World English-Language Scrabble Players Association

TOURNAMENT INFO

Committee Chair: Nick Ivanovski

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ABOUT TOURNAMENTS

WESPA's Scrabble Calendar is a truly global one - the tournament schedule is co-ordinated by the Tournament & Rating Committee and sets the rating criteria for tournaments on the World circuit.

Tournaments are Open to all players without discrimination (Invitational events will be screened by the committee on a case-by-case basis, provided that qualification and/or selection method is conducted in a transparent manner and based either on WESPA or domestic ratings, i.e. Masters event, etc)

Tournaments are to be played to the current version of WESPA tournament rules (WESPA Rules V3), except where variations have been permitted by prior arrangement with WESPA. Organisers must pay the WESPA ratings levy (currently US$1 per player for members and $2 otherwise, subject to a minimum of U$20). Organisers must make available to WESPA all relevant documentation and publicity material including but not limited to: application form, tournament flyers, etc.

Tournaments meeting the following criteria will be eligible for WESPA rating as International Tournaments:

The World Championships,
(a) Any International tournaments awarding a top prize of U$2500 or more;
(b) OR attracting significant level of international participation (no more than 60% of participants from any one country);
Team tournaments between countries.
Tournaments ancillary to, and organised in conjunction with, those eligible under points 1 to 3 above.

In addition, WESPA will offer to rate a certain number of local tournaments that do not meet the criteria for International Tournaments, subject to the following criteria.

NOTE: Submissions for rating local events may be approved by the TRC on a case-by-case basis even if all criteria are not strictly met. Please contact your regional TRC representative or the TRC chair if you have any questions.

The national association in whose jurisdiction the tournament will be played must have WESPA membership, and must support the application for the tournament to be WESPA rated;
(a) Any number of NASPA CSW15 tournaments played in North America are eligible;
(b) outside North America:
i) Class 1 members of WESPA may hold a maximum of 8 such tournaments in a calendar year
ii) Class 2 members of WESPA may hold a maximum of 4 such tournaments in a calendar year
Tournaments must be played under the current version of WESPA Rules (including the word source specified therein), or under national rules if this has been agreed in advance with WESPA;
Payment of the applicable tournament levy (US$1 per participant, subject to a minimum of U$20);
Tournaments where zero players have a WESPA rating are unable to be properly rated. Please liaise with the Tournament and Rating Committee (TRC) for any guidance.
Organisers must make available to WESPA all relevant documentation and publicity material as mentioned above under International Tournaments

GUIDELINES FOR ORGANIZERS

Before the Event

If you would like to stage an internationally rated tournament, first check the Criteria for WESPA Rated Tournaments to determine if it is likely to be eligible. If you believe it to be exempt from application, forward details direct to the tournament & ratings committee chair for inclusion on the calendar.

Applications for rating a specific event which is not exempt are to be forwarded to your region representative or the Tournament and Rating Committee chair using this form. Consult the "Apply for Rating" Tab for more information.

Once approval is obtained, check that your tournament appears on the International Calendar. If it does not appear within one week, contact the webmaster. WESPA can provide promotional assistance where tournaments are submitted with enough lead time to the event taking place. Dedicated webpages greatly assist with this. In addition, it is advisable, though not a requirement, to make a list of registered players available when known.

After the Event

Results of the event in the form of a tournament file (*.tou) should be emailed the WESPA Ratings Officer Bob Jackman as soon as possible after completion of the tournament.

For players who have competed internationally before, their names in the file must match those on the current ratings file to avoid them being treated as new players. If you are using the TSH software developed by John Chew, you should follow the Instructions for TSH Users in order to ensure the correct process, including name checking, is followed when exporting to the requisite *.tou file.

Both TSH users who do not run the name check and Aupair users should run a ‘TouFile Check’ to check the *.tou file against the existing ratings file and produce a list of exceptions. These should all be new players to the system.

The WESPA Ratings Ratings Officer must be provided with the nationalities of players new to the Ratings system at the time the *.tou file is sent.

Changes of nationalities or spellings of existing players should also be provided.

A levy must be forwarded to WESPA immediately after the tournament. The WESPA ratings levy is $US1 per player for member Associations of WESPA, and $US2 per player for non-member Associations. The minimum total levy is $US20. You must have a Paypal account and submit your levies via Paypal to the WESPA treasurer, Jason Broersma

Contact Jason if you have any queries regarding the payment of the ratings

APPLY FOR RATING

Applications for rating a specific event must be forwarded to your region representative (or chair) on the Tournament and Rating Committee (TRC) using this form.

Please ensure your application is sent in with sufficient notice to be promoted to the wider Tournament Scrabble Community. Your application should have as much of the information as possible included in your submission - the more information provided, the more likely players visiting this site will click for information.

Once the application has had WESPA rating confirmed, the information is provided to the WESPA webmaster for inclusion on the WESPA website, as part of the Tournament Calendar. As the event approaches, it will also feature on the homepage, under the lower category WESPA TOURNAMENTS.

For all general tournament rating enquiries, you can contact the tournament & ratings committee chair or webmaster