We are using WinTD 4.03 to run scholastic tournaments with both local and USCF rated sections. For the local sections we have the Main rating field = USCF rating.
I’m wondering what would be the better choice to set “Pairing numbers by”. The obvious choice is “Local Rating, Main if none”
Some of our players have both a local rating and a USCF rating. In some cases the players USCF rating is substantially higher than their local rating. Would the “Higher of Main and Local Rating” setting be a useful alternative?
What are the pros and cons?
Thanks for your help!
-Scott
Are your local ratings generally lower than USCF ratings – not just for this tournament, but for players with local ratings in general? If so, you might try to talk the person who runs your local rating system into adding 100 or 200 points, on a one-time basis, to each player’s local rating.
Meanwhile, is there an option something like “local rating + 200, main rating if none”?
The idea of adding +200 points to the local ratings is interesting, but I’m not sure that it would be the right thing to do. I do feel that many of our stronger players are under-rated in our local system. Here is some additional information to consider.
A limited pool of players…
We attract a core group of about 50 - 75 “regulars” - Players that attend several of our local tournaments. We may see as many as 650 unique players in any given season (school year) and we have about 1700 player names in our master file (over the past 4 years)
One thing I have noticed is that some of our local players have started to attend USCF rated tournaments outside our area and their USCF rating is climbing much faster than their local rating. One example is a player who has competed in about 30 “locals” and his local rating is 1012. He has played in 17 USCF tournaments and just returned from the 2007 National Grade Level Champs with a rating of 1442. My guess here is that the player has a better opportunity to play and defeat opponents rated higher than himself at these tournaments.
That is why I was thinking the “Higher of” setting in WinTD might be an alternative to ensure the paring order takes into account what appears to be the true player strength.
It sounds like your local ratings system is deflationary, which may be due to a high percentage of new players in it, especially if those new players don’t stick around very long.
Any closed pool of players can drift up or down. One of the things that keeps the USCF ratings system from getting too skewed is players who compete in events outside of their local area and thus out of the local pool, for example at national scholastic events.
I’m guessing that your local ratings are calculated using much less sophisticated formulas than those used by USCF. If, for example, the local ratings do not include bonus or feedback points, that alone could explain why it is deflated.
If it’s a USCF rated tournament, I would suggest “Main Rating, Local if Unrated”. I think there’s an expectation that, at a rated tournament, players will be playing at their published rating unless there’s a good reason not to.