14 Nov '14 06:51>
I know, I know, it's been raised so many times, and still it doesn't work properly. Constant complaints of sandbagging, people playing "king-of-the-kids" in low level banded tournaments, others complaining that because they once had a run of luck they can't get into their "real" banding.
We bottom-feeders (under 1200) make up more than half the population of the site, yet when bandings come out the lowest band is 0-1150. Tournaments in there are always filled first, so there are usually no tourneys on offer, even though there is a page full of tiny bandings for other people. 900s have no chance because there are usually enough 1200+ people to kick them out in the first round. Yet if you're above 1150, you're usually stuck with the same dozen opponents in every tourney you play, because those bands are just too small.
Wherever I've gone to the trouble of looking at opponent profiles, I've come to the conclusion that their real rating is somewhere between the Tournament Entry Rating and Average Rating last 5 years.
I'd like to propose that access to banded tourneys be restricted to those players whose TER and AR5 both fit within say 100 points of the band on offer. Combine this with wider bands, at least 100 points wide. This would give people a chance to get out of their present tournament playing rut and encounter different playing styles.
We bottom-feeders (under 1200) make up more than half the population of the site, yet when bandings come out the lowest band is 0-1150. Tournaments in there are always filled first, so there are usually no tourneys on offer, even though there is a page full of tiny bandings for other people. 900s have no chance because there are usually enough 1200+ people to kick them out in the first round. Yet if you're above 1150, you're usually stuck with the same dozen opponents in every tourney you play, because those bands are just too small.
Wherever I've gone to the trouble of looking at opponent profiles, I've come to the conclusion that their real rating is somewhere between the Tournament Entry Rating and Average Rating last 5 years.
I'd like to propose that access to banded tourneys be restricted to those players whose TER and AR5 both fit within say 100 points of the band on offer. Combine this with wider bands, at least 100 points wide. This would give people a chance to get out of their present tournament playing rut and encounter different playing styles.