Discussion: Final Club Relay format posted

After much discussion - here is the official info and rules for the Club Relay Champs at Tahoe2021. This will be posted on the BAOC event website shortly in a prettier format :-) Make sure to read down to the section about forming a team as there is a NEW SEEDED DRAW option.

Tahoe 2021 Relay details
Name: The Tahoe 2021 Club Relay Orienteering Championships
Date and Time: August 9, 2021; Start at 10 am
Location: Burton Creek State Park, North Lake Tahoe, California
Arena: North Tahoe High School Track
Hosts: Bay Area Orienteering Club

Introduction:
The goal is to provide a fun and competitive relay racing experience, with head-to-head competition among orienteers with similar abilities on forked courses.

The Club Championship will be a team competition based upon the relay. Runners of each relay leg will be awarded points using the Scottish system. Each Club's top 5 runners with the most points will contribute to the Club's total point count regardless of the runners' relay team. The Club with the most points wins the Club Championship.
All runners from a Club have a chance to contribute to their Club’s score, and all Clubs will receive a score, even if they have only one runner!

There will be 4 female and 4 male Relay Team Categories: Junior, Elite, Master, Veteran. Each relay team will consist of 3 runners who each run one leg of the Relay.

There are two options for forming teams:
1. By “Choice”: Competitors may choose teams from their club,friends, families, or just anyone.
2. By “Seeding”: Competitors who wish to run on teams with members of similar ability and against other teams of similar ability may enter the “Seeded Draw”. Runners who wish the organizers to place them in a team should also enter into the Draw.

1st, 2nd and 3rd place awards for:
1.Champion Clubs.
2.Junior, Elite, Master and Veteran Female teams.
3.Junior, Elite,Master and Veteran Male teams.

Courses:
1. There will be 8 courses, each corresponding to a Category: M/F Junior, M/F Elite, M/F Master and M/F Veteran.
2. Each course will have 3 legs.
3. All courses will have forking, except the Junior courses.
4. When completed, each relay team will have run the same set of legs.
5. The courses will be designed so that it is likely that the winning teams in all Categories will finish at or near the same time, for maximum excitement.
6. The courses will be designed with spectators in mind to add more to the excitement.

Club competition computation:
1.The top 5 runners’ points from each Club count towards the Club’s total points.
2.The Scottish system (see below) will be used to assign Club points for each leg of the relay.

Relay team composition and Categories:
1.Each Relay Team consists of three runners.
2.Each runner must be from the classes of that team’s Category in the tables below, with three exceptions:
a.Women may run in a Men’s category.
b.Anyone may run “up”in a more difficult Category.
c.The first and third leg runners may be the same person. Only the first leg counts towards Club points.

There is a table showing the ages for each category -

WOMENS Junior : F10,12,14,16 MENS Junior : M10,12,14,16
WOMENS Elite : F18,20,21+,35+ MENS Elite : M18,20,21+,35+,40+
WOMENS Master : F40+,45+,50+,55+ MENS Masters : M45+,50+,55+,60+
WOMENS Veteran : F60+,65+,70+,75+,80+,85+ MENS Veteran : M65+,70+,75+,80+,85+

Forming a Relay Team. There are two options for forming a team:

1.By “Choice”:
a.Competitors may choose teams from their club,friends, families, or just anyone.
b.Teams may be entered online into a Relay Google Sheet. A link will be provided on the BAOC Tahoe 2021 website.
c.Team entries must be finalized before 11 pm on Saturday, August 7, including running order.

2.By “Seeded Draw”:

a.Competitors who wish to run on teams with members of similar ability
and against other teams of similar ability may enter the “Draw”.
This option may be selected on the Relay Google Sheet.
b.Competitors who wish the Organizers to place them in a team should also enter the “Draw”.
c.The Organizers will use the US Nationals Middle Championship race to seed these
competitors into pools of similar ability.
d.Seeded teams will be assembled by public random draw from the
seeding pools at the dinner on Saturday August 7at Northstar, and added to
the online Google sheet immediately.
e.Teams may alter the order of their runners until 11 pm after the dinner on Saturday August 7.
Only the running order may be changed, not the runners themselves.



The seeding system, Pools and the Draw for Relay Teams:

1. The purpose is to establish competitive relay teams of runners with similar abilities.
2. The US Nationals Middle Championship will be the only race used for seeding.
3. Each runner’s “normalized pace” will be calculated using the formula:
P= T / (L + C/100)
where P= “normalized pace” [min/km]
T = time on the course [min]
L = course straight-line length [km]
C = course climb [m]

4. For each Relay Category, runners will be ranked based on their normalized pace. Any DNF/ DSQ / MSP / SWD or extra runners will be inserted manually by the Organizers.
5. The Organizers will form seeded Pools using the rankings in the Categories. Sparse categories may be merged.
6. The Draw for Relay Teams will be by selection from each Pool. The Draw will be held at the dinner on Saturday August 7 at Northstar.
7. If any Pool has a number of runners that is not divisible by 3, the Organizers will add a runner or two to that Pool from a separate list of “volunteer” runners, taking care to assign runners in accordance with the purpose in 1 above.Volunteers should make themselves known to the Organizers by emailing the Registrar by selecting that option in the online Relay Google Sheet. A Volunteer may be permitted to run the first AND third relay legs for their team if that is needed–please indicate if you are willing to run two legs.

The Scottish system for awarding points:

1.The winner of a race receives 1000 points.

2.Other runners receive points relative to the Winner inversely proportional to their relative time. For example, if the winner takes 33 minutes and receives 1,000 points, a runner taking 44 minutes will receive 1000 * 33/44 = 750 points.

3.A DNF / DSQ / MSP / SWD receives zero points

What

Summary below:

In an effort to make this event fun and incorporate as much head to head competition as possible, the announced rules allow runners to form 3 person male or female teams within one of 4 age groups (Junior/Open/Master/Veteran).

You are NOT restricted to forming up teams from within your own club - join friends, family etc and build up a team by 'Choice' or enter the draw to be placed on a 'Seeded' team with others of similar ability.

Runners will be 'seeded' based on their result in the US Nationals Middle race to be held two day prior. Each runner, regardless of which relay team they run on, will earn points for their leg based on the Scottish System that will then go towards their primary clubs Championship totals. The top 5 scorers for each OUSA club will determine the Club Relay Championship regardless of which relay team you run on.

I understood the write-up of the rules I just couldn't believe it was a serious posting.

This sounds like a lot of extra work for the organizers.

Not a problem. They're subcontracting that to the IRS.

Never mind the relay. Are there course distances for the other days somewhere???

Thank you Christina. Myself, I assumed it was a serious posting. But I enjoyed your your honest reaction or deadpan humor, whichever it was -- the Scottish System certainly seems to be an over-the-top system. That being said, thank you organizers, and keep up the good work. And relays are tons of fun no matter how you slice them.

That system is NOT the Scottish system that I’m familiar with anyway. I’ve never run a relay with runners NOT part of my club and been competitive.
The scoring method of x points awarded is however familiar

I believe the reference to Scottish System was strictly to the scoring method for seeding, not the overall format.

It says pretty clearly that the Scottish System is to assign points for the Club Competition ...

Club competition computation:
1.The top 5 runners’ points from each Club count towards the Club’s total points.
2.The Scottish system (see below) will be used to assign Club points for each leg of the relay.

It is Not for Seeding, it is Not for determining who gets to be on an official team. I think the thing that makes it Scottish is that the winner gets 1000 points.

Since the courses are forked, runners who are nominally doing the same course will not actually be doing the exact same course/controls. Will everyone doing the same nominal course (according to their category) be ranked in one list for assignment of points (using the Scottish system), or will each forking combination be ranked as a separate course? I assume the former, since doing the latter might mean a runner might only be ranked against one or two other runners (or even none), depending upon the forking system. Of course, this would make it quite important that the forkings are equivalent in difficulty/time, but it is better than the problem of small statistics and the potential distorting effect that could have on the points.

You're overthinking this. Get a map, go find controls. Unusual method for determining start times. Is somebody keeping score? Whatever.

The KISS rule is blatantly violated, change it before it is too late, please!

The complicated calculations are for the Club Championships. The idea is to reward the club with the best orienteers, regardless of the teams they are on.

The Team championships will be won by the three people in each class who don't mispunch and run the course in the shortest time, as usual. Read the map, find the controls, and run smart, like always.

If you have a team that wants to run together, don't worry about the seeding.

I thought Relay is a Club Championship. But it sounds more like a Team Championship. So, where is a club spirit?! Lost in translation I guess.

I did some looking at the entries and I counted about 20 teams that can be legit club teams with all members running in their correct category. I am sure there are several more one-club teams that can be made with one or two people running "up." (In my tiny club's case, for example: 1 M 40+, 1 F 50+, 1 F 60+ ... we'll run the Mens Master class but at least we're running as a club!).
Whatever, it will be fun.

DVOA is planning to enter club-teams too, in the Age Gender categories (until we to N mod 3) - like OK, we'll be doing some 'running up' as well.