I'm still astounded that both major series have never stepped up and created classes based on skill/tracked scores and expect new shooters to continue to participate.
Been saying this for years now. ?
Realistically speaking, how would one create classes based on skill/score in PRS, when every match is different?
Every race track is different, every golf course, every everything... you do it the same way they do, by score.
Your scores are already tracked, it takes an extra 90 seconds with a spreadsheet.
Let's say you're Joe Average and want to sign up for a series and compete for a year. You can pick your class beginner / sport / expert / pro.
You can only pick it for your first match in that series, ever. After that they start a two or three match rolling average of your scores.
Not WHAT you scored, WHERE you scored in comparison to everyone else.
Beginner is 0-49%
Sport is 50%-69%
Expert is 70%-89%
Pro is 90% or better
Pro shoots the same course as expert, but their 'buy in' is higher and they get cash payouts and have zip to do with the prize table.
You can only level UP, never the opposite. Most people will wind up in beginner and those that have a bit of an idea what they're doing are likely to land in sport.
The minute your 3 match average hits 70% you bump up to expert. You can't drop back down. No sandbagging.
Fees increase as you go up the scale. 100 for beginner, 200 for sport, 300 for expert, and I dunno? 500 for pro?
Whatever number generates the kind of payout thats appealing. AG Cup was a 10k buy in, right? If you have 10 guys buy in at 500 each that's a $5000 pool for the pros.
Lower the cost of admission for new guys, get them in their own classes with their own awards, etc. and devise a system that tracks scores and sets the level of competition automatically based on the scores.
Forcing everybody into open is retarded and calling a $2500 rifle from a custom shop a 'factory rifle' is the guy hitting on the retarded girl at the fair.