Tourney: EHBPC 2012 - Paris - 2012/07/19-21

Maybe if they can't be given similar resources to the main tournament, they shouldn't be done at all? People are going to be livid when they save money, book holiday, and travel a long way to play on inferior courts, with a compromised format, playing for relatively few chances of getting into the main tournament.

I would rather be playing on the main event courts than the wild-card court, but I would still rather be playing in the wild-card than not at all.

What Bill says.

I'm am more than happy to be playing at Invalides, if it gives me a chance to play in the main event, that I wouldn't have otherwise.

I do also think that it really can't go back to the "turn-up-and-play" style of wildcard (or whatever you want to call it).

Polo is getting bigger and bigger, it's not just a few good teams in the big scenes, and a load of individuals, I think there are now more than 64 proper teams in Europe (and there certainly will be by next year), and if I was in one of those teams, I'd be pissed off if my place had been given to some of sort of first-come-first-served wildcard registration.

I really hope we move to the US style qualifying tournament system. 4 or 5 tournaments around Europe in the spring. If you finish in the top 12 you get to make a team for the Euros (obviously it's slightly more complex than that, but it's the basic idea).

If that doesn't happen, I'd look at ways of integrating the "wildcard" into the main tournament. So say 48 teams in the first round, then the top 24 teams join them in the second round, or something, once half have been knocked out.