Tristan’s Proposal:
Here for your perusal, and suggestions for modification most welcome, is the Top Performances Selection System proposed for selecting our participants in the 2015 World Scrabble Championship, to be put on the agenda for a vote at the AGM in a month's time. (Thanks to Llewellin, Dylan, Harry, Jeyad and ZT for teaming up on this, and considering many scenarios eg. a contender is ill/indisposed for Nationals/Masters weekend etc.)
Section 0: Motivations
1. Reward Performance* over relevantly-long period, not penalize anyone in any (in)direct way for bad tournaments, so that there is never any incentive not to play.
2. Put ALL players on an equal footing for next selection cycle, regardless of history. (We top players are not out to secure our turf effectively based on achievements from 2 years prior -- any 1400-rated upstart is welcome to start improving her/his Scrabble and displace us, needing to do no more than simply outperform us.)
3. Minimum participation criterion naturally built in.
4. Should avoid potential to create a scenario where it's obvious to all that our selection system is not selecting our best players (or is creating arbitrary obstacles or selecting players who will not commit sincerely to the effort necessary to try to perform well vs the tough competition there and thereby earn SA more places in future WSCs).
5. Uncomplicated, so players can quickly see where everyone stands and what to aim at. That's the challenge for us to design together!
Section A: Selection system
1. Average over 7 best Performances over the period starting with the week of the first of Collins/Nationals/Masters 2014 and ending with the last of Collins/Nationals/Masters 2015.
2. At least 4 of these Performances must be from national major tournaments (Nationals/Masters/Collins/AfricanScrabbleChampionships -- there are 7 available within the period)
3. At least 6 Performances must come from 2-day+ tournaments (i.e. minimum of 12games)
*How do we measure Performance?
"performance rating" is a number that the computer generates for each player for each tournament, regardless of his initial rating. By iterative process, the computer works out what rating that player should have had for that tournament in order for that same number to remain unchanged by that tournament, as calculated by the current rating system. This is the clearest measure of performance in a tournament, unaffected by prior history. Performance ratings will be published on the web after every rated tournament. Note that your performance rating is completely independent of your rating, and has everything to do with your results and the ratings of your opponents.
Section W: "not all tournaments are equal"
so Performance = a * (performance rating)
where
a = 1.01 for ASC, 2015 Collins, Nationals, Masters
a = 1.00 for 2014 Collins, Nationals, Masters
a = 0.99 for Gauteng Masters/WP Masters (we'd like to include the Scrabble Sixes tourney, but then Gauteng must be afforded the opportunity to hold a similar level event)
a = 0.98 for a 2-day tournament (min 12 games)
a = 0.96 for a 1-day tournament
Section P: If SA is allowed more than 2 entries into WSC, the final spot will be given to the player, who has not otherwise qualified, and scores the most total wins (+diff if a tiebreaker needed) in the 34 games of Nationals+Masters 2015.
Harry’s RSA team selection proposal
I propose we change the way we select players to play in Masters
and represent SA at WSC, to the following :
**Cape Masters/Gauteng Masters
a. The latest top 10 the month before tournament.
b. The player must have played at least 50 games
in that province for that year period.
**SA Masters
a. Top 10, two months before SA Masters.
b. Also only those that played at least 60 SA games in that year period.
**WSC selection
1. Three equally spaced periods. Jul to Oct, Nov to Feb, March to June.
2. The top rating in each period. -200 if not taken part.
3. (P1 + P2 + 2*P3)/4.
4. Must have played at least two of COLLINS, MASTERS, SA OPEN.
5. The best x represent SA
6. In case of a tie, they must play it out in a mini-tournament.
Suggestions are welcome and we need to change it as our current
system is too complicated.
Jeyad’s proposal
In light of the recent announcement regarding the future of what was formerly known as the World Scrabble Championship (now Scrabble Champions Tournament) which will now forthwith be an annual as opposed to bi-annual tournament, our previous system of selection as well as the newly proposed system is no longer viable. I therefore propose, for adoption at the forthcoming AGM, the following selection method for representatives at the event for next year. Your comments and suggestions are of course most welcome.
I propose that the rating system remain as is.
I propose that the representatives be chosen from the players who achieve the most wins (with differential as the second separator) in the Collins (16 games), nationals (16 games) and SA Masters (18 games) in the year of the champions tournament. This therefore gives players 50 games in which to earn their spot.
Ratings will only be important in order to qualify for the SA Grandmasters.