Scrabble Association, Singapore
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WESPA Championships (WESPAC) 2017 Qualification Criteria

The following are the criteria which will be used to select the Singapore players for the WESPA Championships 2017. Barring any amendments announced beforehand, these criteria will take effect from the start of the Qualifying Period (QP), with the Committee's decision being final in cases of dispute.

The QP starts from the 2016 National Championships or 1st July 2016, whichever is earlier, and concludes with the 2017 National Championships or 4th September 2017, whichever is earlier.

There are three routes to qualifying – winning the Singapore National Scrabble Championships, Qualification Rating (QR), or major[1] performance. Up to two eligible selectees will qualify first as National Champion(s), with the remainder but one being selected from QR. The final slot will be selected through major performance if there are at least two majors in the QP.

Selectees must accept their invitation by one month after the end of the QP or 18 Sep 2017, whichever is earlier; failing which, the place will be offered to the next eligible player with the next highest QR.

For the next WESPAC, eligible players finishing in the top 10 in WESPAC 2017 will first be invited in finishing order.

[1] A major is defined as a tournament where the top division lasts at least 16 rounds. This excludes individual or multiple phases of multi-phase tournaments (e.g SSSg).[5]

Eligibility

All selectees must be Singapore Citizens or Singapore Permanent Residents from the commencement of the QP until WESPAC 2017. They must also be paid-up SA members throughout this period. They must not have elected to represent another country when eligible to be selected for Singapore.

Each eligible selectee must play at least 72 rated games in the top division during the QP, or 50% of all available[2] rated games in the top division of all local tournaments if there are fewer than 144 rated games during the QP. They must also play at least one major.

Games from non-SA-rated overseas tournaments may be included by players who reside outside Singapore during a particular sub-period[3], and who have a history of at least 100 SA-rated games.

The player must submit advance notice of the overseas tournaments to SA (email: ratingstoucanet.com), and submit the result within one week from the end of the tournament and before the end of the QP. The requests will be considered on an individual basis.

In addition, the following criteria shall apply:

  1. The player must play in the top division.
  2. The player must play, or be awarded a winning bye for, at least 12 games.
  3. There must be at least 12 players in the tournament, including all divisions.
  4. The division must be rated by WESPA or a WESPA-recognized Scrabble body.
  5. The Committee, whose consent may be withheld for any reason whatsoever, must agree to include the tournament for eligibility.

Games won by reason of opponent's absence (winning byes) count towards the minimum required rated games. Losing byes do not.

[2] for elimination-style tournaments (like SSSg), the minimum guaranteed games are considered as “available”
[3] SA reserves the right to request proof of overseas residence such as a letter from employer stating overseas company address and period of overseas posting.

Qualifying as National Champion

One invitation will be given to the 2016 National Scrabble Champion; and one invitation to the 2017 National Scrabble Champion. Both invitations must meet all eligibility criteria listed above.

Qualifying from Qualification Rating (QR)

Eligible players not already invited as the 2016 or 2017 National Champion will be invited in order of QR, computed as follows:

  1. QR is the mean of the peak (highest) ratings achieved during four sub-periods, which are from:
    1. Start of QP to 30 September 2016;
    2. 1 October 2016 to 31 December 2016;
    3. 1 January 2017 to 31 March 2017; and
    4. 1 April 2017 to End of QP.

  2. Players must play 16 rated games to achieve a peak rating during any given sub-period. Otherwise, the peak rating is 0.

  3. The peak rating for a sub-period is the highest of the ratings achieved at the end of tournaments within the sub-period. All SA-rated tournaments are included for computation. For multi-phase tournaments like SSSg, each individually-rated phase is considered as a rated tournament.

  4. When an overseas-based player submits admissible overseas tournament(s) and meets the minimum game requirement during the sub-period, the player will be awarded Px for the sub-period where Px = Px' - (60 * number of sub-periods using non-SA-rated overseas tournament so far) and Px' is the last recorded peak rating, or last recorded SA rating prior to the current sub-period if no peak rating has been recorded yet. Nonzero peak ratings based on SA-rated tournaments will take precedence over Px.

Qualifying through Major Performance

Eligible players will be given a score metric calculated based on their major performance in the top division of local majors held during the QP. One invitation will be given to the player with the highest score metric, who has met all eligibility criteria and has not already qualified through the other routes. Ties will be broken by the highest major finish (the higher the better), number of rated games played in the QP (the higher the better), then by rating at the end of the QP (the higher the better).

The score metric is calculated as follows:

  1. A player’s score[4] for a major tournament is defined as:
    40 or 100 * (T - F) / T, whichever is higher
    where T is the total number of players in the top division of the local major; and F is the finishing rank of the player.
  2. Hence, under this system, players are assigned a base score of 40, regardless of whether they play in the major, or in the top division. They may better this score by finishing better than the 40th percentile in the top division of the major. They will not be penalised for finishing below 40th percentile.
  3. At the end of the QP, each player’s score metric is the mean of the scores for all local majors during the QP.

[4] Example 1: Player Z finishes 6th out of 10 players in the top division of a local major. His score for the tournament is the maximum of 40 and (100*(10-6)/10) or 40. He does not improve his score by coming in 6th, as he is at the 40th percentile.

Example 2: Player Y finishes 3rd out of 18 players in the top division of a local major. His score for the tournament is the maximum of 40 and (100*(18-3)/18) or 83.33 (2 d.p.). He improves his score for the tournament.

Example 3: Player X finishes 26th out of 26 players in the top division of a local major. His score for the tournament is the maximum of 40 and (100*(26-26)/26) or 0. He is not penalised for finishing below 40th percentile.

Addendum

[5] Added "This excludes individual or multiple phases of multi-phase tournaments (e.g SSSg)."

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Last updated: 21 Aug 2016