Some advice to new admins. Feel free to discuss this and suggest improvements.
How many team matches?
Any advice here will likely soon be outdated as we have increased the frequency of team matches constantly the last two months. At the moment we have about 1 match per week for each possibly time control, and a little more often for 3 days per move.
If a match have too few opponents to pair with all of our players, make a new match with the same time control sooner. Maybe make an extra match with a set maximum rating, especially in repeat cases.
If many players joined a match, consider making the next match sooner. If fewer players than usual joined a match, consider making the next match later.
Check challenges from other teams
Don't just create our own new challenges, but do also regularly check for open challenges made by other teams. Like we depend on other teams to accept our challenges, we should return the favors by accepting theirs. Accept anything (almost), but matches which will be very small due to either a low max number of players or a very small opponent team.
Don't nag our members to play
Accept if we probably will lose some match due to more and/or higher rated opponents than we have. Some teams try actively (with group notes, group news, personal messages etc.) to recruit more players to their team matches in such cases. I find that can be annoying. We are primarly here to have fun playing chess, and the team should serve the members by offering good matches, not the other way around.
How to fill the fields in the Create a Team Match form
Match Name: Could be anything. I prefer to include our team name to give it exposure, and also the time control to better distinguish the matches.
Game Type: Always Chess960 in this team of course.
Starting Position: Not used for Chess960.
Days per Move: 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, or 14.
Quick Description: What ever you fancy. I like to include the start date as the service to the admins of the other teams as it is not shown when viewing a challenge.
Rating: Leave it open. Or set a max limit to give the lower rated players a change to play if we have outnumbered the opponents in other matches with the same time control.
Minimum Games: No need to set anything here.
Players per Team: Set a minimum of at least 10 players. We usually have more than 20 players in every match, and if there are too few opponents many will join in vain, and (worse) the resulting games risk to be with so big rating differences that they become uninteresting. Do not set a maximum: We are here to play chess – why should we set a limit on how many can do that?
Concurrent Games per Opponent: 1 or 2. I always choose 2 to keep it consistent, and to have the matches finish qiucker.
Start Time: Should always be set to some time, normally 4-7 days ahead. It is easier when the matches have a fixed start time as they will start without you doing anything, and you don't have to worry about the opponent team delaying the match by not locking their roster.
Some advice to new admins. Feel free to discuss this and suggest improvements.
How many team matches?
Any advice here will likely soon be outdated as we have increased the frequency of team matches constantly the last two months. At the moment we have about 1 match per week for each possibly time control, and a little more often for 3 days per move.
If a match have too few opponents to pair with all of our players, make a new match with the same time control sooner. Maybe make an extra match with a set maximum rating, especially in repeat cases.
If many players joined a match, consider making the next match sooner. If fewer players than usual joined a match, consider making the next match later.
Check challenges from other teams
Don't just create our own new challenges, but do also regularly check for open challenges made by other teams. Like we depend on other teams to accept our challenges, we should return the favors by accepting theirs. Accept anything (almost), but matches which will be very small due to either a low max number of players or a very small opponent team.
Don't nag our members to play
Accept if we probably will lose some match due to more and/or higher rated opponents than we have. Some teams try actively (with group notes, group news, personal messages etc.) to recruit more players to their team matches in such cases. I find that can be annoying. We are primarly here to have fun playing chess, and the team should serve the members by offering good matches, not the other way around.
How to fill the fields in the Create a Team Match form
Match Name: Could be anything. I prefer to include our team name to give it exposure, and also the time control to better distinguish the matches.
Game Type: Always Chess960 in this team of course.
Starting Position: Not used for Chess960.
Days per Move: 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, or 14.
Quick Description: What ever you fancy. I like to include the start date as the service to the admins of the other teams as it is not shown when viewing a challenge.
Rating: Leave it open. Or set a max limit to give the lower rated players a change to play if we have outnumbered the opponents in other matches with the same time control.
Minimum Games: No need to set anything here.
Players per Team: Set a minimum of at least 10 players. We usually have more than 20 players in every match, and if there are too few opponents many will join in vain, and (worse) the resulting games risk to be with so big rating differences that they become uninteresting. Do not set a maximum: We are here to play chess – why should we set a limit on how many can do that?
Concurrent Games per Opponent: 1 or 2. I always choose 2 to keep it consistent, and to have the matches finish qiucker.
Start Time: Should always be set to some time, normally 4-7 days ahead. It is easier when the matches have a fixed start time as they will start without you doing anything, and you don't have to worry about the opponent team delaying the match by not locking their roster.