Everything you need to know about

Determining your Scoring System

or
"The Relationship Between How Competitors Vie With One Another and the Way You Score Them"

but didn't know who to ask

The RC Help Articles are especially written for people new to the Race Committee. This article discusses what you need to know to score your Event based on your Competition Format and other options.

First of all, understand that there are up to seven steps (it could be as few as one or as many as seven) that must be considered when determining your scoring options. These seven steps involve selecting various options among the following formats:

Competition: how competitors vie with one another

Start: how competitors start the race

Course: how many times around the course or number of laps

Finish: how you record finishing places

Scoring: which system you'll use

Recognition: how you'll recognize the winners

Points: the kind of points you'll award, if any

COMPETITION FORMAT

How competitors vie with one another is called "Competition Format". You can compete everybody all in one group (the ALL RACE competition format option). You can compete everybody by their Fleet (the BY FLEET competition format option). You can compete everybody by their Class within their Fleet (the FLEET BY CLASS competition format option). Or you can compete everybody by their Division within their Class within their Fleet (the FLEET/CLASS BY DIVISION competition format option). Or, for Slalom Racing, you can compete everybody by Heat (ALL RACE competition format option), or by Heat within their Fleet (the BY FLEET competition format option), or by Heat within their Class within their Fleet (the FLEET BY CLASS competition format option), or by Heat within their Division within their Class within their Fleet (the FLEET/CLASS BY DIVISION competition format option).

When would you usually use each of these Competition Formats?

You might use the ALL RACE option for a small event (RaceManPro Scoring Protocols [1] through [15]).

You might use the BY FLEET option for larger events (RaceManPro Scoring Protocols [16] through [20]).

You might use the FLEET BY CLASS option at a championship event with large Classes (RaceManPro Scoring Protocols [21] through [24]).

You might use the FLEET/CLASS BY DIVISION option at a large event where you compete everyone in their Division (RaceManPro Scoring Protocol [25]).

Or, if you have computer software like RaceManPro from the Race Management Professionals, you might opt to use the computer generated Heat Assignments and let everyone compete by Heats within their larger group: VIRTUAL ALL RACE SLALOM (RaceManPro Scoring Protocols [13] through [15].

How would you usually start and finish each of these Competition Formats?

When you use the ALL RACE options, you start everyone together on the same start line at the same time, run them the same number of laps around the course, and finish them on the same finish line. You would mark your single scoresheet from "1" to "NRacers".

When you use the BY FLEET options, you start your Fleets separately. You have a separate scoresheet for each Fleet marked from "1" to "NRacers" in the Fleet.

When you use the FLEET BY CLASS options, you start your Fleets with their Classes separately. You have a separate scoresheet for each Class marked from "1" to "NRacers" in the Class.

When you use the FLEET/CLASS BY DIVISION option, you start your Fleets with their Classes and Divisions separately. You have a separate scoresheet for each Division marked from "1" to "NRacers" in the Division.

When you use the VIRTUAL ALL RACE options ([9-11] and [13-15], you can start everyone on the same line at different times, have different number of laps for the various groups if you want, finish everyone on a common finish line and have a common scoresheet marked "1" to NRacers in Event. While this makes life easy for the Race Director, it can be a scoring nightmare for everyone else unless you have a software program like RaceManPro which can sort it all out in seconds!

The "VIRTUAL ALL RACE" option takes a little explaining! It means "existing in effect or essence although not in actual fact or form". If you had a separate scoresheet for each competition group, you wouldn't need a special scoring protocol with a fancy name like "VIRTUAL ALL RACE" but you would need more scorekeepers and a way to identify the racer's group as they crossed the finish line OR a way to convert overall scores into smaller group scores (OVERALL to FLEET, OVERALL to CLASS or OVERALL to DIVISION or OVERALL to HEAT).

If you didn't convert scores, the only valid score totals are those which belong to the first group you started and, for Course Racing, you'd probably end up with the Sport Class with their single lap having lower score totals than the top runners which wouldn't make any sense at all! Since a lot of racers like to see their overall finish places as well as their smaller group ranking, you need a special scoring protocol and we call it "VIRTUAL ALL RACE". (Note: RaceManPro uses the same reports for all racing. For Course and Course/Slalom, the value inside the box on the report is the Fleet, Class or Division finish place. For Slalom, the value inside the box is the Heat finish place).

Enough on how competitors vie with one another. Let's move on now and look at the START in more detail.

START

There are basically three ways you can handle the start.

Everybody in their competition group (ALL RACE, BY FLEET, FLEET BY CLASS or FLEET/CLASS BY DIVISION) can start at the SAME time on the SAME line. Or,

Everybody in their competition group can start at DIFFERENT times on the same line or at DIFFERENT times on different lines. Or,

If you're using computer generated heat assignments, you can start everybody in their competition group by heats (the SLALOM option).

Remember, if you use ALL RACE, BY FLEET or FLEET BY CLASS formats and you specify DIFFERENT start time or line or number of laps and SAME or common scoresheet, you must use one of the "VIRTUAL ALL RACE" conversion scoring protocols.

By the way, never use CONV TO FLEET, CONV TO CLASS or CONV TO DIV scoring options with SLALOM starts! What would happen if your heat of 8 racers came from 8 different competition groups? You'd have 8 First Places! For Slalom Racing, it's important to use the VIRTUAL ALL RACE CONV TO HEAT scoring protocol. We've actually made it difficult for you to do otherwise.

You might wonder why you need the CONV TO FLT, CONV TO CL and CONV TO DIV scoring protocols when you have VIRTUAL ALL RACE scoring protocols? Well, each is designed for a specific purpose. The CONVERSION options share the same parameters as the BASIC and RELATIVE options: SAME Start/Laps and SAME Scoresheet. The VIRTUAL ALL RACE options are designed specifically for DIFFERENT Start Times/Lines/Laps but SAME or common scoresheet. The VIRTUAL ALL RACE options require a more complex protocol than the regular CONVERSION options.

FINISH

The way you record finishes are also of concern only in certain cases. By definition, the ALL RACE competition format uses SAME or one common scoresheet while the FLEET/CLASS BY DIVISION competition format uses DIFFERENT or multiple scoresheets, one for each Division. But for the BY FLEET and FLEET BY CLASS competition formats, you will have to select a finish format. When you come down to it, there are only two ways to handle the recording of finish line positions. You can record finishing places all on the SAME scoresheet or you can use a DIFFERENT scoresheet for each group or it won't make any difference, in which case you label it SAME/DIFF.

SCORING

There are four Low Point scoring formats:

BASIC SCORING

RELATIVE SCORING

CONVERSION SCORING

COOPERATIVE SCORING (covered separately in RC Help Article #12)

Basic Scoring

In BASIC SCORING, you compute total, ranking and points earned. Since everyone in the group (whether it be ALL RACE, BY FLEET, FLEET BY CLASS or FLEET/CLASS BY DIVISION) competes together, the total is always the overall or larger group total.

Relative Scoring

If you sort the Basic Scoring results by Fleet/Class by Division, you'll have RELATIVE SCORING. Each racer's Division ranking will be related or relative to their larger group ranking. You usually award points based on the FLEET or CLASS group ranking. If the event is large, however, you might want to consider awarding points based on DIVISION ranking, thus helping to minimize the possible disincentive factor.

Conversion Scoring

If you convert each racer's larger group finishing place for each race to their smaller group finishing place for each race, you'll have CONVERSION SCORING. Results obtained through Conversion Scoring are usually the same as for Relative Scoring except in cases where a racer's performance varies a great deal and the number of discards are insufficient to negate the poor performance. Then look for possible ranking reversals between the larger group totals and the smaller group rankings where a racer with the lower (and thus better) total, can actually lose to a racer with a lower (and thus better) smaller group ranking.

Because of the possibility of ranking reversals inherent in Conversion Scoring, you may want to consider using it only in special cases. For example, if you plan on awarding an overall trophy to the winner of a Multi-Discipline Regatta and you plan on using Fleet/Class by Division Competition format for one of the disciplines (like Wave Performance), then you must use Conversion Scoring to equalize the points tallied from all disciplines. Or, if you start two Fleets on the same line, 6 minutes apart, send the Olympic Sailing (Pumping) Fleet/Open Sport Class around once while the Olympic Sailing (Pumping) Fleet/Open Class goes twice, and you finish them on the same line using a single scoresheet, then you must use one of the 'Virtual All Race" conversion scoring protocols which converts the overall finishing places to Fleet, Fleet by Class or Fleet/Class by Division finishing places. Otherwise, it's probably better to go with Relative Scoring. If however, you really like Conversion Scoring and want to use it for all your events, then consider how to handle ranking reversal complaints should they occur. The fairest solution is probably to assign involved racers the same ranking since you cannot really determine who is the top performer since you lack elapsed time data.

By the way, don't let the "smaller group" and "larger group" terms confuse you. The largest competition group is ALL RACE where everybody competes together. The next size competition group is FLEET and By Fleet racing in the United States of America is divided into OLYMPIC (PUMPING} and CLASSIC (NON-PUMPING). The next size competition group is FLEET BY CLASS and Class racing in the United States is divided into OPEN, LIMITED and INTERNATIONAL and OPEN SPORT, LIMITED SPORT and INTERNATIONAL SPORT (the SPORT CLASS is a once around class usually on shorter courses). The next size competition group is FLEET/CLASS BY DIVISION and Divisional racing is divided into age groups (like Juniors 15 and under, Juniors 16-18, Men and Women 19-34, Men and Women Masters 35-44, and so on) and weight groups (like Light, Medium, Heavy or Super). Finally, the smallest competition group is the HEAT and a large Division may be divided into several Heats or Starts.

(Note: the above Competition Format was being used at the time this article was written. However, in 1997, when five of us "old timers" left the US Windsurfing Executive Committee, that was all changed, regretfully from my point of view).

Basically, all four scoring options are available to all competition formats but there are notable exceptions. You can't use Conversion Scoring for Slalom Starts (except CONV TO HEAT) when you use computer generated heat assignments and all racers compete in every race since the conversion of larger group finishing places to smaller group finishing places compresses the point spread and thus makes the results meaningless. For example, if you have 12 racers in a heat, representing 7 Divisions, you'll convert their scores to 7 First Places and most likely, 5 Second Places! You can use the CONV TO HEAT since RaceManPro converts the overall finish place directly to the Heat finish place bypassing the Fleets, Classes and Divisions.

RECOGNITION

It's easy to determine your "recognition format" since the options are the same as for "competition format". You can recognize top performers all in one group (the ALL RACE option). You can recognize top performers by their Fleet (the BY FLEET option). You can recognize top performers by their Class within their Fleet (the FLEET BY CLASS option). Or you can recognize top performers by their Division within their Class within their Fleet (the FLEET/CLASS BY DIVISION option).

If you select the ALL RACE competition format combined with BASIC SCORING, then you have only one recognition format to chose from: ALL RACE. If you select the BY FLEET competition format combined with BY FLEET SCORING, then you have only one recognition format to chose from: BY FLEET. If you select the FLEET BY CLASS competition format combined with FLEET BY CLASS SCORING, then you have only one recognition format to chose from: FLEET BY CLASS. Finally, if you select the FLEET/CLASS BY DIVISION competition format, you're limited to FLEET/CLASS BY DIVISION scoring format and FLEET/CLASS BY DIVISION recognition format (and FLEET/CLASS BY DIVISION points format as well).

Moving now from Basic to Advanced Scoring, if you select RELATIVE SCORING, then by definition you're limited to FLEET/CLASS BY DIVISION recognition format. Finally, if you select CONVERSION SCORING, then you have the full range of recognition formats available to your competition format (three for ALL RACE [By Fleet, Fleet by Class and Fleet/Class by Division], two for BY FLEET [Fleet by Class and Fleet/Class by Division] and one for FLEET BY CLASS competition formats [Fleet/Class by Division]). Now, is this all perfectly clear?

POINTS

Finally, you have five options for awarding points. But first, let's review the reason for "Reverse Scoring". Remember, not all events are created equal. Larger events always have a greater competition level since the more competitors you have to compete against, the greater your chances of being defeated. First Place in an event of 100 is worth more than First Place in an event of 20! You need some way to reflect this competition worth or value when adding Event results together for a Regatta or Season recap. One way to do this is to "reverse score" since the points awarded are a reflection of the competition level. Low Point/Reverse Scoring rewards those that win at the larger events.

It's easy to determine the points awarded since the formats are the same as for competition format. You can award points based on the number of competitors in the entire group (the ALL RACE option). You can award points based on the number of competitors in their Fleet (the FLEET option). You can award points based on the number of competitors in their Class within their Fleet (the CLASS option). Or you can award points based on the number of competitors in their Division within their Class within their Fleet (the DIVISION option). Or you can chose to award no points at all (the NONE option). This option might be used if you have only a single event a year and there's no need to recap a regatta series or if you're conducting the season's "grand finale" and all you need do is determine ranking.

By now it should be clear that for the By Fleet and Fleet by Class competition formats, the key to which scoring system you use is how you handle the start times and number of laps AND the finish line scoresheet!

In a nutshell, as long as you start each group at the same time and they complete the same number of laps, you can use any finish and scoring option you want (except you'd have no reason to use the Virtual All Race options).

See the Summary table at the bottom of this page for an overview of what we've been talking about.

Remember that an Event conducted properly is more fun for everyone! Whatever you do, avoid making up new rules and scoring protocols "on the fly". Chances are, if you do, you'll bias the results and could easily invalidate them. Competitors trust the Race Committee to know what they're doing ... but when results just don't "seem" right, they will complain ... and when they do, it's no fun for anyone!

As you've seen from this article, event scoring can be complicated and even mind boggling. When programming RaceManPro, we had to figure out all the possible logic threads and scoring protocols, apply them to actual event results, carefully analyze the results looking for ranking reversals, and figure out why they occurred ... so we've already done all the hard work for you. All you have to do is follow the guidelines in these Race Committee Help Articles, use RaceManPro, and be confident you'll conduct a fair and fun event for everyone.

For your information, over the years we've looked into a number of suggested scoring systems. In every case, we decided against including them in RaceManPro general release due to the extreme bias they created and/or the extreme complexity of the protocol, making manual scoring difficult, time consuming and error prone. Therefore, if RaceManPro doesn't include it, you probably don't need it!

Best wishes for a successful racing season. And, by the way, "Congratulations!" on becoming one of the most educated Race Committee members in the world! We hope you have a long and enjoyable career!