what are banded tournaments?

Hi all...so are these called banded because of a certain rating requirements? Like tourneys that take --say-- between 1000 and 1200 rated players only ?

Originally posted by woadman
Hi all...so are these called banded because of a certain rating requirements? Like tourneys that take --say-- between 1000 and 1200 rated players only ?

Yes,but it's only your tournament entry ratine or T.E.R that counts and AT THE TIME OF ENTERING THE TOURNAMENT so beware of sandbaggers who deliberately lose games to lower their t.e.r to enable them to enter lower rated tournaments or have lost a lot of games by timeout due to an absence from playing.
if you see a player in there with a t.e.r of say 1200 but a five year rating of 1800 or something my advice would be to keep away.
You can find an explanation of the t.e.r on your home page.

The TER ought to be based on last 1000 days at least, that would take a lot of sandbaggers out of the game. I'm sick to death of finding myself in a tourney with a 1600 player, and half the time I don't notice until it's too late to resign the games without taking a penalty.

For us bottom-feeders sandbagging is a bigger problem than engine use.

Originally posted by Kewpie
The TER ought to be based on last 1000 days at least, that would take a lot of sandbaggers out of the game. I'm sick to death of finding myself in a tourney with a 1600 player, and half the time I don't notice until it's too late to resign the games without taking a penalty.

For us bottom-feeders sandbagging is a bigger problem than engine use.

On this website, I have seen a lot of references to sandbagging. I don't see how a player ends up better when they lose a bunch of games to lower their rating. Then they enter another tournament (at a lower level) and win a bunch of games. It isn't like there is a monetary prize to be won. I assume the math comes out better for them in the long run....

If your ego demands that winning is the only tolerable thing, you'll cheat. Sandbagging to get into lower-rated tournaments is cheating just like engine use. They end up with a long list of tourney wins on their profile, and think you won't notice that they were all earned in the kiddies' paddling pool ....

Originally posted by woadman
On this website, I have seen a lot of references to sandbagging. I don't see how a player ends up better when they lose a bunch of games to lower their rating. Then they enter another tournament (at a lower level) and win a bunch of games. It isn't like there is a monetary prize to be won. I assume the math comes out better for them in the long run....

They don't necessarily enter tournaments and lose deliberately.
Thet may set up ordinary games and do it.
Also some clans(well, at least one) have a policy where as soon as a challenge is won or lost the remaining players are obliged to resign their games,which also artificially lowers their ratings,the purpose being to hope other clan leaders don't notice their REAL ability when issuing or accepting new challenges.
Wherever there's opportunity , some people will always find a way to manipulate it to their own advantage.