Roster Rating Standard Appeal

• APPL history of results does not support the Appeal

Over the past two years I have captained 5 AAPL teams and played on 6, including two 4.0 teams. Because I believed APPL to be a team based league (focus on getting the most points for the team win vs. individual rating based wins), the last two years of rating changes have caused me to make decisions that sacrificed my individual rating greatly by focusing on being a good leader and for my teams/players to do well.

My 35+ team players all had preferences regarding who they wanted to play with. Some wanted to play with their existing partners or wanted to play with only the best or veteran AAPL players. Each week, this meant we had players who had nobody to play with. Because I was the Captain and believe myself to be a good leader, I played with those people to my detriment. I didn't even play with my tournament partner which would've helped my individual score immensely. The partners I played with were the leftover players no one wanted to play with and in some cases for good reason (I even got my first AAPL 'pickle' last year with a scared new AAPL player.) I even played on my 4.0 women's team the day my mother died (of course I didn't do well), because we couldn't have fielded a team without me. My Mom's dying and subsequent death mid-season could also be considered a mental health/medical appeal as well. Medically, I've also now lost over 30# and that has helped my play greatly.

Needless to say, my season didn’t go well, my rating suffered, and this year AAPL has changed the composition of teams to the point where I am not aligned with the players I helped and supported the last two years to get their dreams met with good ratings. I am appealing my rating because I spent the last two AAPL seasons doing what is right for a team, not what is right for me. I believe I should not be penalized for doing what is right for my team(s). Going forward, I will not make choices to sacrifice my rating and believe I will be able to achieve and maintain my requested 4.0 rating.

I played on 4 teams last year, but the drop down below only allowed me to select 3. I will say playing on and managing all these teams led me to have a poor season as well, overplaying and caring about everyone else but myself. This will never happen again now that I know the AAPL ratings and league changes and have decided to only co-captain one team.

Finally, I wanted to mention that I am signing up/playing at the 4.0 level in tournaments and am invited to play/will play in Nationals at 4.0 in November with my tournament partner, Kristin Diliberti, we qualified with silver in March. Historically, I have played with anyone who asked me to be 'nice' or even got killed in tournaments with my husband who had gout, but given the environment of how important ratings are, I won't be doing that in the future. It's sad the game has come down to numbers, but I guess I've finally gotten hit upside the head enough to get on board with the direction AAPL league and tournaments are going.

Since it was optional I did not fill out all the information from the 4 teams or the tournaments below (a lot of data), but I did want to mention that our 3.5 mixed team went to state in 2024 and I created a successful 4.0 team (finished in the middle) in 2025. I am happy to answer any questions, give all that data or clarify anything additional you need. Thank you for your consideration.