Pros to square off in head-to-head competition in September; road to championship glory begins at Okeechobee
Of all the enhancements hitting the Wal-Mart FLW Tour for the 2002 season, quite possibly none affects the anglers more than the overhaul of the tournament format for the year-end championship. Not just another four-day tournament anymore, the FLW Championship and its new bracket-style competition will change what it means to be the Wal-Mart FLW Tour champion.
Here’s how it will work come championship time in September:
The qualifiers
The top 48 pros and co-anglers based on overall point standings from the six-event regular season will qualify for the championship. This is a slight departure from previous years where regular-season tournament winners were also assured spots in the championship regardless of their standings. This is no longer the case. The championship field will be determined strictly by the point standings at the end of the regular season. Tournament winners may also qualify for the championship, but only if they are ranked 48 or above at the conclusion of the six-event regular season.
Co-angler Division
The co-angler competition at the championship will remain the same as a regular-season tournament: a two-day opening round with the finalists fishing in a one-day shootout on day three to determine the champion. Like past championships, the Co-angler Division will have a 48-angler field that will be cut in half to the top 24 co-anglers for the finals on day three.
Pro Division, opening round
The Pro Division is a different story. The top 48 anglers from the regular season will be seeded for the opening round of the championship according to their rank in the regular-season point standings. Then, for the two-day opening round, the pros will square off in head-to-head competition against each other. Like the NCAA basketball bracket-style tournament, the top seed will fish against the bottom seed, the second seed will fish against the second-to-last seed, and so on. They will fish against the same angler for both days. The 24 anglers who tally more weight than their opponents over the first two days, Wednesday and Thursday, will advance to the semifinal round.
Semifinal round
The 24 opening-round winners will advance to the semifinals and face the next pro within his bracket. The 12 winning anglers from Friday’s one-day competition will advance to the final round.
Final round
Saturday’s final round will determine the top 12 finishers of the championship, which includes the winner. Each of the 12 finalists will be reseeded according his or her combined weight from the first three days of competition. They will then square off in head-to-head, one-day competition to determine the top 12 finishers. The first and second seeds will fish against each other for the championship and runner-up spots, the third and fourth seeds will compete for third and fourth place, and so on down through 12th place.
The strategy
The FLW championship is – with the exception of the Ranger M1 tournament – the largest winner’s payout in professional bass-fishing competition. The Pro Division champion will take home $260,000 in prize money. The take for second place is $55,000. With such a gaudy amount of cash awaiting the winner, anglers will undoubtedly be that much more determined to go out and take first place.
But, to win it, they will have to approach the championship a little differently from other tourneys. Oftentimes in regular-season tournaments, anglers fish just hard enough to make the field cuts and wait to make their big push on the final day – a simple and smart strategy. But that strategy simply won’t work at the championship.
At the 2002 FLW Tour Championship pros will be fishing head-to-head and, to make the cuts, really only need to worry about their daily opponent’s weight in addition to their own. The pro makes cuts exclusively by beating his or her daily opponents. So, conceivably, a pro could make the finals with very little overall weight if he or she draws opponents in the opening and semifinal rounds who catch just as little or no weight. It could also take a considerable amount of daily weight if the pro draws opponents who catch a lot of fish.
However, the 12 finalists will be seeded according to their total weight over the first three days, and only the first- and second-seeded finalists will fish for the top prize. That means, during the first three days, pros not only have to worry about their opening- and semifinal-round opponents in order to make the cuts, they also have to try and catch enough fish in those rounds combined to land one of the top two seeds for the final round.
In other words, the pro has to try and win the first three days with total weight before he or she can even consider winning the tournament.
Still, the pro cannot focus exclusively on his or her weight total and lose sight of the opponent those first three days. Adding another competitive wrinkle is the possibility that the angler with the leading total weight over the first two rounds could conceivably not even make the finals. For instance, say a pro takes the opening-round lead with a two-day total of 40 pounds. He fishes in the semifinals and catches another 20 pounds to push his three-day total to 60 pounds and leads the pack. However, his opponent in the semifinals has an outstanding day and defeats him with 21 pounds. Thus, the three-day weight leader is out and somebody else takes the top seed for the finals.
So, success at the championship will be determined by a devilish combination of overall tournament performance and round-by-round, head-to-head competition.
But that’s not all. Keep in mind that pros are seeded for the opening round of the championship according to their regular-season point standings. If an angler wants to have an easier draw – a theoretically easier draw – to make it through the first round, he or she will have to do well in the season standings and land a top opening-round seed. The anglers who do well in the season standings are those who fish consistently well at every tournament throughout the year. So, in reality, the race for the $260,000 FLW championship in September effectively begins Jan. 23, the first day of FLW competition at Lake Okeechobee.
As if fishing wasn’t already hard enough, right?
The reason
What the 2002 Wal-Mart FLW Tour Championship will do is bring a whole new type of four-day bass tournament to the table. The idea is to make this event as compelling, strategic and rewarding as possible – for both the anglers and the fans. It is the only big-time tournament out there where you can see the best bass anglers in the world competing head-to-head. What bass fan wouldn’t love to see Kevin VanDam go mano a mano with Rick Clunn for a quarter-million dollars? It’s a possibility. Like the NCAA tournament, it’s guaranteed that there will be some very compelling match-ups throughout the championship.
Says FLW Tournament Director Bill Taylor, “This is going to alter championship strategies big-time. You not only have to look at it from an individual standpoint, you’ve got to keep your eye on the rest of the field. I like the idea. It’s definitely going to be interesting.”
Thrown into the mix is the fact that the championship is being held at Cross Lake near Shreveport, La., which, according to Taylor, will only help to level the playing field.
“Cross Lake is 9,800 acres,” he says. “It’s more of a city reservoir, and it’s almost a completely neutral site. If the tournament was held tomorrow, there probably would be no favorites because there’s not a pro who has fished it yet.”
And while the format, strategy and location are different, the thrill of the FLW Championship will be the same – if not heightened.
“As far as guys going out and being aggressive, that won’t change,” says Taylor. “Most guys go out and do everything they possibly can to win a tournament. They don’t really worry about what the other guy is doing. Most of these guys go out to fish against the fish.
“But,” he adds, “it is going to be a different kind of tournament and they’re going to have to think about it.”