Clarification News

Hey guys! This isn't John

Since we're doing variants, at first it was somewhat difficult to establish things such as main format, specific details concerning team formation and especially rating collection, which is one of the main factors that set up the league's environment so that it is competitive but at the same time a fun place for people of all ratings to play.
In this thread I'll try to break down some of our thoughts and visions for the main aspects of this upcoming league as a whole, as well as opening up room for suggestions and ideas.

I'll try to make it as simple as possible, however due to the majority of content that needs listing here, this might be a long read. Put on your seat-belts!

I. Format

So far there are four different variants which could be played solo. Those are Fischer Random (960), Crazyhouse, King of the Hill and 3 Check. I won't be covering Bughouse and 4 Player Chess for now as they are not one vs one, therefore should probably be covered in the duo season which is something we'll leave for further down the road. Puzzle Battle could be on the books as well but so far the only way to access a past game is getting its unique URL, so hypothetically if someone wins but forgets to get the link and paste onto results thread - this person might be in serious trouble.

Some of you may be familiar with the format from "mother leagues" as per say, NSPCL and NSPBCL, so if you came from there or know how it works there you are aware that these consist of two phases: Regular Season (six weeks) and Playoffs (four to six weeks, depending on tiebreaks). Now mathematically things work just fine for those, however here we have two factors that add some more complexity to the mix:

• This is a new league so we'll have less players/teams compared to "mother leagues"
• We have four variants, but regular season is six weeks, and playoffs can vary

That said, even though the math doesn't help, it's just math after all, so adding some creativity and positive thinking to it we can convert the complexities into a great new experience for everyone.

So these are our options for the league's regular season format:

• 8 weeks, do all variants and then loop (do all Variants again)
  E.g.: FR (960), Crazyhouse, KOTH, 3 Check, FR (960), Crazyhouse, KOTH, 3 Check.
• 6 weeks, do all variants once and pre-season vote for 2 variants to happen twice.
  E.g.: FR (960), Crazyhouse, KOTH, 3 Check, KOTH, 3 Check. (If they win the poll)
• 6 weeks, do all variants once and pre-season vote for 1 variant to happen thrice.
  E.g.: Crazyhouse, FR (960), KOTH, FR (960), 3 Check, FR (960). (If FR wins the poll)

And these are our time control options for regular season:

• Each player plays one 5|0 game per week
• Each player plays two 3|2 and two 5|0 games per week (similar to NSPBCL)

Since it's our first season, playoffs would have 4 or 8 teams instead of 16, depending on the amount of teams we have. The playoffs format would be one game in each variant per player. Games will be 5|0.

II. Rating Collection

So for rating collection, I made a formula which englobes all variant ratings from a said point where I did the collection, and then compensates those ratings by averaging them with a player's live peak Blitz rating from September 1st to March 1st (around 6 months till collection). After this, the formula applies a penalty of 100 rating points for each variant that hasn't been played.

There are some difficulties in collecting rating from variants, mostly because we cannot access a player's games history and graph for variants. Inserting one's Blitz rating along and making an average with that was the closest option I've found to add more precision into measuring one's playing strength. The penalty will be erased once a player has completed 6 games in said variant and then notifying admins for what variant he has played the games, so that we can look at the general games archive where we can see the games and collect his rating on said variant(s).

Please notice that quickly resigning games without moving, or intentionally playing bad moves in order to lose many games in a row is considered rating manipulation and is against the Fair Play rules of the site.

This was the fairest and most "doable" way to collect ratings with the tools we have at the moment, but let us know what you think in the comments.

In the table below you'll find all collected ratings by this formula. A player's collected rating is displayed in bold. If you have penalties due to unplayed variants, make sure to play 10 games of each variant and request us to collect your rating for that one. Players registered after Mar/02 will have their rating available once we finish the last touches at sheets and open them up publicly.

The average team rating for this season will be 1700. There will be 4 players per team.
The sum of all 4 players' final collected ratings in a team cannot surpass 6800. 

Note: For the fully updated players' Master List, access the NSPVCL Season 1 Sheets.

Below are some more detailed specifications for certain rating collections and auto-calculation:

960 - Highest from Live/Daily used.
CH - In absence of a CH rating, Bug rating used.
Blitz - Peak from last 6 months (Collection period: SEP/01/19-MAR/01/20)

AVG Var. vs B - A player's final rating, which is the average of all variants rating and blitz rating plus penalties for each variant not played. (auto calculated)
Penalty: 100 points for each variant not played. Play 10 games in said variant(s) and ask an admin for rating collection. (auto calculated)

III. Team Formation

In order to get everything working nicely and not rush things, we'll be extending Team Formation by 3 weeks. Up to this point we didn't have many essential threads needed for Team Formation to work properly, so now that everything is ready it makes sense to have some more time for players/teams to seek and form.

Team Formation will last until Sunday, April 5th - 12:00 PM PT.
Week one will start at Thursday, April 9th - 12:00 PM PT.

It is advised by then that all teams are fully formed. If not, incomplete teams might be assigned teamless players or get disbanded in case there are no players to be assigned.

Teams will consist of four players, from which one will be the Team Captain, sorted from highest to lowest rating. The max rating difference in case a higher board would be lower-rated than the board below him is 100 points.

I think that'll be pretty much it for this post, will update in case we are missing something but these are the more pertinent things to bring into attention.
Let us know what you think and in case something should be done differently, state your reason in the comments and we'll consider everything and come with the best choice for everyone!
Make sure to vote in the format poll, CLICK HERE to vote!