Tournament Entry Rating

It happens more than occasionally that someone is in a banded tournament who simply doesn't
belong there. You know, the rating max is like 1500 and there is someone with a 1900 or 2000
rating in the second round. This happens because they enter early in their RHP career and haven't
established their tourney rating reliably. I don't believe that it's intentional, but it sure is annoying.

I think that, if a player is more than, say, 200 points above the tournament range, they should
be removed without penalty from the tournament (without a loss on their record) when a round
is over so that the next round's participants only end up facing people who ought to be there.

Nemesio

Originally posted by Nemesio
It happens more than occasionally that someone is in a banded tournament who simply doesn't
belong there. You know, the rating max is like 1500 and there is someone with a 1900 or 2000
rating in the second round. This happens because they enter early in their RHP career and haven't
established their tourney rating reliably. I don't believe that it's in ...[text shortened]... t the next round's participants only end up facing people who ought to be there.

Nemesio

I disagree.

My tourney win is in a band I'll not be able to enter again unless I deliberately lower my rating. I'm currently in the 2nd round of a tournament in the same band where I probably won't advance because I've been outclassed by someone rated much lower than myself. There's no guarantee that that higher rater will win.

If you look at my first games here you'll see a vast difference in ability to those more recent. This is because I've learnt by playing people like Latitude 0 and Caissad. The problem with your suggestion is that any distinction between my career and that of a natural 2000 rater still rising is completely subjective.

I think we can join each other in spitting on the sandbagger though.

Originally posted by Lukerik
I disagree.

My tourney win is in a band I'll not be able to enter again unless I deliberately lower my rating. I'm currently in the 2nd round of a tournament in the same band where I probably won't advance because I've been outclassed by someone rated much lower than myself. There's no guarantee that that higher rater will win.

If you look at my fi etely subjective.

I think we can join each other in spitting on the sandbagger though.

Your win was in a 1400-1450 band. Your current rating is 1522. What I'm suggesting doesn't
apply to you. My concern is for a 1850 player playing in a 1400-1450 band because he joined
the tournament while his rating was on the upslide from the initial 1200 rating he started with.

I'm not debating that a person with a lower rating can defeat one with higher rating. Of course
that's the case. My rating is roughly 1500 and I have a win against a 1700 player in what is probably
my best game of chess.

But the tournaments are banded for a reason, and when in a 1400-1450 tournament is ruined
by someone with a 1800 rating, I think that's crappy. It utterly defeats the idea of having a
banded tournament to begin with.

Nemesio

Originally posted by Nemesio
Your win was in a 1400-1450 band. Your current rating is 1522. What I'm suggesting doesn't
apply to you. My concern is for a 1850 player playing in a 1400-1450 band because he joined
the tournament while his rating was on the upslide from the initial 1200 rating he started with.

I'm not debating that a person with a lower rating can defeat one with h ...[text shortened]... appy. It utterly defeats the idea of having a
banded tournament to begin with.

Nemesio

I completely agree with you. Far to much of that kind of thing goes on.
I have seen enter tournaments 1200-1350 after being as high as 1900. They must feel really good winning a tournament like that huh?
My 2 cents worth.

Originally posted by Nemesio
It happens more than occasionally that someone is in a banded tournament who simply doesn't
belong there. You know, the rating max is like 1500 and there is someone with a 1900 or 2000
rating in the second round. This happens because they enter early in their RHP career and haven't
established their tourney rating reliably. I don't believe that it's in ...[text shortened]... t the next round's participants only end up facing people who ought to be there.

Nemesio

I somewhat agree, 200 point over the limit is too little, it is possible to gain 200 rating within the duration of the tournament without sandbagging. I would hate to be kicked out of a tournament because I improved faster then the others.

Originally posted by KnightStalker47
I somewhat agree, 200 point over the limit is too little, it is possible to gain 200 rating within the duration of the tournament without sandbagging. I would hate to be kicked out of a tournament because I improved faster then the others.

Did your rating jump up 400 points since Feb/07?

Just introduce a Tournament Moderator..

Someone who can remove players from banded tournaments..

Not to kick players who simply improve, but to remove players who were clearly (say) 2000 for a while, then drop to 1000 for whatever reason and then enter a 1000-1100 banded tournament.. etc..

Originally posted by Amsterdamn
Just introduce a Tournament Moderator..

Someone who can remove players from banded tournaments..

Not to kick players who simply improve, but to remove players who were clearly (say) 2000 for a while, then drop to 1000 for whatever reason and then enter a 1000-1100 banded tournament.. etc..

Recc'ed.

Maybe this moderator could peruse the players before the tournament starts.

Originally posted by Amsterdamn
Just introduce a Tournament Moderator..

Someone who can remove players from banded tournaments..

Not to kick players who simply improve, but to remove players who were clearly (say) 2000 for a while, then drop to 1000 for whatever reason and then enter a 1000-1100 banded tournament.. etc..

Better solution: Rating floors.

Why should a player with an established 2000 rating be allowed to fall to a 1000 rating? Usually, this happens because of mass timeouts/resignations [because the player needs to leave the site for awhile]. The point of ratings is to accurately reflect the player's strength. Mass timeouts/resignations only skew the data.

The 2000 player should have a rating floor of 1900, once they have established their rating class [by maintaining that rating level over X games]. This keeps them out of the lower banded tourneys, and greatly reduces the need to steal everyone else's rating points to climb back up to their rightful class.

In the unlikely event that a player's strength really does decrease by several hundred points, they can petition the site owner to lower their rating floor [or site owner could delegate this task to a mod of some sort].