What do we think of the AVP’s system?

HERMOSA BEACH, Calif. — As Kona beer sprayed and Sarah Sponcil, Terese Cannon, Chaim Schalk, Theo Brunner, and their collective coach, Scott Davenport, hugged and smiled for photo after photo, and thousands of fans poured off Hermosa Beach and into the awaiting bars at Pier Ave., it marked an inexact midpoint to this 2022 beach volleyball season.

There have been no shortage of changes to the sport this year: New owners, both for the international and domestic tours, new formats, new rules, new teams breaking through. As such, there was also no shortage of fan questions in our semi-monthly SANDCAST mailbag. We did our best to get to all of them on the podcast itself, in which Tri Bourne and I were joined by our talented co-host, Savvy Simo, both of whom just landed in Espinho, Portugal, for a Challenger event, Bourne with Trevor Crabb, Simo with Emily Day.

The most oft-asked questions were, of course, centered around the AVP. 

Thoughts on the tier system so far? Does an AVP Tour Series count as a real main draw or no?

How has the AVP been ran so far under new owners?

What are your thoughts on the new Tour format so far?

How have you liked the new season format?

All of these questions are not only being debated in YouTube comments, chat boards, and social media amongst fans, but they also dominate conversations between players. It was interesting to see, in Muskegon, Michigan, the reactions from players who made their first main draw in a Tour Series event, which is the lowest rung on the new AVP ladder. Some celebrated it as their first main draw; some shrugged it off as a good accomplishment, but not a real main draw, whatever that means these days. The reactions were split almost exclusively on which players had previously attempted to qualify under the old system, in which an AVP Tour Series was essentially an AVP Next Gold — and not, therefore, a main draw — and which players were being introduced to the new, in which an AVP Tour Series is being purported as a legitimate main draw.

Personally, I don’t think it really matters either way. The qualifiers for the Tour Series are legitimately stiff, and when players do qualify, they should be immensely proud of doing so. In Denver, for example, Jake Dietrich and Hagen Smith failed to make it out of the qualifier. One week later, they took a fifth in a Pro Series in Hermosa Beach, upsetting top-seeded Tri…