NGS for pairs event with substitute
In a club pairs on RealBridge, one of the players had to withdraw during the event after losing their internet connection. As there was a non-playing director, he substituted for the missing player for the rest of the event. The change of player occurred during the 6th of 20 boards.
Is there a way in which this event can be scored correctly for the NGS? The XML file from RealBridge seems to show the substitute playing all of the boards.
Comments
As per the Skyblue Book, the player (here the sub-in director) is graded based on all 20 boards, not just the ones he played. However, the TD does have the option to exempt himself from grading in the normal fashion, and in my view his partner could also choose to opt out. There are no specific guidelines on this sort of exemption, but this would certainly be ok if agreed at the time of substitution.
All that said, there is a way to do what you're suggesting, albeit not within the EBU regulations. First, upload the full results using code 12 so as to include masterpoints but not the NGS. Then, in the XML file, save 2 copies and in the first copy remove boards 6/7 to 20; If you put this into BBO to XML, it will recalculate the scores automatically. In this file, change the name to the withdrawing player. In the 2nd copy, remove boards 1 to 6/7. You should now have 2 files, one for pre-substitution and one for post-substitution, with no overlapping boards. Submit both files under code 08 to My EBU which ensures that there is no additional UMS charge but NGS will be applied (make sure you turn off masterpoints).
I hope this helps!
The Sky-Blue Book regulations were meant to regularize what BBO did - so the TD who played more than half the boards is identified as 'the' player in that seat for master points and NGS. I imagine this is what RealBridge does - although the lin data in the XML may show the actual players who played each board.
The Sky Blue book (3.2) says that 'if a substitute player does play half the boards, they will appear in the final ranking list'. It doesnt say what happens to NGS.
Imagine a scenario where a player withdraws at a point when their score is 20%. You might have difficulty persuading a sub to take over if the boards that have already been played will count to their NGS ranking...
That's one reason why we are fortunate to have robots who don't care about their NGS.
"Appear in the final ranking list" includes having the score processed for NGS.
Thanks Gordon for clarifying the rules.
I was the TD and substitute player in the scenario I mentioned. I could not use a robot as we were playing on RealBridge. It seems a bit harsh that my reward for acting as sub is to be credited with a series of poor results on boards that I did not play. C'est la vie.
I sympathise, but of course 6 boards are not going to have much effect on your NGS.