Deadness for MCA Silver
After a roundtable discussion with the most experienced Silver players, the MCA is moving forward with utilizing carry-over deadness for tournament play in the Silver Division for the 2016 season. A key toward moving forward with the initiative was the launch of the Bronze Six-Ball Division in 2015, which should accommodate new players.
A key benefit includes the potential consolidation of existing Silver players with players of a similar level that are shifting up to Gold just to get experience with carry-over deadness.
"Overall, this should allow us to have a bigger developmental division. The Gold has morphed into a consolation bracket for the Pro Division for several events," said MCA President Dylan Goodwin. "That means a handful of players have spent their mornings in challenging games against Pro players. In some cases that has been good exposure, but utilizing the same rules across the three divisions allows those players the option to move up or down with out stepping outside of the deadness game. The vast majority of our players are devoutly commited to playing 'deadness' croquet."
Goodwin indicated that he wasn't sure how this move would impact the Gold Division overall.
"I would like to see the Gold stand on it's own, rather than a consolation bracket for Pro. I am just not sure how the numbers will breakout, but we are slowly drawing interest from experienced players from the overall KC nine-wicket scene. You never know until you see them at the event, but we certainly have rumors of good players looking at joining us for the 2016 season. More experienced players coming in would help us build Pro and Gold out."
Goodwin did also say that he expects the initiative to slow membership growth.
"My experience has been that players that get into deadness too early hit a wall and drop out. To mitigate that, I'm going to need to get our golf croquet development plan for south KC up and running."