Time bank match

Dthomas3523

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  • Jan 31, 2018
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    Has this ever been tried?

    Overall time limit bank. Like a chess match.

    Say you have 10 stages. You have a 20min total time bank. Take as long or short as you want on a stage.

    Each stage is shot with a shot timer. Time is recorded for each stage. Your match is done when you either A) shoot all stages or B) run out of time.

    Tie breaker is total amont if time left in bank.
     
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    Reactions: CBeck
    I also like this idea - a lot, actually. The biggest issue I can see is match flow if you just let people run as long as they want on a stage. Having a geneous fixed time limit (Say 3 minutes per stage, but only 20 minutes to shoot all 10) and proper stage flow planning would help with that, however. The other issue would be tracking time remaining across stages so the ROs could properly stop a shooter when they ran out of overall match time.

    To make it even more fun, don't let shooters see the full COF ahead of time so they can't try to re-plan their time use, or make it so it's *highly* difficult to finish the actual match under the time limit, so you introduce the aspect of possibly sacrificing on an early stage to buy more stages at the end.
     
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    Reactions: Subwrx300
    Sounds fun. Probably not very new shooter friendly if you could run out of time and your match was over.

    Wouldn't be too much incentive to rush if the total time was just a tiebreak, unless the time limits were super short. With 2 minute stage average the smart play would be to shoot clean and let the time fall wherever it falls.

    Maybe if you switched it up you could put a bit more incentive to hurry in there. What about overall match placement being weighted for both total impacts and total time? Something like 75% weight on total impacts and 25% weight on where you finished on time would be about right.
     
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    i like this idea

    id be worried about squads/ROs actually handling all the numbers cleanly tho

    That was my initial thought as well. How to make sure squads manage the time properly.

    Ideally:

    Squad member keeps shot timer next to shooter, last shot goes off, and they write the time down on paper or practiscore.

    The trick would be having either the squad recognizing or shooter recognize shooter was getting close to their total time and then putting them on a clock at whatever stage. Say they have 2:40 left on stage 9. Someone has to recognize this and put the shooter on the clock.

    I’m not educated enough in practiscore to know if there is a function that will show you total time (maybe the score total screen?), but if not, a simple app like numbers on iPhone would be able to add it quickly.
     
    I also like this idea - a lot, actually. The biggest issue I can see is match flow if you just let people run as long as they want on a stage. Having a geneous fixed time limit (Say 3 minutes per stage, but only 20 minutes to shoot all 10) and proper stage flow planning would help with that, however. The other issue would be tracking time remaining across stages so the ROs could properly stop a shooter when they ran out of overall match time.

    To make it even more fun, don't let shooters see the full COF ahead of time so they can't try to re-plan their time use, or make it so it's *highly* difficult to finish the actual match under the time limit, so you introduce the aspect of possibly sacrificing on an early stage to buy more stages at the end.

    In a perfect world, I’d like a total time bank and a 100% blind stage match. But matches are hard enough to keep track of as is.

    Just looking for some ideas to make things a little different from time to time.
     
    In a perfect world, I’d like a total time bank and a 100% blind stage match. But matches are hard enough to keep track of as is.

    Just looking for some ideas to make things a little different from time to time.

    Even if it wasn't 100% blind stages (ie: See everything on the clock only), not giving the shooters the entire course of fire (and maybe even not tell them how many stages they have to shoot in that time limit) would definitely make them consider really hard when to burn time and when not to.
    I seriously like the idea. No way it would fly at a PRS points match, but I could see it working great at an outlaw match or even a team match.
     
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    Reactions: Dthomas3523
    Even if it wasn't 100% blind stages (ie: See everything on the clock only), not giving the shooters the entire course of fire (and maybe even not tell them how many stages they have to shoot in that time limit) would definitely make them consider really hard when to burn time and when not to.
    I seriously like the idea. No way it would fly at a PRS points match, but I could see it working great at an outlaw match or even a team match.

    I like the idea of unknown amount of stages.

    Could also basically do infinite stages. Basically, you shoot stages until your time bank has expired. Some might be 8 stages, others might get through 10.

    Just spitballing.
     
    I like the idea of unknown amount of stages.

    Could also basically do infinite stages. Basically, you shoot stages until your time bank has expired. Some might be 8 stages, others might get through 10.

    Just spitballing.

    Or even make them do 'laps' - 8 stages, you shoot 1-8 and if you have time remaining, you go back to 1 and keep going until you run out of time.
     
    That might push it too much into a race match format.

    Picture this... you shoot 90% running stages in 90 seconds (a very solid fast pace with good accuracy) or you run way faster and just go full trigger slap 60 second stages, dropping off to 70% hit percentage.

    The super rushed slap trigger approach would get more total points because they'd get to shoot more stages. Heck, your best bet might be to get a gas gun and go all 3gun speed approach. :)

    That's why I was leaning towards a 75% weight on accuracy and hits with a smaller percentage for speed. Would keep people from gaming the system by going super fast with only moderate accuracy.
     
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    Reactions: 1moaoff
    That might push it too much into a race match format.

    Picture this... you shoot 90% running stages in 90 seconds (a very solid fast pace with good accuracy) or you run way faster and just go full trigger slap 60 second stages, dropping off to 70% hit percentage.

    The super rushed slap trigger approach would get more total points because they'd get to shoot more stages. Heck, your best bet might be to get a gas gun and go all 3gun speed approach. :)

    If you still have limits on total rounds per stage or per target, then you would really hobble the spray-and-pray approach.
     
    If you still have limits on total rounds per stage or per target, then you would really hobble the spray-and-pray approach.

    I was still imagining limited rounds stages like normal.

    I was just thinking that you could increase the speed more than your hit percentage would drop off which would make the incentive to shoot fast and sloppy rather than moderately fast and highly accurate.
     
    To keep up with time........each team is given a stopwatch set with 20 minutes at the beginning of the match. At each stage the RO is given the stopwatch to keep time on that stage. The RO gives the stopwatch back when time to change stages.
     
    Keeping separate times for each shooter seems like a pain in the ass. Especially for local matches with shooters ROing their own squads.

    If you want to increase difficulty, just use smaller targets.
     
    Keeping separate times for each shooter seems like a pain in the ass. Especially for local matches with shooters ROing their own squads.

    If you want to increase difficulty, just use smaller targets.

    Nothing to do with difficulty. Just something different.

    You already have someone running a timer. Standing next to them with a shot timer ain’t that big of a deal.
     
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    Reactions: Hollywood 6mm
    Mammoth would have stages like this most years. The team would have 8 minutes for the stage. Primary shooter goes first and yells stop when finished. Secondary shooter gets the remaining time but the RO doesn’t tell you how much time you have left. It was great to see people get in position when they unknowingly only had a few seconds and also guys rush like hell when they had 6 minutes left.
     
    The easiest way to do this would be to keep the same format of 90-120sec par times but scored more in a USPSA fashion where you balance speed/accuracy.

    It’s basically the same thing as what you stated. The stage itself and skill will dictate how fast they go. It would make it way less of a pain to worry about managing time limits and stage flow.
     
    I worked up a new match idea today and designed 9 stages for it.
    A match that is heavy on movement and positional shooting stages, some on rifle manipulation stages and some are find-range-engage stages.
    Unlimited round count.
    Stages are 4 min.
    Each stage had 10 required impacts
    After all impacts are completed each 20 seconds left on the time are worth 1 extra point. (max 6 extra points at each stage)

    This scoring will let the experienced shooter get more points for going faster and let the new shooters have more time to hit targets and fire rounds. This also keeps the scoring more simple for the ROs with no overall time to keep track of.

    You could limit the rounds if you wanted.
    __________________________________________________________

    Here was my favorite stage.

    Stage 7 - Long Range University
    Targets - 5 Long range targets 800 to 1200 yards, One confirm @450-ish
    Course of Fire
    Shooter will start in the prone position with the bolt open and mag in. Shooter will range and engage 5 targets at distance. Targets must be engaged with 2 impacts each from near to far as a Know your limits stage. Shooter can shoot the confirm target to lock points in any time and re-engage additional targets after confirmation. After each confirmation the shooter must start at the closest target impacting each dead (previously confirmed target) for no points with one round each (as if starting over) and engage the next live (score-able) target with impacts for points. At any miss the shooter must start back at the nearest target and engage each dead target with 1 impact until a score-able target with impacts for points.
    Points
    1st target (near) 1 points each impact
    2nd target - 2 points each impact
    3rd target - 3 points each impact
    4th target - 4 points each impact
    5th target - 5 points each impact
    Confirm target - zero
    1 point for each 20 seconds remaining after all impacts.

    MAX total points is 32 points. (most stages have 16 to 20 available points)
     
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