[EdmundB]

Topic description says it all. If you know and are willing to share, thanks.

[hrothgar]

Attendance points

[Jacki]

All the ACBL games are stratified if there are enough tables to do that. Strata are formed for each game, depending on the points help by the player in that particular game. In other words, the Strata are determined anew for each game.

The players, and the points they hold, are divided into 3rds. The third with the most points are in Strata A and can win points in Strata A. The third with the next largest point total are in Strata B and can win points in A and B. The third with the lowest point total are in Strata C and can win points by doing well in all three Strata. Now that the Strata are determined, the players in each Stratum are distributed evenly among all the sections. Well as even as we can make it.

Since each game - particularly the Speedball games - is stratified independent of any other game, it's possible that a player may find himself in A for one game and in B for another. Also, for us to count the points for stratification purposes, we have to know about them. So if you find yourself in a Stratum you believe is wrong, just let me know and I'll do some investigating.

Jacki

[Phil]

This is similar to a lot of real life clubs. In ours, I start with A = unlimited, B=750-2000, C=0-750. Generally, I need two pairs in each flight in a standard movement to award points, so if I'm short, I will lower the bar.

[blackshoe]

Stratification and flighting are two different things. Butch Campbell at ACBL HQ told me:

Quote

Flighted - two or three groups (A,B,C) that play separately (A plays against A, B against B & C against C). The A may have two levels (A/X) and C may have three levels (C/D/E). The A & X play together and C/D/E play together.

Stratified - Two or three levels. Each level is divided as evenly as possible in both directions and sections.

Both are based on masterpoints, and afaik the divisions are arbitrary, although I have the impression that most people think the flight divisions are somehow standardized — and they may be, at ACBL tournament level, though I've never seen any regulation or specific statement on it.

[mycroft]

For Tournaments, there are only certain flight/strata breakpoints that can be used (you can't cut off B at 2407, for example). The NABC strata are fixed (one set for full stratified games, one for S/flighted, one for straight flighted (but I don't think we run any of those). Other tournaments set them, in discussion with their DICs, to achieve appropriate sizing of flights/strata (my area tries to split evenly into A and B/C, and we put in a reasonable X in A/X). The chosen delimiters should be (I think must be, but I'm not a tournament coordinator) displayed in tournament advertising. Because of different ease-of-access to tournaments, average masterpoint holdings (Bracketed K/O awards are dependent on this, and a *lot* of MPs are awarded in BKOs), and general masterpoint inflation, the ranges vary significantly between regions.

TDs have authority to change the masterpoint ranges at game time if they deem it necessary. I've never seen it done except to widen the bottom stratum so that there are enough contestants in it to provide masterpoint awards, but I'm sure it could be used if it turned out that on Friday, they had 5 tables in B and 20 in A, and they wanted a more balanced setup for Saturday.

I'm sorry, I can't find the regulation that sets the limits for "what breakdowns are allowed in sectionals/ regionals" at the moment.

[blackshoe]

mycroft, on 2011-January-27, 15:09, said:

For Tournaments, there are only certain flight/strata breakpoints that can be used (you can't cut off B at 2407, for example). The NABC strata are fixed (one set for full stratified games, one for S/flighted, one for straight flighted (but I don't think we run any of those). Other tournaments set them, in discussion with their DICs, to achieve appropriate sizing of flights/strata (my area tries to split evenly into A and B/C, and we put in a reasonable X in A/X). The chosen delimiters should be (I think must be, but I'm not a tournament coordinator) displayed in tournament advertising. Because of different ease-of-access to tournaments, average masterpoint holdings (Bracketed K/O awards are dependent on this, and a *lot* of MPs are awarded in BKOs), and general masterpoint inflation, the ranges vary significantly between regions.

TDs have authority to change the masterpoint ranges at game time if they deem it necessary. I've never seen it done except to widen the bottom stratum so that there are enough contestants in it to provide masterpoint awards, but I'm sure it could be used if it turned out that on Friday, they had 5 tables in B and 20 in A, and they wanted a more balanced setup for Saturday.

I'm sorry, I can't find the regulation that sets the limits for "what breakdowns are allowed in sectionals/ regionals" at the moment.

Good to know. If you do find that regulation, please post it or a link to it here.

[barmar]

blackshoe, on 2011-January-27, 12:21, said:

Stratification and flighting are two different things.

True, but none of the BBO ACBL tourneys are flighted (and it's pretty rare to find flighted games at f2f tourneys, either -- the closest are stratiflighted). So the OP presumably meant strats when he wrote flights.

[blackshoe]

Or he didn't know the difference, or perhaps didn't know that there is a difference. I just wanted to point out the difference, so everyone reading the thread would be aware.

[barmar]

Flighted events are so rare these days that I think 90% of the membership doesn't bother to distinguish between flights and strats. And it's not really a problem, the context will resolve the ambiguity. If you're in a stratified game, flight == strat.

[mycroft]

Ed: heh, I knew I could find it, exactly where it should be, but not where I would have looked for it:

In the ACBL Handbook of Rules and Regulations (2009 Revision), Chapter 6 is Tournaments, and Section Four is Events and Restrictions, explaining what the events are; Section Five, part IV is "Events and Restrictions", and has the masterpoint limit restrictions for each type of event.

[blackshoe]

Thanks. I should have figured it would be in there somewhere.

[awm]

One comment is that the tournaments are stratified by BBO master points, not ACBL master points. This sometimes leads to players with a bunch of ACBL points landing in the C strat (i.e. this has happened to me on several occasions).

[jillybean]

awm, on 2011-January-31, 22:50, said:

One comment is that the tournaments are stratified by BBO master points, not ACBL master points. This sometimes leads to players with a bunch of ACBL points landing in the C strat (i.e. this has happened to me on several occasions).

The BBO ACBL games are stratified by BBO masterpoints?

[Jacki]

blackshoe, on 2011-January-31, 16:12, said:

Thanks. I should have figured it would be in there somewhere.

[Jacki]

jillybean, on 2011-January-31, 22:56, said:

The BBO ACBL games are stratified by BBO masterpoints?

The BBO ACBL games are stratified according to the points held by players where we are aware of those points. Typically, we know the number of ACBL points they hold if they give us their ACBL number as we get a status update from Memphis each month. With this report, we can match the ACBL number to the BridgeBase screen name. We always know how many BridgeBase points they hold.

Of course, if we don't know the number of ACBL points held, then we can't report them to ACBL headquarters either.

Jacki

[barmar]

Is there any way to see what the strat boundaries were for a particular tourney?