The FPA Board has supported a change to the rankings that reflects Europe’s burgeoning freestyle culture. Beginning in 2006, European national championships will no longer enjoy "protected" status and will share the same point values as North American events.
When the rankings were first created, a concern of international players was that they would always be ranked low because there weren’t enough tournaments. At the time, the solution was to give national championships outside the US more points than a regular tournament. It was intentionally skewed, but for a valid reason.
The rankings system evolves to reflect the state of the freestyle world. This change reflects the emergence of Europe as a freestyle force. Because Europe enjoys such a fired-up community of event organizers, and because there are so many possible national championships in Europe, there is a potential for the rankings to become imbalanced with an overload of events with extra points.
The solution for 2006 is:
1. Europe graduates from having "protected status" to being the equal of North America when it comes to ranking points.
2. National championships in Europe will receive the same points as regular events – except they will be protected from points adjustments if attendance is below 20 players.
3. National championships in South America, Asia and the Pacific will continue to enjoy protected status until their jam scene has grown enough to revisit the issue.