Everything you need to know about

Tie Breaking Rules

but didn't know who to ask

The RC Help Articles are especially written for people new to the Race Committee. This article deals with Tie Breaking Rules.

Ties can occur at the Event, Recap and Multi-Discipline levels. We recommend you break ties at the Event but not at the Recap and Multi-Discipline levels!

For all Events you break ties in favor of the competitor who:

Rule 1: beat the other the most number of times they competed together. If the tie still remains, then you break it in favor of the competitor who:

Rule 2: has the greater number of 1sts, 2nds, 3rds, and so on. If the tie still remains, then it stands as the final result. If however, you want to use another tie breaking rule to expedite recognition and awards, then it shall be that the tie is broken in favor of the competitor who:

Rule 3: beat the other the last time they competed together. (This is the only rule IMCO uses for their Events).

If you use Low Point/Conversion Scoring, you should add a fourth tie breaking rule. Ties are broken in favor of the competitor who:

Rule 4: has the higher Fleet or Fleet by Class score or points.

If two or more competitors are tied at the Recap or Multi-Discipline levels, just give duplicate awards. If you try to break ties at these levels, you'll run into a lot of challenges! For example, since competitors may not attend every race during the Season, there's always the possibility that a tie exists on the basis of Points alone and not because of actual competition results with a tied competitor. Sometimes a Points tied competitor at the Recap level who beat another may request a redress in which the tie can be broken using Event results. You should be prepared to handle these kind of situation. You have a couple of options:

Decline the request.

We recommendation you use High Scores Tabulation Method and give duplicate awards to tied competitors.

Honor the request and try to beak the tie.

We don't recommend you do this but if you do it anyway, there are two ways to break a tied at the Recap level:

If you use High Scores (3) Tabulation, you may break the tie by adding in another Event or two (High Scores (4) or (5)). Usually the ties are broken or at least moved down the line out of the critical top five. If you opt for this method, you should be aware of the fact that it may not solve the problem! Although the tie is broken, it'll probably be broken in favor of the higher points competitor and not the one who may have beaten the other the most number of times!

If you use either Cumulative or High Scores (3) Tabulation, you may try to break the tie using actual Event results, counting the number of times the points tied competitors beat each other.

Summarizing, we recommend you keep it simple and easy. Use Tie Breaking Rules 1-4 as required and if two or more competitors are tied at the Recap or Multi-Discipline levels, just give duplicate awards. Remember that an Event conducted properly is more fun for everyone! Best wishes for a successful racing season.

>>>