In most discussions I've seen about the use of the team difference system for handicap, it's been considered fair.
I believe mainly because since it doesn't use a scratch base, a team doesn't gain an advantage by averaging over the scratch base like they would using the standard hdcp system (which is why you need to set a base number higher than the highest team average in the standard hdcp system) .
The move to the use of the team difference system here AFAIK, was basically started by lower ave. teams who felt they were losing to very high average teams a lot. The change has been fairly well received by everyone to my knowledge.
The main thing I see with the system is, it makes games closer if there's a big difference in team averages.
Here's a example using a actual night my team bowled.
This league uses a 90% of 230 handicap
My team averages: 136-129-183-185 total 633 team average
The other team averages: 182-154-209-248 total 793 team average
We lost all points using the individual system, if we had used team difference system we would have won 1 game, lost the first by only 1 pin and lost the 3rd by 68 pins instead of by 101 pins and we would have lost total by only 66 pins instead of 165 pins
on nights we bowled a team closer to us in average, it didn't really make much of a difference.
Yes.
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