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From: "HUGHES, Chris" <CHughes@chelt.ac.uk>
To: "'Britdisc'" <britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk>
Subject: Handicapping
Date: Thu, 9 Jul 1998 16:05:07 +0100 
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Thanks people for the ideas keep them coming.

In the meantime I'll answer some questions;

WHY?
Well, I'm organising the tournament in Hitchin 'Something fun' (This
wasn't supposed to be the tourney name but it appears to have stuck. I
intend to use some form of handicapping to even out the tournament
whilst a number of players are out at worlds. People say that the weaker
teams want to play the stronger teams, but both groups get fed up with
the white washing that usually occurs.

HEADSTARTS
To expand more on the idea of headstarts; Wayne said would an 8-0 head
start in a game of Charnwood Sunz against Shotgun really make the game
tight. Possibly not. On the other hand a 12-0 headstart in a game to
thirteen might. An extreme example for what maybe a 1st seed v 16th seed
game. All Sunz need to do is score one point and they've felled the top
seeds; unlikely, but possible. This would also get more interesting in
the knockout stages on Sunday. The problems are the time aspect. A good
session of possession ultimate might make it really a struggle for Gun
as the clock winds down, but hopefully teams won't get into blatant time
wasting. Unfortunately this relies on good seeding of a team along with
handicapping points, especially as it isn't a linear scale.

MULTIPLE POINTS
Unworkable I think. Unless you want to get into awkward situations you
to stick to whole multiples, In a pool of four top seeds get 1 point per
score, second seeds; 2, third seeds; 3, fourth seeds 4. So far so good
but what about deciding pools in which you have the 4 v 5 game - which
is probably close anyway, but now the 4 seeds have to score twice as
many as 5 seeds.

Multiple End Zone Lines
Confusing - which is my end zone again? Am I in? Is playing 110 yards
into a 10 yards endzone really going to level a game between the top
seeds and bottom seeds in a tourney?

Definition Of a Catch
Sam's suggestion that a two handed touch is also a catch, as is
momentary control. If Spirit applies then fine, although it is liable to
break up the flow and result in a lot of false starts on turnover.
Besides, this, like a lot of suggestions is fine for the big
disparities, but any handicapping system has to account for the small
differences between teams as well as the big differences.

Player Numbers
WINNER!
This is workable because it is based upon the score in the game and no
predetermined values or anything. Every time a team goes two points up
they lose a player - i.e. down to six (wo)men, four points up five
(wo)men, etc This means there will never be a complete whitewash,
because once the top team goes 12 points up, they will only have one
player on the pitch, who, whilst it is possible to score (tip by
opposition), will have to do well to score or even play D. Couple this
to a staggered return, - i.e. the sixth player can only once the weaker
team are within six points, fifth returns at five up, fourth at four up
etc.

		ON		P. DIFF		OFF
		P1	-->	+1
		P2	-->	+2	-->	P1
		P3	-->	+3
		P4	-->	+4	-->	P2
		P5	-->	+5
		P6	-->	+6	-->	P3
				+7
				+8	-->	P4
				+9
				+10	-->	P5
				+11
				+12	-->	P6

Thoughts?

Sam asked what I intended to do with these ideas?
Well - invitations will be going out this weekend to the inaugural (if
all goes well) British Handicap Ultimate Tournament

Chris