From britdisc-owner@csv.warwick.ac.uk Fri Jan 16 15:54:24 1998 Received: (from daemon@localhost) by pansy.csv.warwick.ac.uk (8.8.7/8.8.8) id OAA04955 for britdisc-outgoing; Fri, 16 Jan 1998 14:51:29 GMT Received: from amsta.leeds.ac.uk (amsta.leeds.ac.uk [129.11.36.1]) by pansy.csv.warwick.ac.uk (8.8.7/8.8.8) with ESMTP id OAA04917 for <britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk>; Fri, 16 Jan 1998 14:51:22 GMT Received: from newton.leeds.amsta (newton.leeds.ac.uk [129.11.36.64]) by amsta.leeds.ac.uk (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id OAA08700 for <britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk>; Fri, 16 Jan 1998 14:52:03 GMT Received: by newton.leeds.amsta (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4) id OAA15913; Fri, 16 Jan 1998 14:54:20 GMT Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 14:54:20 GMT From: amtsjh@amsta.leeds.ac.uk (S J Hill) Message-Id: <199801161454.OAA15913@newton.leeds.amsta> To: britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk Subject: ULTIM-8 DRAFT RULES - TEXT VERSION Content-Type: X-sun-attachment Sender: owner-britdisc@warwick.ac.uk Precedence: bulk ---------- X-Sun-Data-Type: text X-Sun-Data-Description: text X-Sun-Data-Name: text X-Sun-Charset: us-ascii X-Sun-Content-Lines: 2 Ultim-8 Draft Rules - TEXT version ---------------------------------- ---------- X-Sun-Data-Type: default X-Sun-Data-Description: default X-Sun-Data-Name: u898info.txt X-Sun-Charset: us-ascii X-Sun-Content-Lines: 229 The BUF Ultim-8 Tour 1998 In 1997 the U8 Tour ran for the first time. In general most players seemed to feel it was a good thing, and this was borne out by the questionnaire responses. There were some reservations, and we ran into some difficulties along the way! Hopefully many (all?) of these will be ironed out this time. This is a draft of the rules for 1998. The vital sections are ROSTERS and ENTERING TOUR TOURNAMENTS. It will be helpful if you read the short sections referring to Nationals, World Clubs, and "Geo-Clubs". There is also information about the points system, tour tournament formats, and seedings. I'd like to draw attention to following. 1. UNROSTERED TEAMS. If you are unlikely to enter more than two tournaments it probably isn't worth having a club roster. It's just more work for you. (But please check the details.) 2. Certain elements of the roster rules have been relaxed. But crucially it will be harder to change teams, (and even harder to do so between the Tour V and Nationals). 3. The tournaments have closing dates that will apply to all teams. 4. This is a draft to give you a chance to comment/complain/get things changed. Write, ring or email by Feb 18th. (532D Whitehall Rd, New Farnley, LEEDS LS12 5HZ; 0113 289 0971; amtsjh@amsta.leeds.ac.uk) 5. We still need more non-tour events, especially during August. 6. Much of the detail is just a matter of allowing for all possible situations and avoiding ambiguity, (I hope). The final version of the rules will include a summary of the absolutely crucial points. 7. It is intended that there will be a Report/News/Ranking list update produced very quickly after each tournament. This will be available on paper! I'm not sure if everyone is clear on why the tour exists in this format; or if the thinking behind some of the rules is obvious. The Rules do not include any discussion of these questions, with the exception of the section on "geo-clubs". Thanks to anyone who has helped out with the tour over the last year or so. I look forward to hearing/reading comments on U8-98 soon! Si Hill The BUF Ultim-8 Tour 1998 - Provisional Rules Contents 1. The BUF Tour, Nationals and WUCC 1999. 2. Rosters 3. Entering Tour Tournaments 4. Ranking Points 5. Tournament Formats 6. Seedings 7. Reasons for being a "Geo-Club" 1. The BUF Tour, Nationals and WUCC 1999. A. The BUF Tour 1. The BUF Tour consists of five tournaments between March and July. Teams score ranking points according to their final position at a given tournament. The BUF Ranking is calculated from each team's total number of Ranking Points. The scores are also used to determine who qualifies for the BUF National Finals. 2. The Ultim-8 Committee (U8C) has five members including the Director of Competitions (DoC) who appoints the other four. i) U8C rules, by voting if necessary, on any problems that occur during the tour. ii) There must be no club represented twice on U8C. iii) Problems at a particular tournament requiring a prompt decision will be settled by a group of three taken from the TD and U8C. (Ideally the TD and DoC will be involved.) iv) Members of U8C also share certain specific tasks, namely: administering the tournament entries; looking after the BUF equipment used at tour events; collecting results and producing the updated Ranking List; and helping TDs with publicity. B. BUF National Finals 1. In order to calculate which teams qualify for National Finals every team discards its worst result from the tour (including 0 for an event not attended), and a new ranking list made on the basis of the resulting scores. 2. The top 16 teams from this new ranking list qualify for National Finals, but see also [1.B.4]. 3. Nationals has two separate divisions of eight teams, plus an extra event for teams that do not qualify, as in 1997. 4. Up to two unrostered teams (see also [2.C.1] will be allowed entry to Div. 2. i) If more than two unrostered teams qualify, then the two highest ranking amongst them will qualify, with the other places going to the next best rostered teams, (until there are no more rostered teams). ii) An unrostered team with enough points to play in Div. 1 will have to play in Div. 2. C. The World Ultimate Club Championships 1999 It seems that the next World Clubs will be held in St. Andrews. It is possible that as many as eight teams will qualify. This means that teams may qualify via the tour, rather than Nationals. That said, it is unlikely that we will know the exact numbers for a while, so Nationals will remain very important for teams that want to be certain of qualification. 2. Rosters. A. General 1. Club rosters must be given to the DoC in writing before the first tour event (by post or email). The DoC must receive subsequent changes before any new player plays. 2. Club rosters are fixed for all five of the tour events and National Finals. Changes may be allowed under exceptional circumstances. 3. A slight distinction is drawn between "club" and "team" because some clubs may be able to field more than one team. B. Eligibility All UK-resident players are eligible to register on a club roster. The definition of UK-resident is as follows: 1. a player normally living in the UK, (including somebody who has been travelling for up to 12 months); 2. a player moving to the UK (to live) before the 1st April, who may then register on a club roster for the whole tour; 3. a player moving to the UK (to live) between 1st April and 1st July, who may then register on a club roster for Nationals only. (Note that this does not prohibit that player from playing in the tour, see [2.C.2]). C. Exceptions 1. Unrostered teams. Note that an unrostered team may not qualify for National Finals (nor WUCC) but is otherwise equal in status to a rostered team. i) An open team may choose to be unrostered. In which case the only restriction on who can play for them is given in [2.C.1.iv]. ii) GB Women and GB Juniors are automatically unrostered, but are exempt from [2.C.1.iv]. iii) A student team may choose to be unrostered, in which case any of their players normally rostered for an open team is exempt from [2.C.1.iv]. iv) A rostered player may only play for the club with which they are rostered at a given tournament unless that club has no team playing at that tournament. 2. Unrostered guest player. Any (and every) team (including those mentioned in [2.C.1.ii] and [2.C.1.iii] above) is allowed to pickup one and only one guest at each tournament, including National Finals. i) The guest player would normally be a visiting/travelling foreign player and it is for these players that the rule is introduced. ii) UK-resident players that are otherwise not restricted to play for a particular team may also play for anyone under this rule. iii) A team may have up to six different guests over the whole season. iv) A team may repeatedly (and indefinitely) have the same guest. v) NO EXCEPTIONS will be made to this rule. Do not ask for a second guest. D. Geo-Clubs Reasons for becoming a geo-club are given in Section [7]. To qualify as a geo-club a club must: 1. hold weekly outdoor practices (during most of the year); 2. include all players' home addresses with the club roster; 3. have a maximum of 5 rostered players who live further than about 75 miles from the practice venue. E. Students 1. Student players may register under either their home or term-time address. 2. Rostered student clubs are automatically deemed to be Geo-Clubs. 3. To qualify for the exceptions afforded to student clubs, a club must field a team that would be eligible under current BUF Student Eligibility Rules. (Note that according to [2.C.2] a guest player is still permitted.) 3. Entering Tour Tournaments. Every U8 tournament has a closing date set 3 weeks before the event. This applies both to payment of the deposit to U8C and payment of the entry fee to the TD. If a tournament is over-subscribed at the closing date there is a system for distributing places, [3.B]. If a tournament is under-subscribed it may remain possible for teams to enter (strictly on a first-pay, first-in basis). A. Entry Procedure 1. A team must pay the deposit to U8C, and the tournament entry fee in full to the TD, by the closing date. 2. The closing date for each event is 3 weeks before the tournament itself. 3. Full payment to the TD may not be required, by arrangement with the TD. 4. A team may withdraw from a tournament up to the closing date and then receive a full refund of any payments that have been made. A representative from the team must tell both the TD and a member of U8C. B. Distribution of places 1. When a club is hosting an event they are given two automatic places (but must still meet the entry deadlines). 2. Teams ranked 1-16 are guaranteed a place (provided that they meet the entry deadlines). 3. Remaining places are allocated to teams according to their position on the Tour Waiting List (TWL), see [3.B.4] below. 4. Teams are placed on the TWL as they pay their deposit. (Each tour event has its own list.) If two consecutive events are full or over-subscribed, the bottom 4 teams of the first of these are relegated to the bottom of the TWL for the second, (in original TWL order relative to each other). i) Some of these teams may still get into the tournament. ii) Relegation down the TWL occurs only for the subsequent event, after which a team returns to its original position. iii) There is no question of teams being relegated in this way after a tournament that is not full. C. Blacklist 1. Teams that default on the entry procedures (which are there to help TDs) may be moved to the Blacklist. Teams on the Blacklist will only be considered for tour tournaments that are under-subscribed. 2. Sometimes there may be a genuine reason for defaulting, and penalties will not necessarily be incurred in these circumstances. 3. The Blacklist will be made public so that TDs of non-tour events can use it to assess which teams are unreliable. 4. The Blacklist will not apply to National Finals. D. Default Penalties Sometimes things will go wrong. Hopefully the following will cover most situations. Penalties are in italics. 1. Pay deposit (and possibly entry fee), but withdraw before the closing date. i) All payments refunded. ii) No penalty. 2. Pay deposit, fail to pay entry fee, fail to withdraw correctly. i) Lose automatic qualification and/or place on TWL. ii) Lose deposit. 3. Pay deposit and entry fee, but then withdraw by midday of the Monday before the tournament. i) Lose all payments. ii) Drop to Blacklist. 4. Pay deposit and entry fee, but then withdraw after midday Monday before the tournament. (This includes a complete no-show). i) Lose all payments. ii) Drop to Blacklist. iii) Lose 5% of final ranking score PER DAY (including the Monday) to be deducted at the end of the tour. 4. Ranking Points. A. The Scoring System Scoring system is still to be finalised, although it will be different to that used in 1997. 1. Points scored by teams finishing 1st - 16th will be fixed, close to linear scale. 2. Points from 17th to last will be calculated by linear interpolation between score given to 16th and 0. 3. Likely to have bonus points for key positions 1st, 5th, 13th as main deviation from linear scale. B. Equal Teams When teams have an equal number of points they are separated according to the following procedure. 1. Geo-teams are placed above other teams. 2. Using earlier tour results (current season) teams are separated on head-to-head tournament finishing positions. 3. If still equal, separate teams on the most recent head-to-head tournament finishing position that provides a result. 4. Note that head-to-head match results are not used. 5. Tournament Formats. A. Comments 1. For each event, teams are seeded according to the system described in Section [6]. 2. It is expected that 24 teams enter each event, although the systems are readily altered to 20, 28, or 32 teams. Every effort will be made to avoid other (more difficult) numbers of teams. 3. The descriptions below are necessarily brief, and assume a reasonable understanding of tournament formats. The details cannot be absolutely fixed as they always depend on final numbers. Often the description of what happens to teams seeded beyond 12th or 16th is deliberately vague so as to allow us to use the most appropriate system depending on the situation. 4. The formats described below for Tour III and Tour IV may be swapped over. B. Details Tour I. An open format that (in theory) allows any team to finish in any position. (Note that this is different from 1997, and is based on questionnaire replies.) Tour II. The top 8 are in 2 pools of 4 with the top 2 in each progressing to semi-finals on Sunday; and the bottom 2 in each pool dropping to the "middle knockout 8" (5th-12th positions). Teams from 9th down are ideally in 4 pools with the winner of each moving up into the "middle knockout 8", and the other teams all playing off for 13th downwards. Tour III. All teams are initially in groups of 8 that are further divided into 2 pools of 4. The top 4 carry on as normal; but the 5-12 group are in 2 pools of 4 with a single playoff game to finish. This requires some Saturday results to be carried forward to Sunday. Teams below 12th on Sunday playoff for positions using a more straightforward (probably knockout) format. Tour IV. The top 16 start in 4 pools of 4 [A-D]. The winner of each [A1-D1] progress to semis. Teams in 2nd and 3rd, [A2, B2, ..., D3] go into a middle 8 comprising 2 pools of 4 for 5th-12th positions. As usual this also means carrying a result from Saturday. The bottom teams [A4-D4] join those teams starting below 16th to playoff for positions 13th downwards. Tour V. The same format as that described for Tour III. 6. Seedings. 1. To obtain the seedings for a given tour event the ranking points are used in conjunction with an extra calculation which takes into account the fact that teams may miss some events. Under exceptional circumstances the Ultim-8 Committee may alter the computed seedings to sensibly accommodate a team with no ranking points. 2. Let s be a team's current number of U8 Ranking Points; let m be the number of tour events missed by that team, and let ( be the mean number of Ranking Points scored at the tournaments attended. Then the adjusted score, S, is given by S = s, m = 0. S = s + (, m = 1. S = s + ((1 + 2/3), m = 2. S = s + ((1 + 2/3 + 1/3), m = 3. 3. Teams with equal points are separated according to [4.B]. 7. Reasons for being a "Geo-Club". We retain the policy of trying to "persuade" teams to have a local basis with regular practices, by giving those teams slight advantages. (Of course, the real point is that so-called "geo-teams" will improve more quickly than their opponents do, and that their real advantage is in becoming the better team.) 1. When two teams have the same ranking (or seeding) score, a geo-team is placed above other teams. 2. A geo-club may enter more than one team to some events with players able to move "freely" between teams provided they follow the comments below. This idea is evidently open to abuse but could well make sense for certain clubs and players. The aim is to make it easier for clubs that try to set up a local base and encourage a large membership. A club wishing to run more than one team has to check with the Tour Director and go through the details of how it will work, especially for [7.2.iii]. i) A player may only play for one team during a given tournament. ii) Ideally the two (or more) team system will be used by clubs wanting to have a 1st team/2nd team set up where players may progress upwards (or drop downwards) during the season. Note that unreasonable "stacking" of a lower team with strong players to gain some advantage (such as qualification for Nationals) will be illegal and retrospective penalties are not ruled out. This may for example be useful when a club can field more than one team for one or two tour events. (Red and Oxford did this in 1997.) iii) Alternatively a club may decide to divide into teams on some other basis. In this case the teams should have distinct identities. The club must be confident that both (all) teams will attend all the tour events. If the teams are not close in ranking, the unreasonable stacking of a lower team will be illegal. On qualification to Nationals, the club is free to do one of the following. a) Enter a single team (forfeiting the other place(s)). (Shotgun did this in 1997.) b) Continue with the same system.