USSA Alpine Masters Series Scoring Tools – User’s Guide
Author: Deborah Lewis
Date:
The series scoring tools provide specialized scoring services for race series events. The series scoring tools are launched from the Race Scoring Tool, using the operations in the Scoring menu.
The Combined Scoring Tool is used to run a variety of scoring algorithms to compute multi-race combined event standings. This tool allows you to specify the races to include in the combined event, the scoring system to use, and generate combined standings reports.
The Season Scoring Tool is available in releases of the masters race scoring software which have been configured to support specific division race organization conventions and season scoring algorithms. As for combined events, the season scoring allows you to specify which races in the season race calendar to include in the season standings scoring and the scoring system to use to generate the season standings reports.
Basic Concepts
The scoring tools use the race results data from selected events in a race series to compute the standings for a combined event. A variety of scoring formulas are supported and competitor standings can be computed relative to several different groupings of the race results data.
Scoring formulas can be based on any of the following values:
- time
- race points
- (old) World Cup points [25, 20, 15, 12, 11, …, 1 for the top 15 finishers]
- Divisions Cup points [5, 4, 3, 2, 1 for the top 5 finishers]
Scoring formulas based on derivations of the basic scoring
values can also be used, e.g., adjusted time value can be used, such as in the
Bernard Cup age handicapping system used by the
Standings can be computed for various groupings of the competitors in the event:
- by class
- by gender (all men, all women)
- national group (group A, B, C, D)
- 3-way national group (A/B younger men, C women, D older men)
- by affiliation
- by all racers
The groupings that are actually supported for a specific combined event will depend on the competitor classes that were used and the course arrangements of the races being scored. Standings by class are always supported. Overall standings across all competitors is supported only if each race in the series used a course arrangement such that all competitors were on a single course. Similarly, computing standings by gender requires that all men were on the same course in each race of the series and all women similarly on the same course in each race (possibly a single course for everyone, of course). Standings by national groups are supported when the standard 5-year national masters age classes are used. Affiliation is currently used only for Divisions Cup scoring.
In order to ensure that competitor results are properly correlated when computing combined standings, a list of all competitors in the race series is maintained. The scoring tools provide facilities for editing and updating the series racer list and for checking that racer results in specific events are associated with the correct competitor when the event standings are computed. The tools and checking facilities allow you to detect and resolve common data validation issues such as minor differences in racer names in the entry lists from different races of the series or racers competing with different bib numbers over the course of the series.
Managing the Racer List
The series racer list is used by the scoring tools to assist in checking and correlating racer results from the scored races in an event to ensure that a competitor’s results in each racer are properly associated with the racer. The series racer list is used to support checking facilities which assist you in detecting and resolve common data validation issues such as minor differences in racer names in the entry lists from different races of the series or racers competing under different bib numbers over the course of the series.
As discussed in subsequent sections, the series racer list
can be prepared at the beginning of the race series by loading competitor
information from an external source, edited manually to maintain individual
competitor information over the course of the race series, or updated using racer
information from specific race results while doing event scoring.
Understanding the Racer List
The information about a competitor which is maintained in the series racer list consists of:
- name – the racer’s first and last names
- class – gender and age class
- bib – the racer’s bib number
- birth year – used to ensure correct age class (optional)
- affiliation – the division in which the racer competes (optional)
- USSA license number – the USSA number of the racer (optional)
Bib number is used to identify and track the racers in the series. The bib number used in the series racer list may correspond to actual bib numbers used by the competitors in the races of the series, but this is not always the case.
For race series which are organized by divisions in which a permanent bib number is assigned to members, the bib number for division racers is known in advance and is consistent across the events in the series. Similarly, single-site events such as the annual national championships assign bibs to competitors that they use in all races of that event.
In other cases, however, the bib number used by a competitor may not be the same in all the races of the series. Some divisions assign bibs at registration for each event, so a competitor may compete with many bib numbers over the course of the season. Temporary or visiting racers from out of division typically have arbitrarily assigned bib numbers in individual races. Racers may compete using multiple bib numbers in a race series such as the National Speed Series, in which events of the series are organized by different divisions. For these and other reasons, it is often the case that the tracking bib number in the series racer list is unrelated to the physical bib number worn by the competitor in an actual race.
When you do the scoring for a race series, you need to understand how actual bib numbers in the scored races of the series correspond to the tracking bib number in the series racer list. The checking and validation services in the scoring tools will assist you in detecting and handling correlation problems to ensure that race results are properly associated with the correct competitor in the event scoring. The tools do a reasonably good job of ensuring that possible problems are resolved, but you need to pay attention and double-check occasionally to ensure that odd cases are properly resolved.
Birth year is not required, but when known it can be used to ensure that the racer’s age class is correct. Division affiliation is not required, but when known is used by some scoring formulas (e.g., the Divisions Cup scoring system is based on racer results by division). The USSA license number can be used to infer division affiliation if available.
Note: We may at some point wish to manage racer lists in
which USSA license number is required and is used as the unique racer identifier
for the series competitors, rather than the current identification mechanism
based on bib number. However, in most race series there are many
situations in which USSA number is not available or not required, so for now we
maintain this solely as optional information.
Editing the Racer List
The Competitors Editor, shown in Figure 1, allows you to review and maintain the series racer list. The racer list editor can be opened from any of the race scoring tools.
Figure 1. Editing the Racer List
The racer list editor displays a list of all competitors in the series racer list. You can add new racers, remove racers from the list, or edit the information about a racer using the operations in the Racer menu.
The racer list can be sorted by competitor name, by bib number, by racer age, or by age class. The Find operation locates a competitor in the list by their bib number or the first few characters of their last name.
Initializing the Racer List
When you are working with a race series such as a division season race series or a single-site event such as the national championships, where registered competitors have pre-assigned bib numbers, it can be useful to initialize the series racer list to load the available competitor information prior to processing any race results and doing event scoring.
For divisions which assign permanent bib numbers to their members, a master list of the registered racers can be used to initialize the season racers list. This is typically done in one of two ways:
- utility software which can generate the racer list definition file automatically, using information such as a membership database to automate the process
- magic
Definition: magic
- by some unspecified means a suitable data file in the series racer list CSV
format drops out of the sky into your race series data director and away you
happily go with your season scoring. In
practice it turns out that this can be done manually using a text editor, if
your racer list isn’t too large, or by extracting data from a spreadsheet or database
containing the necessary values into suitable CSV entries and an appropriate
header section…
For a single-site event such as the national championships in which competitors are assigned bib numbers for the event, the racer list can be initialized by importing competitor information from the race registration data. To import competitor information from an external source, invoke the Import Racers operation to open the Load Racers import tool.
Figure 2. Importing Competitors into the Racer List
As shown in Figure 2, importing racer information is similar to loading race result information in the Race Scoring Tool. Use the file browser button labeled … (to the right of the Input File(s) item) to select the data file to be imported. After you have set the timing data file location, the contents of the raw timing data being imported is displayed in the Timing Data text pane.
If you are importing a SkiData file, the Column Order list is updated to display the field order of values in a SkiData competitor entry line – this helps you determine which field to update if you need to correct a competitor entry in order to successfully perform the import operation. If you want the timing data loader to attempt to resolve a StartGroupCode value in the nationality/team field to determine the competitor’s class, enable the Start Group Codes check box and use the … browse button to select the start-group-to-class mappings to use for this import operation.
When you have finishing specifying the source data for the racer list, press the Import button to initiate the load operation. As shown in Figure 3, a Competitor Reconciliation window is opened to display the list of new competitors who can be added to the series racer list. The list on the left contains all the racers identified in the import source data who are not already in the series racer list. The list of the right contains the competitors who are already registered in the series racer list. (When initializing the racer list for the first time, the racer list on the right is empty.)
Figure 3. Importing Competitors into the Racer List
(reconciliation)
Press the Add all>> button to add all unregistered competitors to the series racer list. If you wish to review any entries, you can use the standard series racer list editing operations. Press the Save Changes button to update the series racer list.
If the event registration data is contained in multiple source files, rather than being available in a single master entry list, you may need to repeat the racer list import operation to finish initializing the racer list. If so, you might wish to watch out for possible duplicate entries. The reconciliation tool will detect duplication or inconsistencies in most cases, but sometimes there can be differences in name or bib number that you will have to notice and resolve on a case-by-case basis.
Combined Event Scoring
The Combined Event Scoring tool, shown in Figure 4, allows you to create a combined event, specify the races to use in the combined scoring, and compute the combined standings using any of a variety of scoring formulas.
Figure 4. Combined Event Scoring Tool
When you run the Combined Event Scoring Tool, it opens on the combined event you were last working with in the tool. The name of the race series on which the event is based and the RaceData directory containing the series data are displayed at the top of the window.
The names of the combined events for scoring races in the series are contained in the Combined Event list. A description of the currently selected event is displayed, along with the list of races from the series which are being scored for this combined event.
You can:
- work with the currently selected combined event
- switch to a different combined event
- create a new combined event
For a combined event, you can:
- define the races to be scored for the combined
- validate the consistency of the data for the scored races
- compute and view the combined standings
Switching between Combined Events
To switch to a different combined event, simply select its name in the list of combined events defined in this race series.
Creating a New Combined Event
To create a new combined event, press the New.. button to the right of the list of combined events.
Figure 5. Creating a new Combined Event
The properties of a combined event are:
Event Name – the name of the combined event. This should be a reasonably succinct but descriptive name by which you refer to this event
File name – the short name of the combined event which is used as an element in forming file names for the event data and reports. This should usually be a modified version of the descriptive name you have specified, e.g., drop out spaces and make sure there are no special characters that the file system doesn’t allow in file names.
Description – a short comment about the event
Classes – the age class system used for event scoring
Defining the Scored Races
A combined event is scored using the results of one or more races in the race series. To include a race in the combined event scoring, use the Add… operation in the Series menu and select the race that you want to include in the event scoring.
After adding a race, you should use the Validate operation to run consistency checks on the race result data. If there are any apparent problems that may cause difficulties or incorrect results when the series scoring is run, you will be presented with a validation result where you can review and resolve the issues to ensure that each competitor’s results in the race will be properly correlated when the event standings are computed.
Validating the Consistency of Series Race Results
Validating the race result data is done to ensure that all competitors in the race are registered in the series racer list. Problems or inconsistencies reported by the validation operation are issues you must resolve in order to ensure that racer results are correlated with the correct racer when the combined standings are computed.
The consistency checking mechanisms tend to turn up a variety of problems: racers who are not yet registered in the series racer list, inconsistent entry of racer names in the race data, racers who compete under different bib numbers, racers who are registered in the incorrect age class, etc. The validation report attempts to distinguish between straightforward cases that are generally easy to resolve and more difficult cases where the validation utility is unable to recommend a probably resolution.
As shown in Figures 6-8, the Race Result Reconciliation Report displays the competitors in the race who need to be reviewed and correlated with the correct racer in the series racer list. The racer list is displayed in the top section of the window, so that you can easily check the known racers, while the bottom section contains one or more tab panes in which the problem racer entries from the race data are reported.
Figure 6 shows the report for inconsistent bib numbers. A competitor result in the race being validated is reported as an inconsistent bib number if a racer with the same name and class is already registered in the racer list under a different bib number. In most cases, these problems are the result of racers competing under temporary bib numbers or differing bib numbers in the series. Review the reported bib inconsistencies and use the Accept operation to confirm the recommended racer association for all entries that appear to be correct.
Figure 6. Race Result Validation – bib problems
If you determine that the suggested racer association is not correct, you can use the Associate… operation to select the correct racer from the series list or you can add the competitor as a new entry in the racer list using the New… operation.
Figure 7 shows the report for inconsistent names. A competitor result in the race being validated is reported as having an inconsistent name if a racer with the same bib number and class is already registered in the racer list under a different name. In most cases, these problems are the result of typos or minor differences in how a racer name was entered in the race data. Review the reported name inconsistencies and use the Accept operation to confirm the recommended racer association for all entries that appear to be correct.
Figure 7. Race Result Validation – name problems
If you determine that the suggested racer association is not correct, you can use the Associate… operation to select the correct racer from the series list or you can add the competitor as a new entry in the racer list using the New… operation.
Figure 7 shows an example of both types of these problems. The first entry occurs because Reed Robinson’s name was misspelled as Reid in the race data; this correlation should be accepted. The second entry is trickier to resolve and has actually occurred as a result of a previously assigned bib of a registered race was used by a different competitor in this racer; to resolve this, you need to check the racer list to determine whether Miroslav Malkovsky is already registered under a different bib or if you need to add him to the list.
Note that the latter case is actually a bib inconsistency, but was reported as an inconsistent name problem because the racer with that bib number happened to be in the same class; if the registered racer was in a different class the validation checking would probably have been able to report this problem accurately as a case of an unregistered racer. Because the validation recommendations are occasionally incorrect, as in this case, you should always review them before accepting the suggested association.
Figure 8 shows the report for unregistered racers. A competitor result in the race being validated is reported as being unregistered if the validation logic cannot find a registered racer of this name in the correct age class.
Figure 8. Race Result Validation – unrecognized racer
problems
Unregistered racer entries typically need to be checked somewhat carefully to determine the correct action to take. In the simplest case, the competitor really is a new racer who is not already in the series racer list – after checking to confirm verify that there is not already a racer with this name or bib number, you can use the Add… operation to add the competitor to the list.
Tip: Before adding a
new entry to the series race for a competitor in the race results, sort the
racer list by name and search on the first few letters of their last name to
ensure that the racer isn’t already in there under some slightly different
version of their name that the validation software wasn’t sufficiently clever
to be able to detect.
If the racer really is already registered, use the Associate… operation to select the correct racer from the series list. This situation tends to occur in division races when a competitor in the open/elite class races under a different bib number than the one under which they are registered.
The second entry in Figure 8 demonstrates another situation that can occur, although hopefully relatively infrequently: an age class inconsistency between the registered racer information and the class in which the race competed. (Observe that this racer is registered as being in class 5 but is listed in class 6 in the race results data). Resolving this situation often requires research to check on the real age of the competitor. If the age class (or birth year) is incorrect in the series racer list, you should edit the racer list entry. If the racer actually competed in the wrong class, it’s messier – you have to go back to the race results and determine whether or how to correct them.
Tip: you can fudge the
issue by making what is essentially a duplicate entry for this racer to track
this incorrect-class result – make a new entry with the (incorrect) class from
the racer data and fiddle the racer’s name to add some sort of flag annotation
that you will recognize as a “something was funny here” entry. At some point, you should revisit this and
attempt a correct resolution, of course, but this workaround at least lets you
proceed with the event scoring for the moment.
After making the corrections to resolve some or all of the reported problems, save your changes. Then run the validation operation on this race one more time to ensure that you haven’t missed anything.
Computing Combined Standings
Before computing the standings for a combined event, you should use the Validate All operation to run consistency checks on the result data of the scored races. If you have validated race data as each scored race was brought in, you shouldn’t have any issues to resolve. However, this is a useful double-check to ensure that racer results will be properly correlated with the competitors registered in the series racer list.
To compute the combined event standings, select the scoring system to be used from the check boxes at the bottom of the Combined Event Scoring tool and invoke the Generate Reports operation. The event standings will be computed for all organizations of the competitors that are reasonable given the race class system in use and the course arrangements of the races included in the scoring.
Standings by class can always be computed, with the exception of the affiliation-based Divisions Cup scoring. Overall standings across all competitors can only be computed when all competitors raced on the same course in all events of the series. Standings by gender can be computed if all competitors raced on the same course or there were separate course split by men/women. Standings by national group can only be computed when the standard 5-year national classes are used; it is not supported for division age class systems with different age class age ranges or ability class groups (the open/elite/super seed classes).
Combined event standings reports are generated in a very simple text format (e.g., suitable for pasting into a results article in a newsletter) and in HTML format for publishing on a web site. The HTML format makes it very easy to publish event results on the internet – just copy the relevant report files onto your web site and update the master results page to add suitable links.
Combined standings reports can be viewed using the View operations in the Report menu or by browsing the SeriesReports subdirectory of the race series storage directory under the RaceData directory of the scoring software installation.
Season Standings Scoring
[to be described later… Season standings scoring is very similar to
combined event scoring – you bring up the scoring tool, add the races from the
season race series that to be scored to the season standings list, validate the
race results against the season racer list to ensure that competitor results
are properly correlated with individual racers over the course of their season
participation, and generate the standings report using an appropriate season
scoring formula. Season standings
schemes are different in each division, so the Season Scoring Tool has to be
customized in specific division configurations of the scoring software]
Contact Information
Director of Race Services and Scoring,
Email: djlewis@acm.org
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