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This page contains information for NASPA directors about directing SOWPODS tournaments, specifically about the differences and commonalities between Collins (SOWPODS) and regular (OTCWL) tournaments. The information also applies to separate Collins events within larger regular tournaments.
All tournaments must be sanctioned by the Tournament Committee ahead of time as described on the page about tournaments. The fees, deadlines, requirements and restrictions are the same. Time/distance separation requirements apply separately between tournaments that use different lexicons.
All parameters specific to the tournament should be specified at this time, including:
The director must also pay the WESPA ratings levy directly after ratings data is submitted to WESPA. If you indicate that the tournament will be WESPA rated when seeking sanctioning, NASPA ratings officer John Chew will submit your ratings data to WESPA upon receipt of the NASPA ratings data.
The SOWPODS lexicon (also known as CSW or Collins Scrabble Words) is defined by WESPA Dictionary Committee and published in print by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
For software self-lookups, the CSW lexicon in Zyzzyva can be used. When events with different lexicons take place in the same venue, each should use a different set of computers, clearly marked.
The Official Tournament Rules should be used with the changes noted in Section VI - Play Using the International Lexicon.
Typically in international tournaments, the penalty for an unsuccessful challenge is 10 or 5 points per challenged word but no loss of turn. The choice should be indicated in all tournament announcements.
On a case-by-case basis, the adoption of certain other WESPA rules may be approved.
The results submission process is the same.
When you request sanctioning for the tournament, indicate if you want the tournament to be WESPA ratd.
The Tournament Committee will forward this information to the WESPA liaison for further action by WESPA.
WESPA rating requires the submission of a ratings file and the payment of a ratings levy.
If you are using TSH, note that the 'event_name' configuration parameter will be passed onto the WESPA rating officer instead of the default city and state/province.
If you do not provide notice of WESPA rating when seeking tournament sanctioning, the following methods may be used to generate a .TOU file:
Regardless of the method, you should verify the
spellings of the names of all participants.
A number of players have spelling differences between
their NASPA and WESPA rating records.
tsh can convert certain player names, but not all possible current and future player names.
Here is a sample result file in the format submitted to NASPA (including optional information on first and second turns):
#division A #ratingcheck off Wiegand, Dave 2000 2 0 3; 400 50 444; p12 1 0 2 Kantimathi, Sam 1800 1 3 0; 300 502 50; p12 2 1 0 Goldman, Stuart 1600 0 2 1; 50 502 333; p12 0 2 1
Here is the corresponding .TOU file, named A.TOU (note the variation in certain names):
*M2010-12-31 Your Tournament Name *A 0 David Wiegand 2400 +2 1350 1 2444 3 Sam Kantimathi 300 1 1502 +3 1350 2 Stu Goldman 1350 3 1502 2 333 +1 *** END OF FILE ***
The first line consists of an asterisk, a capital letter M, a date in ISO 8601 format, a blank and the name of your tournament.
The second line consists of an asterisk and a capital letter that corresponds to the name of the division (and also the name of the file).
The third line consists of 39 blanks and the digit zero.
Subsequent lines, one line per player, consist of the following elements, separated by any number of blanks:
The last line consists of the string “*** END OF FILE ***”.
This page was last edited on 13 January 2023, at 10:40. Privacy policy
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