North Oakland Darting Association

ADO All Star Championship
Local Qualifiers

In order to compete in these tournaments you must currently be on a NODA team or have paid a current Full Years Dues
There is NO COST ($0.00) for Paid Up NODA Members to enter these Tournaments.

Read about the newly formed Open Division
Click Here to see how we fund these Tournaments
Here's how many participants we send to the Regionals
Read Some More comments and a request from Michael Abbott
What if a Regional Tournament (aka National Qualifier) is Cancelled?

NODA will send winning men and women of either the Local 01 or Cricket
Tournaments to the National Qualifier (Regional) according to the
participation below.

Open Division is open to both Male and Female players
(if there are fewer than 6 Female Participants)

8 to 15 Participants (Open Division) = 1 player sent
6 to 11 Female Participants = 1 Female player sent

16 to 23 Participants (Open Division) = 2 players sent
12 to 17 Female Participants = 2 Female players sent

24 to 31 Participants (Open Division) = 3 players sent
18 to 23 Female Participants = 3 Female players sent

In the past we have sent on 1 man for every 8 men playing.  The women's side has varied.  Even though these tournaments are free to play in, we continue to see declining participation by our members.  The main "complaint" I receive is that people don't feel they have a chance to win, so why even play.  Please see my article on the many reasons why you should play in these tournaments.
Another reason for lower turnouts may be that our league is shrinking.  While our League continues to find ways to attract new members, teams and venues, I have decided to adjust the way we qualify players to go on to the National Qualifier.
The women will have more options now.
For every 6 women that shoot at the local tournament, we will send 1 woman on to the Region 4-4 National Qualifier.  However, if there are less than 6 women that attend, they have the option of shooting in the newly formed Open Division (Open to men and women).  When determining a winner for the women there has to be at least 2 women who agree to shoot against the men and whichever woman wins the most games against the men will be declared the winner and will advance to the Region 4-4 National Qualifier.  Women may only shoot in the Open Division if there are less than 6 women participating in the tournament.

The Open Division is now open to men and women (based on the criteria listed above).  The Open Division will include all eligible players not shooting in the Women's Division.  Please scroll up for the breakdown on how many players NODA will sponsor on to the Region 4-4 National Qualifier.

How We Fund these Local Qualifier Tournaments

As we have done in the past, for every complete amount of 8 players (male)/6 players (female), we send on 2 players (minimum one male & one female).  As often is the case, we sometimes come just a little shy of reaching that 16th (male)/12th (female) player.  There are no ADO rules that stipulate we must have 16/12 players to send qualifiers on.  This rule comes from the NODA and is a matter of finances.  Currently the NODA takes $2 from every Player's Dues, as well as $2 from each venue Sponsor Fee per team, and sets it aside for ADO qualifiers.  We always send on a minimum of 4 players each year (2 for 501 and 2 for cricket) at a cost of $110 per player to the National Qualifiers (formerly called "Regionals").  Our League currently has 97 players and 19 teams.  Therefore, we are only setting aside $232, but spending $440/year on ADO Qualifiers.  The rest comes out of the NODA general funds.  If we send on additional players, those extra funds also come out of the general funds.  While the Board has accepted these additional costs as a part of running the League, we really can't afford to keep sending many additional players.  We need to find additional sources of income in order to send more players on.  We've thrown around ideas such as sponsorships.  I did try this idea 3 years ago.  The two main issues at that time were that sponsors didn't feel they were getting enough exposure to make a sponsorship worthwhile and that they didn't feel the money was going to a worthwhile cause.  The sponsors would rather put money towards "feel good" events such as the Youth League.  Another idea was to increase dues/fees.  This was implemented by the NODA Board on 3/4/09.  Our player's dues increased from $55 to $60 and the venue fees went up to $85.  This increase came about to facilitate the $2 per player/team to go towards the ADO qualifiers.  We also attempted to charge $5 for additional qualifiers (beyond the first) to send on more players, but nobody signed up for them.  At this past Board meeting (3/5/13), we discussed having a 50/50 raffle at the banquets and at the qualifiers.  However, we already run two 50/50 raffles at the banquets and if we run them at the ADO qualifiers, how do we determine who to send on, a man or woman?  Currently, I'm considering running a 50/50 at the Cricket qualifier.  The winner of the drawing gets 50% of the money received.  The other 50% would be split evenly between the two second place winners (one male/one female) with those two players needing to pay any additional monies to make up the $110 fee. I haven't worked any magic formula out, but perhaps we could still use the 1/8 rule for men and  a 1/6 number for women to spend the additional 50%.  For example, we'll still run a 50/50, but if we don't have 16 men and say 25% of the women at the event, the additional money would roll over to a future event.  I'd like to see a percentage used for the women instead of a hard number, such as 12, to send a second woman.  There are only 20 women in the League.  If it were my choice, we would have sent a second woman, not a man, to this past 501 event.  I think it's incredible that they had 50% of all the NODA female shooters attend this event.

You now understand the scope of the situation.  At this point, I am open to suggestions.
Sincerely,
Michael Abbott
NODA ADO Rep. 4-4

Additional comments about our local qualifiers.

I wanted to make a comment about how good it is to see so many newer faces as well as players from the second and third divisions.  We all realize that some players have a better chance of winning than others.  However, that’s not all that these local qualifiers are about.  As some players came to realize this past weekend (Cricket Qualifier), playing against better players helps you become a better player.  Not only do you shoot all day long, which helps the physical aspect of the game, you can learn new strategies.  For example, if you hit a triple 20 on the first dart, do you stay on the 20’s or go down to the 19’s; perhaps in hopes of hitting that white horse?  If you do stay on the 20’s and hit a single 20, do you stay there or move on with the third dart?  These tournaments give people an opportunity to watch how the other players in the league play.  In 501, you can learn other out strategies.  With 90 remaining and 3 darts in hand, do you go at the triple 18, double bull, or triple 20?  When looking at the overall cricket scores from the first round, it may look like some people struggled.  However, I received lots of positive comments about how the players still were able to work out mechanical issues with their throw and learn new strategies, which made shooting at the tournament worthwhile. 

I’d also like to note that these tournaments take the better part of the day.  I run our local tournaments as close to the National Qualifiers as possible.  If you do attend a National Qualifier, you will know what to expect when you get there… the same thing you experienced here locally.  This includes a long first round of round robin play (sometimes going 3-4 hours or more).  The physical aspect is very much part of playing at higher levels.   Typically, our 501 tournaments run about 5-6 hours, while the cricket tournaments run 6-8 hours.  However, I cannot make guarantees as to how long or short a tournament will run.  While illnesses occur and family issues do arise, please understand that if you sign up to play at these local qualifiers, you are expected to play through the entire tournament.  If you leave early, all of your matches must be nullified.  This could have drastic effects on the standings.  I would ask that if you know in advance that you cannot devote the entire day to darts, please do not sign up.

Thanks again to all the players at the Tournaments who made it a very successful day of fun darts!

-Michael Abbott

What if a Regional Tournament (aka National Qualifier) is Cancelled?

Due to the lack of participation and cancellations of events at a Regional level in recent years, NODA has adopted the following League policy for sending people on to the ADO Qualifiers at the Regional level (501 All-Stars & Cricket only).

1. Continue the current policy of sending 1 male player for every 8 that show up at the Local Qualifiers.

2. Send 1 female player for every 6 that show up at the Local Qualifiers.

3. Should the winners of the Local Qualifier not be available to attend the Regional event, the next place Local Qualifier winner will be eligible.

4. If the Region 4-4 (aka National Qualifier) is cancelled, NODA will hold the entry fee for 1 year for the winners of the Local Qualifier, providing they are members of the League in good standing the following year.

5. NODA will still hold the Local Qualifier the following year and qualify people based on the current policy of 8 male/6 female.  They will be sent on IN ADDITION to last years winners.

Example 1:
Local Cricket event is held in 2013 and Male A, Male B, and Female A win.  NODA will pay for those 3 at the 2013 Cricket National Qualifier event.  Should any not be available to play, Male C or Female B would be sent in their place.

Example 2:
Local Cricket event is held in 2013 and Male A-2013, Male B-2013, and Female A-2013 win.  However, the 2013 4-4 Regional Cricket event is cancelled.  NODA holds a Local Cricket event in 2014.  Male A-2014, Male B-2014 and Female A-2014 win.  NODA will send on 4 men & 2 women to the 2014 Regional Cricket event (Providing Male A-2013, Male B-2013 and Female A-2013 are current members in good standing in 2014).  If the 2013 Local winners are not available to shoot in the 2014 National Qualifier the next place finishers of the 2013 Local Tournament will become eligible.  If the 2014 National Qualifier is cancelled, the 2013 players will lose their National Qualifier sponsorship fee from NODA and the fees will be returned to the NODA general fund.

Example 2a:  Player A wins the Local Qualifier in 2013.  The National Qualifier is cancelled for that year.  That player remains eligible for 2014 National Qualifier.  If the National Qualifier is cancelled in 2014 that player loses their NODA sponsorship for that specific event.

As always, any current ADO member may pay their own fee to enter the National Qualifiers.

This policy allows winners of our Local Qualifiers a chance to play at the Regional level despite a cancelled event and will help the Region because we will be sending more players.

Michael Abbott
NODA ADO Rep 4-4