Big Money Stunt

It may be the time for a big money, TOC stunt contest or two. Keep in mind that when you start throwing money(or serious prestige, awards) at the winners, sportsmanship can go out the window! For some reason people don't take too kindly to losing a thousand bucks or more based on one person's opinion. Combat Money Meets have worked out pretty well. Too bad the event is so tough it doesn't draw as many flyers as it used to. Especially for AMA Fast the match results are usually very clear cut, so there are few gripes. Judged events are a little more difficult.

I just heard an NPR report on new judging rules for Olympic figure skating. After the judging fiascos of the last couple years they now have much more structured procedures. No longer 4-5 judges giving basically a thumbs up or thumbs down. They now will require 12(count'em) 12 judges. The marks for each figure are broken down into a number of categories such as degree of difficulty, presentation, accuracy, etc. They throw out the top two and bottom two scores to prevent any individual judge from throwing the scores off too much. They'll average the other 8. If the judges could be trusted not to play favorites, 12 scores would be even better. Sounds like they are getting serious about having the scores mean something and making the results more than a popularity contest.

If you run a big money stunt meet spend more time on the judging than you do the flying format.