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no shows in TL 50T50Index ->

posted at 2012-05-08 23:17 by linuxblue

There are many games in TL 50 in which a player hasn't turned up at all for the game. This is just an intuitive observation; I haven't crunched the number of times it's happened comapred to previous TLs etc.

Is it mainly new players getting used to the TL set up? What's going on? Should anything be done? It is disappointing in such a well set up league.

posted at 2012-05-09 00:02 by ghp

I have no idea if this really happens a lot. Nevertheless there might be a simple improvement. They are doing it for the "RW Swiss 2012" (http://rwchess.appspot.com/wiki/Main_page). Maybe there could be a reminder mail a day (or 12 hours or whatever) before the game starts.

posted at 2012-05-09 01:22 by smallblackcat

linuxblue, it is interesting that you mention this, because those of us on the administrative side have felt that no-shows were relatively low for this tourney. I did a quick (unofficial) count, and only about 5% of games are not taking place for whatever reason. This is on the low side, historically speaking.

You are correct in your assumption that new players tend to have more problems of this nature, but veterans aren't immune either. Some no-shows are caused by miscommunication between players and captains about availability to play. It's impossible to completely eradicate no-shows, but be assured that we take the problem very seriously.

The suggestion of having daily reminders is worth considering, though I doubt that they would have a major effect on no-shows. In the RW Swiss, players play once per month; in TL there are some players with 2 or more games per week, who might not appreciate receiving constant game reminders. That's just my personal opinion though, not a statement of league policy.

posted at 2012-05-09 09:30 by wmahan

In the first 2 rounds of T50, 12 of 192 games were not played; that's 6.25%. Comparing the first 2 rounds of T49 and T48, 7.8% and 10.3% of games were unplayed, respectively.

Players tend to be less diligent in later rounds. In all rounds of T49, the figure was 61/696 = 8.8%, and in T48, 80 / 669 = 12.0%. In all tourneys since T32, 1635/12545 = 13.0% have been unplayed.

I implemented the automated reminder system before T48. At the start of T50 I forgot to turn on the automated reminders until late in the first round, but that does not seem to have increased the proportion of unplayed games.

There is a confounding factor: players banned for abuse in past editions are considered to have not played their games, and if such bans take place later in T50, it will increase the percentage of unplayed games. Nevertheless, I do not think the evidence supports the conclusion that there is a trend of more players missing games.