Glendale “Best of the Beach” Entry List: 

12 players per gender will be invited and seeded based on the following criteria:
   – Total points accumulated from a player’s best six finishes through 14 events, including Cincinnati.
   – In case of ties, AVP will use a player’s seeding to break the tie (best four of last five events, regardless of which events are used for entry into the event).
   – If players are still tied, AVP will look at a player’s last finish (higher finish is granted entry).
 
Player:                Points:   Worst finish that can be replaced
                                                    in Cincinnati:
1 Todd Rogers       1,294     Ach Rules 1st (Charleston, 180 pts)          
2 Phil Dalhausser   1,294     1st (Charleston, 180 pts)               
3 Sean Scott          1,215     2nd (Belmar, 162 pts)
4 Nick Lucena        1,215     2nd (Belmar, 162 pts)
5 Jake Gibb            1,052     5th (Hermosa Beach, 108 pts)
6 Sean Rosenthal   1,052     5th (Hermosa Beach, 108 pts)
7 Mark Williams      1,043     3rd (Huntington Beach, 135 pts)
8 Stein Metzger     1,038     7th (Long Beach, 130 pts)
9 John Hyden        1,005     3rd (Belmar, 135 pts)
10 Brad Keenan     1,005     3rd (Belmar, 135 pts)
11 Fred Souza           978     3rd (Belmar, 135 pts)
12 Anthony Medel    978     3rd (Belmar, 135 pts) 
——————————————————————————————————————
13 Matt Olson           939     3rd (Hermosa, 135 pts)
14 Kevin Wong         939     3rd (Hermosa, 135 pts)
15 Matt Fuerbringer 931     9th (Long Beach, 104 pts)
16 Casey Jennings    931     9th (Long Beach, 104 pts)

Cincinnati will use the same point scale as the Crocs Slam Events:
Finish            Points/Player
1                        260
2                        234
3                        195
5                        156
7                        130
9                        104
13                       78
17                       52

Casey Jennings and Matt Fuerbringer have the most room to improve considering they are dropping a 9th place finish from Long Beach. A 5th place finish would place them each at 983 points and catapult them past Fred and Anthony into the 11th and 12th spots in Glendale. Of course, that’s only if Fred and Anthony don’t also get a 5th place finish or better.

Matt Olson and Kevin Wong can only make a move with a 3rd place result or better, and if they were to finish at 3rd, in conjunction with Anthony and Fred taking a 5th, we’d have a four-way tie at 999 points.

There are other exciting scenarios to be played out in Cincinnati as well. However, most deal with the new "Shootout" tournament formula and involve qualification into Santa Barbara, San Francisco and the Grand Daddy of them all, Manhattan Beach. Of course, by Grand Daddy I mean, smallest tournament of the year, and consequently, the most ridiculous display of mismanagement in the history of professional sports. 

The break down goes like this… 13th place in Cincinnati allows you to spike another day in California’s most glorious beach town, Santa Barbara. 9th place in SB moves you on to the pier in San Fran. 5th place in the Bay lands you in the Manhattan Beach Main Draw, and out of the dreaded two-day, 178 million team qualifier. 7th place or better in MB earns enough to pay off the credit cards and maybe even buy a Zero Gravity Massage Chair. Anybody who can’t handle the stress and decides to fold like a lawn chair at 9th place or worse, goes back to work, or if they’re like me, starts applying for jobs.   

I’ve heard things could still change in Manhattan, and the day could be saved, but hell, what do I know. I’ll believe it when I see it.

As far as Glendale goes, the above list demonstrates just how good the AVP Tour is right now. Names teetering on the fence include multiple finalists and AVP Champions. Now that’s just ridiculous. Keep in mind, it’s even more ridiculous that we’re playing that event in Glendale, AZ and not in Las Vegas where it should be. It’s not even the "King of the Beach" anymore. Or "Gods and Goddesses of the Beach," like it was at Caesar’s! What is going on? I mean, don’t get me wrong, what kind of fool doesn’t want to go to Glendale, AZ during the last weekend of September? Seriously. Vegas was soooo overrated.

I’m not sure if I’ll ever get to this beloved tournament. At this point, I would say no. However, stranger things have happened, and you never know what’ll go down in a couple of years. So, here’s hoping they take this tournament back to the City of Sin and strike a deal at it’s greatest previous location, the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. Or, Honolulu, I heard that wasn’t so bad a couple of years ago. I’m pretty sure no one would have a problem with that. Just a little extra incentive to work harder in the off-season. And it looks so much better on the refrigerator than: GOALS 2009 - GLENDALE, AZ.