Ming the Merciless Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 I didn't have any trouble getting into the match. I filled out the practice form and at exactly 5:00:01 hit refresh, the screen refreshed with all my data intact and I hit the "save" button. I was in as number 80 something (I'm not at that computer and don't recall the exact number). By the way I'm not local to AZ nor am I a retired school teacher, although I have retired a few school teachers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RUSSO Posted October 22, 2013 Author Share Posted October 22, 2013 SMM3G Match Registration Update Thanks to everyone that entered or attempted to enter our match. As you have seen in the posts, the match sold out and filled the waitlist in less than a minute. Everyone that made it into the match was immediately notified so that they could start making plans which was one of our goals that we were hoping to achieve with this process. Of course everyone that did not make it into the match was immediately made aware of that also. I think that the instant disappointment has led to most of the hard feelings that have been posted here. The registration process has not completed yet. Some people from the wait-list will make it into the match. We did have some shooters sign up for the match that later realized that they already has positions purchased by their sponsors. We have a fairly short deadline for payment so within two weeks we will know whose has fully committed to the match and will notify the wait-listed people if they made it in and how far down the list they still are. Because of the on-line system, all of this has already been directly communicated to our customers. I am just letting those of you that could not participate in the process know about it because without being involved you cannot witness the benefits. We have never been able to provide this level of information to any of our shooters before. Traditionally it has been several weeks before you knew and then it was only a guess because your check had cleared. I would like to respond to one of the comments made. This is far from a local match. By my count there are less than 10 local shooters that made it into the match. Most of us, take a week off of work to shoot and work the match. Many on the staff spend much more time than that. This year we did adjust the squad schedule and lowered the squad count to help the match flow better. Everyone here is extremely dedicated to putting on the best match that is possible. The mail-in entry system in its previous form did not work for the staff mostly because of incomplete and illegible entries. Please keep that in mind the next time you fill out a registration form. If anyone can, we will continue to refine this and work on coming up with the best system that provides the highest level of satisfaction for everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imadvm Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 Russ, I didn't get in last year but did make it this year so I'm very happy about that and sorry for all the shooters that didn't. Hope you don't take all of the negative comments personally but it is a testament to how popular and desirable the match is -- I know people are upset about not getting in but I don't know of any other fair or feasible system you could have used. Great to have the instant feedback when entering. Keep up the good work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveG Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 Guess I'm one of the few local 10 that got in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtm Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 Well Russ, that isn't entirely true! I was under the impression that I hadn't got in for the last couple of days. When I hit send the screen went blank, I refreshed the page and frantically typed in all my info and ......my system froze! Tried a couple of more timies and finally it went through and said registration was full and over ....well today I was cleaning up my emails and only out of curiosity I clicked on Match Director just to see what it said, and I was stunned to find out I was shooter 162 and confirmed....immediate my A@#!!! I fought with it on line for over 10 minutes and NEVER ONCE did it say I was in. If I hadn't checked today I would have been screwed! In my opinion this is a great system the "fixes" a unbroken process, and screws folk that have bad connectivity. Happy I'm in, but real pissed at the process :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RUSSO Posted October 23, 2013 Author Share Posted October 23, 2013 Kurt - Thanks for the feedback but are you also saying that you did not also receive the personal email from me on Sun, Oct 20, 2013 9:57 pm. My records show that you received it. We sent a separate notice out to everyone with a Save the date banner and a payment reminder. Sorry that your are unhappy with the process. As I said earlier, the process was broken from a staff perspective and we do need to find a better solution. If this isn't it, we'll keep trying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtm Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 (edited) No Russ I did not get any e-mail from you! I did get a P.M. through these forums, but I got NO EMAIL from you! Your P.M. had nothing to do with wether I got in the match or not! Edited October 23, 2013 by kurtm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtm Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 P.M inbound amigo! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Farquharson Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 The demand for the match is a testament to it's quality.. It's known far and wide as one of "the matches" to shoot. The online process certainly works for those who aren't handy to a post office in Mesa. "Yes", I got in, got my confirmation in a couple minutes(been trying for 3 years)., hotel, time off, etc all booked.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmt Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 SMM3G Match Registration Update Thanks to everyone that entered or attempted to enter our match. As you have seen in the posts, the match sold out and filled the waitlist in less than a minute..... Can you tell us how many entries were accepted, and how many were put on the waitlist before it closed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gose Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 SMM3G Match Registration Update Thanks to everyone that entered or attempted to enter our match. As you have seen in the posts, the match sold out and filled the waitlist in less than a minute. Everyone that made it into the match was immediately notified so that they could start making plans which was one of our goals that we were hoping to achieve with this process. Of course everyone that did not make it into the match was immediately made aware of that also. I think that the instant disappointment has led to most of the hard feelings that have been posted here. The registration process has not completed yet. Some people from the wait-list will make it into the match. We did have some shooters sign up for the match that later realized that they already has positions purchased by their sponsors. We have a fairly short deadline for payment so within two weeks we will know whose has fully committed to the match and will notify the wait-listed people if they made it in and how far down the list they still are. Because of the on-line system, all of this has already been directly communicated to our customers. I am just letting those of you that could not participate in the process know about it because without being involved you cannot witness the benefits. We have never been able to provide this level of information to any of our shooters before. Traditionally it has been several weeks before you knew and then it was only a guess because your check had cleared. I would like to respond to one of the comments made. This is far from a local match. By my count there are less than 10 local shooters that made it into the match. Most of us, take a week off of work to shoot and work the match. Many on the staff spend much more time than that. This year we did adjust the squad schedule and lowered the squad count to help the match flow better. Everyone here is extremely dedicated to putting on the best match that is possible. The mail-in entry system in its previous form did not work for the staff mostly because of incomplete and illegible entries. Please keep that in mind the next time you fill out a registration form. If anyone can, we will continue to refine this and work on coming up with the best system that provides the highest level of satisfaction for everyone. How about just doing an online lottery with a sign up process that's open for a few days or even a week? That way people dont have to be at their computer at a specific time or benefit from their location or latency. The online click frenzies seem to be pretty much lotteries anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtm Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 Gose has the best idea I have heard so far! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RUSSO Posted October 23, 2013 Author Share Posted October 23, 2013 Ironically, that is also a solution that the program designer of the Match Director software has now suggested as an additional feature that he is considering incorporating into the program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mbauer67 Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 Personally i think the system used this year or even a lottery would leave the same amount of disappointed and happy people. The immediate feedback portion or wether you are in or not is a huge step towards the positive. 3 gun is getting more and more popular and there are only about 3 major matches within a 6hour driving window of Southern California; SMM3gun, multi gun nats and hard as hell. With the growing popularity of 3 gun and the relatively small number of west coast major matches it is going to get more and more difficult every year to get in. I am one of the lucky ones who got in, and a couple of my buddies also but 2/3 of them did not. It is a really fun match with great everything, so thank you to those guys who put all the hard work into making the match happen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blaise1 Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 I understand the convenience aspect for the staff and about 98% of the applicants BUT here is my deal, we live in the middle of BFE, no Internet service is available except what we get on our IPhones and then it's only consistent if we drive up on top of a big hill. I know it's my responsibility to make sure I have the best oppurtunity to be ready when these count down's happen so since Sunday was my wife's birthday we planned on going to dinner and being somewhere with some service. It wound up that the place we had reservations at was just tucked away enough there was absolutely no service, so we changed our plans because "We are shooters". Julie and I hit save at the exact same time between salads and steaks, she got in at 119 I got waitlisted at 206. There are always going to be some kind of problems for some of us with electronic sign-up, that sucks but that's the way it is. What really sucks for shooters, and the last time I looked shooters are why shooting matches are held, is that we have to all be exactly in the same damn place at exactly the same time all across the world for 10 minutes no matter what is going on in our world. I realize that as an MD it's not perceived as a hassle to your potential customers but as a convenience but the reality is that we may have to schedule an entire weekend around a few minutes on a computer. The old method had way more benefits than drawbacks from a consumer point of view in my opinion. Sometime between Saturday evening and Monday evening we could put our apps in the mail and wait. Waiting wasn't bad and rejection isn't nearly as frustrating when all you had to do was go to the mail box. I'm not even going to get into the cancellation refund schedule right now. I have to drive 25 miles to the grocery store and pick my son up from school. These are just my opinions and they're worth what you paid for em. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fullauto_Shooter Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 (edited) I understand the convenience aspect for the staff and about 98% of the applicants BUT here is my deal, we live in the middle of BFE, no Internet service is available except what we get on our IPhones and then it's only consistent if we drive up on top of a big hill. I know it's my responsibility to make sure I have the best oppurtunity to be ready when these count down's happen so since Sunday was my wife's birthday we planned on going to dinner and being somewhere with some service. It wound up that the place we had reservations at was just tucked away enough there was absolutely no service, so we changed our plans because "We are shooters". Julie and I hit save at the exact same time between salads and steaks, she got in at 119 I got waitlisted at 206. There are always going to be some kind of problems for some of us with electronic sign-up, that sucks but that's the way it is. What really sucks for shooters, and the last time I looked shooters are why shooting matches are held, is that we have to all be exactly in the same damn place at exactly the same time all across the world for 10 minutes no matter what is going on in our world. I realize that as an MD it's not perceived as a hassle to your potential customers but as a convenience but the reality is that we may have to schedule an entire weekend around a few minutes on a computer. The old method had way more benefits than drawbacks from a consumer point of view in my opinion. Sometime between Saturday evening and Monday evening we could put our apps in the mail and wait. Waiting wasn't bad and rejection isn't nearly as frustrating when all you had to do was go to the mail box. I'm not even going to get into the cancellation refund schedule right now. I have to drive 25 miles to the grocery store and pick my son up from school. These are just my opinions and they're worth what you paid for em. Well said and I couldn't agree more!! Another drawback to the computer system is that families and traveling buddies aren't able to enter as a group. In Blaise's case, his wife got in but he and his son didn't - now you have a family facing a hard decision of whether they invest basically the same amount of money (minus $600 in match fees) for travel and lodging for one person to attend a match instead of the entire family. If you're gonna continue to do computer sign-ups (which most competitors don't seem to like), at least provide an option to have multiple names on the electronic entry. Edited October 23, 2013 by Fullauto_Shooter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigLucky Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 I understand the convenience aspect for the staff and about 98% of the applicants BUT here is my deal, we live in the middle of BFE, no Internet service is available except what we get on our IPhones and then it's only consistent if we drive up on top of a big hill. I know it's my responsibility to make sure I have the best oppurtunity to be ready when these count down's happen so since Sunday was my wife's birthday we planned on going to dinner and being somewhere with some service. It wound up that the place we had reservations at was just tucked away enough there was absolutely no service, so we changed our plans because "We are shooters". Julie and I hit save at the exact same time between salads and steaks, she got in at 119 I got waitlisted at 206. There are always going to be some kind of problems for some of us with electronic sign-up, that sucks but that's the way it is. What really sucks for shooters, and the last time I looked shooters are why shooting matches are held, is that we have to all be exactly in the same damn place at exactly the same time all across the world for 10 minutes no matter what is going on in our world. I realize that as an MD it's not perceived as a hassle to your potential customers but as a convenience but the reality is that we may have to schedule an entire weekend around a few minutes on a computer. The old method had way more benefits than drawbacks from a consumer point of view in my opinion. Sometime between Saturday evening and Monday evening we could put our apps in the mail and wait. Waiting wasn't bad and rejection isn't nearly as frustrating when all you had to do was go to the mail box. I'm not even going to get into the cancellation refund schedule right now. I have to drive 25 miles to the grocery store and pick my son up from school. These are just my opinions and they're worth what you paid for em. Amen, I think the biggest thing you could have touched on Blaise and didn't was the ability with paper apps for groups (such as your family or a group who always travels together) could mail in applications in the same envelope and generally all or none got in. Now you are sitting with 1 in 2 out.. If you pay for the 1 in and the 2 don't get in you lose money. If you don't pay for the 1 in then it doesn't matter if the 2 get in off the waiting list.... From a consumer point of view this method of registration kinda sucks.... Anyway, just my 2 cents. I didn't even get a chance to try because my kids happiness won out over sitting at the computer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ming the Merciless Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 Personally i think the system used this year or even a lottery would leave the same amount of disappointed and happy people. The immediate feedback portion or wether you are in or not is a huge step towards the positive. 3 gun is getting more and more popular and there are only about 3 major matches within a 6hour driving window of Southern California; SMM3gun, multi gun nats and hard as hell. With the growing popularity of 3 gun and the relatively small number of west coast major matches it is going to get more and more difficult every year to get in. I am one of the lucky ones who got in, and a couple of my buddies also but 2/3 of them did not. It is a really fun match with great everything, so thank you to those guys who put all the hard work into making the match happen I agree. The Area 2 USPSA match has or had (I haven't tried to register in the last couple of years) a similar problem. I missed one year because my letter which was mailed on time, didn't arrive in time (actually if I remember correctly it was returned as 'undeliverable' several months later), so the next year I sent my entry via FedEx overnite. I like the immediate feedback. My travel plans are already booked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neomet Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 Ironically, that is also a solution that the program designer of the Match Director software has now suggested as an additional feature that he is considering incorporating into the program. Really good thought. Still unhappy folks at the end of the day, but that is the price of a justifiably very popular match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stlhead Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 Sounds like there is a great deal of demand for new matches. All that is needed is for an enterprising individual to put one or more on and fill that demand. I still think that the entry fee should be jacked up to cover the cost of having an exceptional "Talented" taping and resting crew do all the work while the shooters prepared to do what they came for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blaise1 Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 Big Lucky, I had to stop my diatribe and get back to work but you hit the nail on the head. Amen to you Brother. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sterling White Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 The process reminds me of a New Mexico trophy Elk hunt. The Gibson's Ironman match grew by popular demand to the point that TacOps was broken off and a separate match is held. Great for shooters however it's hell on match staff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigLucky Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 Big Lucky, I had to stop my diatribe and get back to work but you hit the nail on the head. Amen to you Brother. I got your back brother.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbrowndog Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 Hey Pat and Tony, I didn't get in either and I hit the button 3-4 secs after the appointed time, I have no idea where I am on the wait list and I don't care. I figure thats a weeks worth of vacation I can put towards other matches, yeah it sux that I can't make the first major of the season but that was their choice to run the registration like they did, I don't agree with it, don't like it, never have and probably will not attend any match that does registration like that. I could ask one of my sponsors for a slot, but I'm not, I either get in on my own or I don't get in. congrats to everyone else that managed to get, hope you have fun, it had been for me for the last 7-8 years??? Trapr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtm Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 Hey RUSSO...guess what showed up today, along with a notification of shipping from OpticsPlanet for an order I received a week ago, your e-mail! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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