Within the past week, there has been quite the number of posts over on the A1 boards about the current state of A1E and how their winners will be handled in the future. After what was a very slow week for the fed RP-wise, the numbers were also down for public votes of the victors (a staple of the A1E).
After a very hasty post by a member of the BC, quite the uproar ensued about how A1E should handle who wins their matches on a given card. The post was basically the BC member ripping into the members of the fed for not doing their duties as members of the locker room because only one member outside of the BC managed to vote for the card's winners.
Honestly, the post was completely out of control, IMO. The language was inexcusable and the tone of the message would lead one to believe that they might have committed treason for failing to take the time to read 11 match threads, judge the winners, and then send an email to share their view of the winners. However, the message is neither here nor there, as Jarret actually came out to say that the BC as a whole were not as enraged as the message would have seemed, but they were rather concerned.
And, given that I've been around A1E since 2002, I can see where there would be concern on the BC's part. One thing that A1E has always prided itself on the fact that everyone gets a say in who wins a given match. And for the most part, the system has worked without flaw when it comes to deciding the winners. I would like to think that all of us within the hobby have a very good idea for knowing what it takes to win in this community. And because of this, the voting system that A1E employs is more than capable of allowing a fed to continue to run.
This is where I make my first argument against what everyone seems to be saying when worrying about the voting system. Everyone wants to make the case that A1E is unique because it gives the handlers the ability to decide who wins the matches. However, as I said, the voting system really doesn't change that much when it comes to deciding the winners of a match. As a former member of the BC, I know that most of the time, there is really very little occurence of the public vote overturning what the BC has already seen. These guys see over the fed for a reason, because they know what they're doing.
It is for this reason that I believe the ousting of the voting system would not be that big of a deal within the A1 community. Personally, I've never really been a fan of the voting system myself. I've seen instances when it seemed very clear that sometimes people lost matches simply based on their opponents and not the quality of the RPs. A1E has managed to rid itself of that problem, for the most part, but I still remember facing certain people just because I knew that the deck was stacked against me from the get-go and I'm still a little soured on the system for that.
Also, the changes that Jarret has brought about since becoming head booker have been phenomenal for the fed and this might be the one last change that he needs to make to make A1E a hotspot for everyone in the hobby. The voting system has really kept a lot of people from joining the fed (or so I've heard) and with the current exposure that's being given to the fed with the Tag Team Tourney, what better time to show them what A1E can offer with Jarret and his guys calling all the shots instead of everyone running the show?
Which brings me to another point... A1E has its BC, or Booking Committee. However, it seems as though all they are there for is to decide who faces who on a given week. It doesn't seem like there's much "booking" that goes on within the group. I know when I was a member of the BC, there were a lot of times I just felt like a matchwriter rather than a booker. I guess what I'm tryin to get at with this point is that if only five people are deciding who faces who, then why does everyone get to decide who wins the match? I think everyone should be involved in deciding who wins, then everyone should be involved in the making of the matches or vice versa. And logically, it only makes sense that five people would make the matches, therefore I believe only five people should be in charge of who wins the matches.
Longtime A1Eers might not agree with this, but as someone who has seen this discussion come about once a year for the past five years, you really must question when this becomes something that we quite patching up and just fix completely. All the tweaks in the world are not going to make this system perfect, and maybe that's the appeal that comes about with the A1E.
But the arguments that come about for the spontaniety that A1E brings to the table are only arguments because sometimes a head booker might choose to keep the strap on his champ, even though the challenger won the match. All that needs to be done for the spontaniety of A1E to remain is the call of the head booker to stand behind his committee if they think that the champ lost the match.
I think that the need for a change is upon us in A1E. The voting system is obviously not working the way that the BC feels that it should if we must see posts like the one that brought this discussion about. The uniqueness of A1E is not really in its voting system. The uniqueness comes from it being in its own community and having a totally different roster from any other fed on the net. The system is going to be a constant topic of argument unless drastic changes are mad. So rather than patching the road yet again, let's re-pave everything and make things better for the long haul.
