Teams competed throughout the fall to qualify for the Bass Pro Shops Championship in Florida .
“ We had great success with the MLF Cups , but everyone felt that it was maybe time to do something new ,” White said . “ I believe Don Rucks – who was the MLF Commissioner at the time – came up with the idea of a team series . I wasn ’ t completely on board to start , but I came around to the idea once we really started to talk about the details of how we were going to pull it off .”
As soon as the first day of competition started on the very first “ match ” – and the three-man teams began to attack Lake Le Homme Dieu at the Lucas Oil Qualifier in Minnesota while MLF cameras rolled – White knew that the league had captured lightning in a bottle . In a sport where secrecy and individual accomplishment define the winners and losers , the teamwork and communication required for success in the Team Series was a dynamic new development that White and crew were eager to explore .
THE TEAMS ARE FORMED
The first task in the Team Series was to build the basic structure of the teams . There were multiple options and opinions about how to best select 27 three-man squads , but instead of teams being assigned based solely on an Angler of the Year points system , MLF decided to try something professional bass fishing hadn ’ t seen before – a draft .
“ It was a unique idea to hold a draft for teams in the first place ,” White said . “ Taking the top 27 anglers in the AOY race from the previous year and making them captains seemed like the easiest and fairest way to do that . Then , to have those guys go one by one and pick their teammates was an interesting process . It ’ s definitely a unique thing that we ’ ve never seen in bass fishing before .”
COMMUNICATIONS ARE KEY
Does nine anglers , nine cameras , nine boats and nine officials with wideopen communications for 7 ½ hours of competition sound like a logistical challenge ? No doubt about it ; but White and MLF Productions came up with a somewhat simple solution for such a high-tech broadcast .
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