US contest scoring formula is broken

A couple of years ago, I experienced some similar scoring issues at
Region 9 and, like Steve, think the rules are just too complex. We
have the situation where only one specific computer program can
produce the official results, it's almost impossible to work them out
for yourself and it's virtually impossible to decide on the optimum
strategy while you're flying.

We need rules that you can understand and don't need special programs
to figure out. That's why many of us enjoy participating in OLC -
it's dead simple and you know how it's scored.

Steve's proposal has a lot of merit, but probably has a low chance of
being adopted because of inertia in the system.

The problem Andy raises could probably be addressed by assigning both
a minimum and maximum task duration.


Mike

On Jun 23, 12:16*pm, Mike the Strike wrote:
That's why many of us enjoy participating in OLC -
it's dead simple and you know how it's scored.

Right, the guy that lives next the biggest wave (or ridge, or thermal)
machine, wins. That's not a dig, that's an observation.

The OLC is fun, I like it. But it isn't a meaningful competition.

-T8

On Jun 23, 10:16*am, Mike the Strike wrote:
snip

We need rules that you can understand and don't need special programs
to figure out. *That's why many of us enjoy participating in OLC -
it's dead simple and you know how it's scored.

Steve's proposal has a lot of merit, but probably has a low chance of
being adopted because of inertia in the system.

snip
Mike

The scoring program is not really any more complicated that what the
OLC does. I would have no problem scoring a contest manually IF (in
big letters) I could calculate the distances easily. To do so we
would have to get rid of the TAT task and any Best Distance Scoring
and go back to the old systems where the distances were fixed for AST
Tasks or at least easily calculatable for MAT task.

I personally liked the fixed distances idea in that it does simpify
the scoring, but the Best Distance Scoring appears to have some safety
benefits to it as well as additional Task options.

On days where everyone finishes in reasonable amounts of time, The
score would be really quite simple to calculate if the distance was
easy to calculate. I think this would probably apply to at least 80
percent of the contest days flown. The other 20% of the days would
invoke some of the exceptions and other score rules that would take
some time to apply but even then it usually would only apply to a few
competitors.

It would be interesting to review some score sheets and see how many
competitors scores were not the simple percentage of fastest
finisher.

As for idea of asking the poll question "Do you think the rules are to
complicated?" this is dumb question in that everyone wants simpler
rules. The much better question is "What one thing would you like to
simplfy or remove from our current rules" This is a much harder
question as John C. has pointed out each rule was put in for a
reason. To the credit of the rules commitee I do think they work hard
to keep the rules as simple as possible, Remember to 15 minute rule?
It is now gone due to popular demand as it complicated the scoring
even more..