Comments | aibretty: What do you think about a team format tournament?

aibretty

What do you think about a team format tournament?

Sep 15, 2008 14:39

So I've been playing with tsh a lot in the past week trying to figure out how to do pairing formats, etc for CUSS WORDS. One of the conclusions that I have come to is that I might just scrap class prizes altogether. The reason being that I might just have everything be team-play.

The idea is, you show up having been preassigned to a team. ( Read more... )

cuss words, scrabble

Comments 11

I like it... picopaco September 15 2008, 20:34:08 UTC

I think it's a great idea. I'm a big fan of alternative formats that attempt to make things more fun for everyone, especially in a nonrated tournament. I'm not sure if we discussed in Orlando, but I hosted a handicapped tournament at my house earlier this year with players ranging from 1100s to 1800s. The handicap system was far from perfect, but I think all had fun, the top seed still won, and the second to last seed was able to sneak into the money because of the format. Anyhow, good luck. Wish I could go.

Re: I like it... aibretty September 15 2008, 20:42:11 UTC

So how did you handle the handicapping?

Dave T is looking at all of the x-tables score data to try to create a handicapping system that involves both expected wins (not in the traditional sense) as it relates to rating difference and point spread. That is way beyond my realm, but if a simple system is workable it's a good thing to know.

Re: I like it... picopaco September 15 2008, 21:56:32 UTC

I did not have time or energy to do any real statistical analysis. I basically went to x-tables to get a general idea of average score for players at various ratings levels. I also looked at spread in some open tournaments. I wanted to keep things really simple, so I decided that the lower rated player in each game would get "bonus points" equal to 1/10 the difference in ratings of the two players. So, for example if a 1614 played a 1312, then the the 1312 would get 30 points (1614 - 1312 = 302 / 10 = 30.2). This system doesn't really even up the playing field, as the higher rated player usually still has the advantage, just not as much, but that's how I wanted it. I would say it ended up being a fun experiment ( ... )

Re: I like it... picopaco September 15 2008, 22:01:30 UTC

Correction: it was actually 5 rounds of random pairings and 1 round of KOH.

jigsawn September 15 2008, 20:41:30 UTC

Having people sign up individually for a tournament and then telling them that they are competing in randomly assigned teams rubs me the wrong way. If you advertise it as a team tourney to begin with and people sign up to play together (perhaps with some cap on the average rating) then it is a cool idea. One of the most popular chess tournaments of every year, the U.S. Amateur Team tournament runs on exactly this concept.

aibretty September 15 2008, 20:45:48 UTC

Yeah, that is my only misgiving. I wouldn't dare spring it on people the day they showed up.

Aside from that, I don't know of a way to make the teams at all fair without assigning them before hand. Plus that eliminates the time of doing it on sight and having to alter the pairing system on the fly.

aibretty September 15 2008, 20:47:15 UTC

before someone corrects me, I of course means site, not sight. :o)

aibretty September 15 2008, 20:47:36 UTC

and meant = means...

I suck.

Thread 7