[Archers] Pennsic Teams

[Siegfried]

Fen, I understand your concerns, I understand your frustration, I too
was in your shoes many years ago, not being selected for the teams,
though I saw myself outshooting some of those that were otherwise on the
team.

Now, you said that:
"It would prevent ill-will if everyone understood how teams are formed."

So let me attempt to explain why things 'are the way they are'.  Without
attempting to put value modifiers on them.

At Pennsic, everything is about the War, the War Points, and who wins,
East/Mid.

Months (6 or so) before Pennsic happens, as soon as the appropriate
King/Queens that will be Pennsic King/Queen of East/Mid are sitting on
their thrones ... negotiations begin.

These start with them negotiating what scenerios will happen, what the
rules will be, who/what will be allowed.  What points they will be
worth.  Part of the negotiation is about 'what cool stuff can we do',
but 90% of it are politics/power plays, with each Kingdom trying to play
to it's strengths, giving in here, and hoping to steal an advantage there.

This then continues down the route of ally negotiations.  Each K&Q
trying to convince each other kingdom (and large-merc-household) in
attendance to fight for their side.

Again, during all this, the end goal is to 'win the war'.  Since that's
the goal of Pennsic, and the high level game they are playing.

Now let's swing towards archery.  For many years, archery has been
negotiated by their Majesties, to be the format it is, including the
rule that 20 archers from the East, + 10 allies, will compete against 20
archers from the Mid + 10 allies..  (In fact, it used to just be 5
allies each, but that was a while ago)

(Side discussion, both Kingdom Marshals of the East and Mid, would love
to see this changed.  We did managed to get it changed, one year that I
was Kingdom TA Marshal, to 4 teams of 20 each (20 east, 20 mid, 20
east-allies, 20 mid-allies -- It was glorious -- It also only lasted 1
year, after that it was never negotiated that way again)

Now, also look at this, a typical Pennsic (let's take last year as an
example), may have 21 warpoints.  Exactly 1 of those, is the Archery
Champions Shoot.

14 of them, are Heavy points.

So now, What often happens, as part of the game, is that a K&Q can
choose (and often to) to use the strategy of weakening their archery
team potentially, in exchange for gaining more numbers/power on the
Heavy field.  In order to numerically win the war.

So quite often, those '10' ally slots, are handed out as gifts to
Kingdoms/Groups who join.   So to get the Great Dark Horde, they may
give out 2 guaranteed slots to them.  To get Northshield, 1 ... To get
X, X, etc.

Suddenly those 10 slots can start to get whittled down quickly.

And hence when you start hearing about 6 or 4 or whatever number of
slots being open for allies.

Side Note:  I should add that this tends to be much more of an 'East'
thing.  The East K&Q know that it's almost impossible for them to lose
the champions shoot.  And that they can afford to have some political
assignments, and that it won't hurt their chances.

...

Now, what has also happened, is that something has changed over time, 10
years ago, nigh 15 years ago, when I was first playing this ... Honestly
Mid & East were the two archery powerhouses.  Other Kingdoms (including
Atlantia) really didn't have a bunch of hot shots.  Atlantia has REALLY
grown in archery in that time.  I'm VERY proud of Atlantia for it.
Now, we rival any other Kingdom in our own prowess in archery, and could
give any a run for our money.   Suddenly the 'few slots' that were given
to allies, really aren't quite enough.

Now, let's make this worse.  There are 3 other Kingdoms really, that are
'archery powerhouses' at this point.  Aethelmearc, Atlantia, and
Ealdormere.   Ealdormere has less attend due to distance, but always has
2-3 amazing guys out there.  AEthelemarc, well, it's their lands, they
are all there, and they also have some amazing archers.

Now, get this.  Guess what?  Yup, you guessed it.  95% of the time,
AEthelmearc, Atlantia, and Ealdormere are on the SAME SIDE.

This means that quite often, if there ARE only 6 slots open, due to 4
political ones being given away ... suddenly there are 3 kingdoms, with
probably 20-30 worthy gentles in attendance, vying for those 6 spots.

There have been years w/ Atlantia having only 2 on the team.  There have
been years w/ Atlantia having 8 of 10.  It all depends on who is allied
w/ who ...

...

And now let me address one other thing.  So, as I've stated from above,
quite often those spots that are given away, are due to Royal
negotiation/strategy - But there is something else that's worth mentioning.

Having been in the Kingdom TA position, and having had to make some hard
decisions about who should/shouldn't be on the team.

Like when picking any team like this, when looking at numerous
'similarly skilled' people, some amount of preference can end up being
given to known, long term, performers.  Just like in the business world
when hiring, or on the horse race track.   It's often better to bank
your bets on the person who consistently hits in the 90th percentile,
and has a track record of doing that, over different kinds of shoots,
for a long time, without choking ... than going for the person who seems
really HOT right now, but perhaps carries a greater risk of coming in
low due to choking, not being able to handle a certain type of shoot, etc.

It's one of the reasons why (as has been suggested before), there isn't
an actual 'scored' tryout for the team, where the highest score wins
spots.  Because just because someone did great in a tryout, doesn't mean
they will do great on the day of the competition.  That's something more
ephemeral that needs evaluated.

...

And all that being said.  In the end, after the politics are done, after
there are 'X' slots left total, or some years, 'X' slots specifically
given to Atlantia ...

What it REALLY comes down to, is admittedly a somewhat flawed process.
(Oops, I gave a value judgement).

Much of those final decision, are the various Kingdom Marshals sitting
down and discussing it.  Who is doing good in your Kingdom, who do you
think needs to be on/off the team.  etc.   Advocacy is a huge thing here.

Beyond that, it does come down to the tryouts.  Some of the tryouts are
just 'confirmation'.  Some are more specific 'yes we are debating
between X and Y'.   In that latter case ... usually what's being looked
for, is that 'something special'.   It's usually a specific spark that
is seen, that indicates that the person is really going to rock a
certain shoot.

Heck, sometimes politics/gaming ends up playing a role here as well.  As
each year, the East/Mid marshals figure out the rules for the shoot
proper, which changes a little.

If one year they know that the woods walk is going to tiny tiny tiny
targets but very little timed rounds.  Well they are going to focus on
dead accurate but 'ok if slow' people.   If they wanna do really good on
the walkup, and discussion of distances are allowed, they may put
someone on the team that isn't the best shot, but who is amazingly
accurate at distance estimation, to go up, take the first few shots, and
tell everyone the exact distance.

Or some years they may know that they have no issues with winning the
woods walk, but that the friend/foe is what will make/break them, and so
they end up picking people who can rock that shoot, even if they suck at
the rest.  etc.

...

In any case, that was just to let you (and everyone else) know what goes
into it.  Yes, I agree, as an Atlantian, it sucks :)   But that's no
different for the Heavy Fighters who only get a small showing in their
champions battle.  Or the Rapier Fighters (same thing) ...

In the end, as you pointed out, it's East/Mid's war, and they can do
what they want.   If we want our own setup, with our own sized
teams/makeups, our best bet is to run our own war.  And then we get to
make the rules :)

oh and two last things:
> 24 Legacy slots

>From above, officially there are no 'legacy' spots.  But again there
isn't an onsite 'competition' for the spots either.  It's a
practice/tryout.  Much determination has already been made long before
Pennsic.  Based upon people's performance over the year.

When I was Kingdom TA Marshal, as soon as we'd announce who we were
fighting for that year (and/or around May/June timeframe), I'd start
emailing the Mid/East Kingdom Marshal with a list of "Who I felt was
doing hot in Atlantia" ... ranked in my own little style of categories
like: "No Question" "Hot Stuff" "Keep Watching"

I'd update that list throughout the timeframe until Pennsic, send it out
again each year, especially after Kingdom Archery Championship, which
would play alot into it.

So anyway.  It's primarily that positions have already been filled (plus
the reserved numbers) that lead to the appearance of Legacy.  (Though
I'm not going to argue that there aren't a few names that may be treated
as such.  Though those names also are always extremely high performers)

> But I am no longer willing to spend over $1k, use up a weeks
> leave, and drive 6 hours to compete for 4 slots that are
> awarded more because of politics than skill . 

I would agree with you.  If your main goal/purpose for attending Pennsic
is the Champions shoot.  I wouldn't go unless you were already told
BEFORE pennsic that you had a guaranteed slot.  Many people are told
that.  Anyone else showing up to try out, are doing so for only a very
small number of slots, with a very small chance of getting it.

Personally, I don't go to Pennsic for the archery.  I go for all the
rest of Pennsic, the fact that there is some archery is a bonus.   I
honestly don't shoot archery that much at Pennsic.  There's just so much
other stuff to do :)

In Service,
Siegfried

-- 
Barun Siegfried Sebastian Faust - Barony of Highland Foorde - Atlantia
http://hf.atlantia.sca.org/ - http://crossbows.biz/ - http://eliw.com/