New points-only system simplifies standings
Operation Bass officials have decided to drop the weight element from their system of ranking anglers for tour standings across all three of Operation Bass’ tournament circuits. The move is an effort to make it simpler for anglers, fans and media alike to understand the scoring system for standings throughout the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, EverStart Batteries Series and soon-to-be Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League (BFL, formerly Red Man Tournament Trail).
Gone is the 16-year-old method of using both accumulated points and pounds in combination to determine an angler’s ranking throughout the year. Instead, anglers will simply be awarded points based on where they place in a tournament.
Until now in the FLW and EverStart tours, anglers accumulated points based on their results in the opening round, or first two days, of each competition. Then a second list was created where they were ranked according to their accumulated pounds of bass during the opening round of each competition. The points list and the pounds list were combined to yield the tour standings. On the Red Man circuit, the same accumulated points-and-pounds scoring – based on a one-day tournament – was used to determine each of its 22 divisions’ standings.
The new scoring system will award points based on the overall tournament results, which is a departure from scoring only the opening round of tournaments (in FLW and EverStart), and will not rank anglers by an accumulated weight total. Instead, the only determining factor will be final tournament results. Tournament winners will receive 200 points, second place 199, third place 198 and so on. Points will be awarded in one-point increments down to each angler who weighs a fish. Anglers who do not weigh in any bass over the course of the tournament will receive no points. The same point system will be used for the one-day BFL tournaments.
The main contingency awards for each of the respective tours that depend on standings – such as entry into the FLW Championship and EverStart Invitational Challenge, FLW’s Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year and priority entry into the next year’s FLW Tour – will remain the same. The only change is to the scoring system that determines standings.
Charlie Evans, Operation Bass’ chief operating officer, said the major reason for the scoring change is to eliminate confusion for people following the standings. Plus, he says, dropping the weight system helps to maintain a scoring consistency from tournament to tournament where bass weights can vary greatly.
“Even though our points-and-pounds system was an extremely fair way to do it, it was hard to understand,” he said. “Under this system, an angler can go to a tournament and still score a large number of points, even if he’s on a lake that might not have a lot of fish. We’ve determined that this will be even fairer because it rewards consistency no matter what the lake conditions are.”
The new, points-only tour standings scoring system will take effect at the start of the 2001 FLW, EverStart and BFL tournament seasons.