The Larry Smith Invitational Rook Tournament
Tournament Regulations

4 – Tournament Scoring

4.1 – Team & Table Assignment

4.1.1 – Ranking Basis

Before each round of the tournament, all players must be assigned to a team and a table. That assignment is made based on a ranking of all players in the field. For the first round, the ranking is taken from the seeds of the players; in subsequent rounds, the ranking is based on the current Tournament score of each player.

4.1.2 – Team Assignment

Once the players are ranked, the field is split equally into two tiers. For example, if the field consisted of 40 players, the top-ranked 20 players would comprise the upper tier, and the lower-ranked 20 players would comprise the lower tier.

Teams are assigned by matching each player in the upper tier to the corresponding player in the lower tier. In our example of 40 players, the first player in the upper tier (Player 1 in the rankings) would be matched with first player in the lower tier (Player 21 in the rankings) to make the first team. Player 2 would team with Player 22, and so on, until the last two players in each tier (Player 20 and Player 40) make up the final team.

4.1.3 – Table Assignment

Teams are assigned to tables in sequence so that the first two teams play at Table 1, the next two at Table 2, and so on, with the last two teams at the last table. In our example, Players 1 and 21 would play against Players 2 and 22 at Table 1. Players 19 and 39 would play against Players 20 and 40 at Table 10.

4.1.4 – Ramifications

Notice that the rankings of the players playing at a given Table are fixed. But after each round, as the ranking of each player changes with the scores, new players will be assigned to each Table.

Notice also that in any given round, each player is competing against a player immediately adjacent to him in the rankings. So the player in first place at the start of each round must play against the player in second place. Each player also has a partner that is as close to his own ranking as possible while still being in the opposite tier.

4.2 – Seeding System

4.2.1 – Definition and Purpose

At the start of the Tournament, each player will be assigned a seed. The seed value will be used to determine the initial team and table assignments (Section 4.1), and to break ties (Section 4.4). A smaller number indicates a better (higher) seed, while a larger number represents a worse (lower) seed.

4.2.2 – Algorithm

To determine the seedings, the field of players is divided into two groups: those who have played in the Tournament before, and those who have not. The returning players are ranked based on their Average Round Score from previous Tournaments. The player with the highest average is ranked first, followed by the other players in decreasing order of their average. If two or more players have the same average, the ties will be broken using the alphabetic order of their names (last name first).

Once the returning players are ranked, the ordered list is split approximately in half. Then the list of "rookie" players is inserted between the two halves, in alphabetical order (last name first). This combined list is then numbered from one to the number of players. The number assigned to each player is that player's seed for the Tournament.

4.2.3 – Example

Suppose the Tournament field had 40 players, and of those, 32 had played in the Tournament before. The 32 veteran players would be ranked 1-32 by their Average Round Score. The 8 rookies would be put in order alphabetically. The final seeding list would have veterans 1-16 (seeds 1-16), followed by the 8 rookies (seeds 17-24), followed by veterans 17-32 (seeds 25-40).

4.3 – Player Scores

At the completion of each round, the total score earned by each team in that round is added to the cumulative score of each player on that team.

4.4 – Breaking Ties

In the event that two or more players have the same score, the ranking of those players will be based on their initial seeding, with the better seeded player ranked higher. For example, if the 4th seeded player and the 9th seeded player were tied for 3rd place, then the 4-seed would be 3rd, and the 9-seed would be 4th.

This tie-breaking method will be used not only for the final standings, but also for standings between rounds when making new team and table assignments.

4.5 – Winners

After all rounds are complete, the individual player with the highest total score is the winner, upon whom honor, fame, and glory will be duly bestowed.

Additional recognition will be given to those players finishing in second and third place. At the discretion of the Tournament Officials, other players may be recognized for special honors (most improved player, best rookie performance, and so on).