Matches have become contrived in a lot of ways, the stages are getting stupider, doing the same thing over and over, to the point of, manipulating the intended COF so they never have to go outside their comfort zone.
Why not just give everyone a tripod and say, This stage is a Tripod Standing Event, this one a Kneeling Event, and then drop in a sprinkling of prone to round it out. The obstacles have become nothing more than front rests anyway, and if you can bypass the obstacle by claiming it's Innovative to shoot it from a High Prone vs the intended way, what is the point. Perception is Reality, if someone perceives you as gaming or cheating you are, regardless of how you spin it. If one person at an event feels he was unaware of his ability to game a stage to degree someone else might, it's wrong.
The issue is, Guys looked at what we did at Rifles Only with the SH Events, the Cup and Shooter's Bash. We had GIANT prize tables where everyone scored a prize or series of prizes. Before leaving Rifles Only in 2011 our tables exceeded $200,000 in prizes with less than 100 shooters. We set the bar, we filled the matches in minutes, which to those on the outside looking in, was something to copy and worth trying to replicate.
Fast forward to today with too many matches, everyone with their hands out from Shooters, to MD to Series, and that $200,000 prize table is now worth $50,000 and you have twice as many people attending the match. They never accounted for growth, only how to get theirs before the music stopped playing. The fact they charged you to be a member before they had a product should have been a clue, but everyone wanted that card.
The spin is really quite funny to me, how they are "Thinking outside the box because they just did the same thing again really makes me laugh. Hell, some matches are so lazy they do the same damn stages twice and just adjust the time limit. You have two whole choices, Game Changer Bag or Tripod there is really nothing in-between.
We always tried to think of new stages and new ways to test the shooters. In fact, it was part of what drove me away from RO as it was getting stale in my opinion and I was being a bit too vocal about not doing it the same way every time. I was sick of the Helicopter stages, took too long and you can shoot 3 different stages in the same amount of time.
The idea that prizes are a participation is comical, yes they are, but front-loading the prizes to the top shooters is silly also. Yes, they absolutely are a participation trophy, that is what the Sponsors want it helps them spread the love. There is no point front-loading a prize table because the majority of the top guys are sponsored already. If your sponsor cannot or does not pay your way to these matches and you feel you have enough clout and value-added supported to rate the better prizes, maybe try renegotiating with those sponsors to up their contribution. If they cannot afford you, how can they afford 50 + matches a year? Pretty simple really.
I get loving the sport and wanting to shoot more, but if that means a lot more travel and a lot bigger expensive, re-think your match schedule. Stand up a better class of local event to meet your standards and improve the class of shooter who will eventually move forward and follow a rational path. Think local before you think national as national costs a ton. We invest in our local match, we promote it and help guide it so it builds new shooters vs subtracting from the pool.
We started this thing whether you want to admit it or not, the fact we constantly tell people they are fucking it up and don't understand what the hell they are doing is a function of experience. It can be done better, but not if you are in it for yourself first, the prizes second and the notoriety third. It's funny with all this talk about the matches, and my phone blowing up every day because of it, the same names keep popping up as how not to do it, and those same names are the top guys. Clue right there, again. The MD see it and they don't like it, nor do they like getting blamed for poorly worded COFs, even when we all know what they meant.
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