Next, when the BAC is raised in importance becoming a big event, is the matter of scheduling in an already quite crowded annual tournament schedule, what with the quadrennial Olympics, the annual WC, year-end SSF, 5 compulsory PSS for the top 8 players/pairs, the quadrennial Asian Games (for Asians, what about other regional games ?), the biennial Sudirman Cup, the biennial Thomas and Uber Cups, the annual BAC (for Asians), the European Championships (for Europeans), not to mention some MAs' national games or championships, even less the professional leagues. Let's hope BWF will give serious thought to rescheduling the annual tournament calendar with respect to the four-year cycle as the Olympics is once every four years, so as to have a better spread of the big events, a delicate balancing act but necessary for the sake of the well-being and career development, growth and advancement of the professional athletes.
You're mistaken, the BAC doesn't count for the WC qualifications. The last tournament that counted was the CHN Masters GPG. The cut-off date for WC qualification ranking points is the last Thursday of April, i.e. 27th April. Also, note that the European Championships as well as the Pan-Am Championships are held at the same time as the BAC.
Do this year's BAC points count towards 2018 WC qual then? That's what I meant when I said "the following year's WC".
I'm not sure, have to check it up. Anyway, the BAC, the EC,and the Pan-Am C, are in the same position. Besides, the fact that some Asian players chose to skip the BAC, tells you they don't need the BAC results to qualify for the WC, as there are many other SS/PSS and GPG/GP tourneys. Btw, the year-end SSF is only for the top 8 who benefits from the extra high-ranking-point tournament, so I think give and take one doesn't matter. Furthermore, qualification for the WC is not the only consideration for holding a particular event.
Yup. I was just responding to the ones saying it would be unfair to make the BAC the last qualifying tournament for the WC. As I understand it, the BAC is currently the first qualifying tournament for next year's WC (for Asian players of course, correct me on this if I'm wrong). So it wouldn't make a difference to make it this year's last WC qualifying tournament instead (since the points are counted towards WC qual anyway, the only difference being this year WC or next year WC). This way the continental championship would gain more importance and participation without any tangible additional advantage gained by any groups of players.
The last BAC had the distinction of being a qualifying event for both OG'16 and WC'17. Obviously, everyone was paying attention to OG'16 rather than WC'17. In fact, many players would have retired by WC'17. That's one more reason for not counting BAC points only for next year's WC. If they do make the next BAC as the qualifying event for WC'18, they can grandfather the results from BAC'17 by allowing the players to take the higher of BAC'17 and BAC'18. The same goes for all other continental championships.
Even so , such an anomaly should occur only once for that particular edition of the WC if the rule change allows BAC'18's results to be included for WC'18. As the WC is more than three months away from the BAC, it makes sense to include the year's BAC for the year's WC as being more relevant, i.e. BAC'17 for WC'17, and BAC'18 for WC'18. Unfortunately, the BAC'17 held from 25th to 30th April happened to straddle the last Thursday of April cut-off date, i.e. 27th April, for the WC'17 qualifications, hence excluded on technical grounds. I think BWF can amend the rule of eligibility for the WC to simply include the results for the BAC'18 for next year's WC'18 and exclude BAC'17's results if they wish so as to prevent grandfathering. Usually after the OG, there'd be some retirements of players,traditionally, so , yes, I agree it's one more reason for counting the year's BAC for the year's OG/WC rather than for the following year's.
My duties at Badminton Asia also are helping other countries how to do a better event. Vietnam: first time we did Mixed team and did well. Now Asian Youth under 15/17 will go to Yangon ( Myanmar) In November, we will do regional tournaments in Iraq and Kazakstan... and Elite tour ( exciting ones.. will announce it later ) If you see all the cups.. we design it and all gold plated.. all medals are given out all gold plated ( and not cheap)..teaching the host how to do branding..hospitality( this is the key) For example at Wuhan.. before players complained that rooms are not good.. breakfast is not good.. surrounding for restaurant is not there.. so like this year.. we managed to get 5 stars hotel with better choice of breakfast.. restaurants with many choices are next door.. make sure hotel has strong wifi.. wifi at the hall as well.. shower facilities at the stadium.. those are very important to players and official...you hear no complain about line judges as well.. thats make Asia championship more important as we star with new logo of Badminton Asia...look at how the title and logo badminton asia are put together and it needs time and consistency for each tournament..
I agree. If there are enough similar ranking tournaments that every player has a chance of entering, then the differential is reduced. Actually, is that fair on the remaining 20%?
More events means more players with greater choice of tournament selection. So you don't have one player trying to enter all tournaments. You have a bigger pool of players and that hopefully encourages associations to support bigger teams. More GP level tournaments (I wish BWF stop changing the categorisation of tournaments) means greater number of players going around the world chasing points.
no it is not. i think ranking points need to be removed. it creates an unequal opportunity. there are of other incentives to enter: money, nat'l pride, positioning on your team, experience.
Excellent, congratulations once again. Personally, I feel the cups or trophies need not be gold or gold-plated, instead use the money saved for more prize money or better facilities or even reward the tournament officials in food, transportation or in kind if monetary reward is not allowed, how about an allowance to cover some of their expenses ? A well-designed trophy, unique and representative of BAC is good enough, makes a nice limited edition collection. It's not as if the winners can sell their gold-plated trophies in future for a good price if their financial situation calls for it, sad if it comes to that. I feel that the trophies only benefit a small group of winners, therefore the design is more important than its actual value, in my humble opinion.
Fairness is not the only or overriding concern,have to strike a balance with other things, looking at the big picture. Besides,it's not as if the 20% suffer a definite disadvantage or discrimination as only the few winners of the BAC may need the ranking points. As we know, for the Premier SS, only certain higher ranked players are admitted directly into the main draw, the rest, many of whom are not that lowly ranked, have to play the qualifiers twice a day. That though not fair serves as an incentive for them to do better and gain promotion to higher ranked events in future, as long as it's an open field where nobody is artificially discriminated against from participating on whatever grounds. The BAC like the EC and Pan-Am C happen to be regional or continental events, so naturally limited to players in their respective geographical areas. If any player outside the region can take part in the events where his nationality does not belong, then the stronger player might want to participate in the weaker events to grab some needed ranking points whenever needed, that'd be worse. and since the three championships are of different degrees of difficulty, it rightfully carries ranking points commensurate to it. Continental or regional events serve their purpose in the promotion of the sport geographically, if we give it less recognition or lower stakes instead of making it more appealing by , say awarding the requisite ranking points, decent if not attractive prize money, good TV and livestream coverage, held in reasonably good standard if not world-class facilities, then it's unlikely to be successful in attaining its intended goals and may just go to waste. As it is, the BAC is almost as strong as the World Championships, so it ought to deserve an equivalent high standing and its corresponding rewards and benefits.
Ideally, that should or may be a good thing for continental championships, but for professional players who devote their youth and the best part of their adult life to the sport as a career ? Reality is harsh. No ranking points, yet the monetary reward is so-so, esp for those exiting in the early rounds ,not a good proposition. Perhaps for only a handful of top players, the ranking point is a bonus if they've already attained what is required in other tournaments. And , how much monetary reward is enough to make up for the absence of ranking points to attract the top players, starting in R1 in case of early exits to make it worthwhile ? In tennis, the Grand Slam, I recall one AUS Open , the prize money is so lucrative, USD20k just for winning the 1st round, about as muvh as the average badminton SS title winner. I agree with Hunagkwokhau, realistically speaking, both ranking points and prize money should be appealing enough before any event can be successful; then comes other necessary or good-to-have things, like playing venue, location and its amenities, eg hotels with good wifi, food variety, convenient transportation, tourist attractions for spectators/visitors,etc. In my opinion, different players in different situations with differing needs and in various stages of their career have specific needs and wants, therefore it will greatly help towards the success of a tournament if it can meet the widest number of needs and wants of as many players as possible. If the BAC'17 with SS-level ranking points is the last and final event that counts towards the Glasgow WC qualifications, I believe it will be even more successful. I guess there are good reasons why Wuhan, China, who has held these two years BAC is willing and happy to play host for another three years. I 'm not the least bit surprised if there were no other bidders previously and now. I reckon only China can host such an event with her huge domestic market alone, and the available sponsors who thought it worthwhile doing so. Imagine, there were no ranking points awarded and the prize money is low ? Would the BAC be able to take off , or die a natural death ? Luckily, this year's BAC has been quite a happy success. Let us build on its success to make it even better for the millions of badminton enthusiasts in Asia that may spill over to other continents as we're living in a globalised world. By the way, Lin Dan originally thought of skipping the BAC'17 after he's achieved the requisite qualification points for the WC at the CHN Masters, but when he found out many of his fans were clamouring to see him play the BAC in Wuhan, he changed his mind and we were treated to another Lin - Lee big battle and, what a bonus, the exhilarating Lin - Chen grand finale as well. Sure, Lin Dan didn't need the prize money but if the SS-level BAC'17 were to count towards the WC qualifications, then I think he might've skipped the lower-ranked CHN Masters GPG and play the higher-ranked BAC without hesitation (or he might play in both tournaments just in case). Last but not least, by weighing the pros and cons or doing a cost-benefit analysis of having the BAC consisting of high rankling points and fairly attractive prize money included in the WC qualifications, I think the answer should be obvious what the best course of actions should be taken.
One simplistic way to look at the fairness issue is this: A higher level of tournament is roughly equivalent to one extra round on top of a lower level tournament. The difficulty in getting to BAC semi-finals is roughly the same as getting to a European Championship final. So for a given performance level, one can expect to get the about the same amount of ranking points from BAC and BEuropeC. This is obviously not an exact science. But you know what I mean.
How about the PanAmerican, African and Oceania championships? Do they get a similar number of ranking points? If they do, then the differential points issue is definitely a minimal one.