had a qualifier in Northern CA for the 12U division that had 29 teams and they awarded 4 berths. They have a 16U qualifier in CO this summer that has 9 teams signed up and they are awarding 2 berths. If PGF is interested in getting the best teams it seems like the number of berths at these tournaments should be based on the size of the qualifier. What tournament is going to produce the best competition - 48 teams in Vegas or the 9 teams in CO????? Teams shouldn't have to travel various states looking for the smallest amount of entries to try and improve their odds!

PGF doesn't know 6 months in advance what the turnout is going to be at each qualifier. They can only make educated guesses based on previous years and the registrations can/do fluctuate year to year based on the sequence and dates of the qualifiers. The number of berths available at qualifiers is also just what remains after teams have accepted returning and invite berths. For 16U, 5 berths went to returning teams and they're up to 19 now on invited teams. That leaves 40 Premier berths for qualifiers.

12U berths are easier to come by because there is less demand for them across the country.

Any qualifier within driving distance of SoCal (e.g. AZ, LV, NorCal) will have a lot of SoCal teams in them and you can consider them a bundle. Because of this, AZ teams have traveled to other qualifiers in the past - even on the same weekend as their local qualifier.

The CO and OR qualifiers have been good places to chase a berth in the past. The CO qualifier is the same weekend as the SoCal qualifier, so that greatly reduces the number of teams that go there. The OR qualifier is at the end, so the best teams have qualified by then.

SoCal teams need to do some soul-searching and figure out what really makes sense for them. Teams that have a hard time qualifying for PGF Nats aren't going to fare well there. PGF has added the Platinum division for 14U and 16U this year, which is probably a better fit for the teams that struggle to qualify. I suspect there will be quite a few Platinum at-large berths available after the qualifiers are done.
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by AlwaysImprove » Fri May 16, 2014 7:35 am

Not just drive. As the SoCal driveable touranments fill up, the SoCal teams will look next at locations that are easy to fly. Seattle/Portland, Denver will be next to fill up. Look on the east coast.

Look at the Myrtle Beach, The Shawnee KS, Virginia Beach, Crown Point IN tournaments.
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by Fastpitch4Life » Fri May 16, 2014 7:46 am

fastpitchdad05 wrote:
Fastpitch4Life wrote:
NumeroUno wrote:Back in the day teams would chase the berth all over the country. I would look for berths as far away from California as possible. During the ASA days we signed up to play in some God forsaken land and no one else signed up and we got free berths. I don't think it is rediculous to chase the berth if you and your team have their mind set on playing in a national tourney with the best of the best, it just depends on what your goals are for the year.


Please provide the names of those "God forsaken land(s)" so we know better where to chase our berths. :lol:


I'll start with the easy one...MIDLAND TEXAS. :shock:


I was baiting #1 to essentially list the worst places to stay and play softball in the US, but that probably deserves it's own thread and may impact HB website traffic :mrgreen:
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by newbi » Tue May 27, 2014 8:10 pm

The Vegas brackets are out and the schedule is crazy since they are only giving 2 berths! PGF needs to stop giving out all of there "political" invites to teams that don't deserve invites and open up more berths for tournaments like this for teams to earn their berths competing against 48 quality teams!
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