Logos, Banner by KaitlinB and Tom45.

Steering Committee members:
      Permanent Members:  DaveTheRook (chair), BosqueVerde, chesskix, rgadoury
      General Members:  A-Ru, bmw2002, f5, Gomer, Kingofknights

Standing Subcommittee (Rules):
      rgadoury (chair), bmw2002, BosqueVerde, chesskix, f5/fpawn, KingofKnights

Standing Subcommittee (Technology):
     bmw2002 (chair), AlPearson, BosqueVerde, chesskix, DaveTheRook, fledermaus, Gomer, rgadoury

The role and purpose of the Steering Committee is to manage the affairs of the league, to set its direction and expansion, see to its advertisement and management, writing the Constitution, Statutes and Handbooks, and reviewing the rulings of the previous Oversight Committee. This is the ultimate governing body of Team 45 45 League with all rights and responsibilities. (Article III of the League Constitution)

League Members may stay informed of potential rules changes by watching this page. Prior to voting results being displayed here, members may make their comments known by notifying any Steering Committee member, who may choose to forward your comments to the Steering Committee. The Committee members will not disclose any details of the Committee discussions.

Item 1 - T34 Tournament Parameters - Approved
Item 2 - Modification of Contact Rules - Approved
Item 3 - Adding 3rd place teams to Playoff Considerations - NOT Approved
Item 4 - Clarification of Rule for rescheduling after disconnect - Approved
Item 5 - Automatic Punitives for Derogatory Comments - NOT Approved
Item 6 - Allow Appeal of Non-Card?  - NO
Admin Rule 6 - Handling of Appeal by Committee Members
Item 7 - Limitations on Appeals - Approved
Admin Rule 7 - Majority OC vote required to overturn TD rulings on Game Rusults
Item 8 - Limitations on Ratings ranges of teams: New TieBreak and New Floor - Approved
Item 9 - Editorial Revisions to reflect Item 2 changes - Approved
Item 10 - Clarification of "an offer" and Consequences for not meeting it. - Approved
Item 11 - Remove from Statutes all referenced to other ICS. - Approved

Item 1.  T34 tournament parameters
Submitted by the Chief TD; 5 June 2007

Time Control: 45 45
Sections: 5 (U2200, U2000, U1800, U1600, U1300)
Rounds: 6 - (possibly 7) followed by Playoffs

Team entries accepted: June 26th, 2007 - July 10th, 2007.
Team Entry Deadline: July 10th, 2007.
Ratings "fixed" starting June 5th, 2007.
(Some ratings may be adjusted by the Entry Clerk)

Round 1 Posted: 22:00 July 17th, 2007.
Three rounds of playoffs will end September 25th, 2007.

Tiebreak rules start with board 4 this tournament.

Approved - 9 yes, 0 no; 6 June, 2007
 

Item 2.  Modifications of the contact requirements.  
Submitted by the Rules Subcommittee; 8 June 2007

Features of this proposal:

1. Offers must be made for the week of the round (i.e. Cannot ask for adjournment without offering some non-adjourned times)
2. Offers must be on at least two days.
3. Anything within three hours is considered one offer.  (e.g. 07:00, 07:30, and 09:00 is a three hour span, so constitutes only one offer)
4. Anything more than three hours away is considered more than one offer.  (e.g. 07:00 – 11:00 is more than a three hour span, so constitutes two offers.)
5. Once both players have made their three offers, successive offers need NOT include at least three more.
6. Strengthens the language stating that players are not required to accept an adjournment offer, nor shall they receive any partial blame for not doing so.

Section 10 - Scheduling Procedures

3. Contact Procedures - Each player shall make contact with his/her opponent via Game Forum posts as soon as possible in order to negotiate a time to play.
   1. The player who initiates this dialog shall specify three or more distinct times to play on at least two different days within the one-week playing period of the round.  A range of times, or several distinct times within a three-hour period, counts as one offer. If a player offered 20:00-22:00 Monday, the other player could accept any time within that range, and be binding on both players. The accepted time, however, must be exact, such as 20:30.  While not required, it is helpful if the first player acknowledges the agreed time, e.g. "Great. See you Monday at 8:30 p.m. 20:30 server time." ¶ SC 26-27.
   2. The recipient of this initial contact shall either select one of these possible playing times or specify at least three other distinct playing times. times to play, as in (i) above. (NEW)
   3. After each player transmits these his initial contacts, offers, a lesser number of counter offers may be made.   The timeliness and workability of each successive message shall be evaluated by the dTD if a dispute arises.
   4. The back and forth offers should be done within 24 hours of each other, preferably even more quickly.
   5. Once both players have begun contacts, made the required initial offers, the Thursday and Friday deadlines (described next, in 10.D) are no longer applicable. In this case, negotiations can extend to as late as the Game Completion Deadline.
   6. A reasonable amount of time must be allowed between the acceptance of an offer and the accepted time, in order for the second person to react. 24 hours is considered reasonable. To be binding on both players, an offer accepted less than 24 hours before game time must be confirmed by the offerer. (This means, if I make an offer and you accept it less than 24 hours before the game time, I must confirm your acceptance, or I cannot be held to my initial offer). SC23-24.
   7. Exception to the 24-hour acceptance/confirmation guideline: Should a player offer a time that is within 24 hours of the time of the post, and it be accepted, it is presumed that he intended to honor it even if he did not see the acceptance, unless he places restrictions on the time of acceptance (e.g."I can play at 5 pm tonight, if you respond by noon"), absence of either player at the “agreed” time will result in a forfeit.”  ¶ SC 29-30
   8. Adjourned games (See section 14): No player is required to accept a request to play an adjourned game, nor will any blame be assigned (nor motives be questioned) for refusing to do so. Initial requests to play an adjourned game must also include appropriate offers for times within the one-week of the round, or partial blame will be assigned. The intent and purpose of this rule is to reinforce the league expectation that players are to be available to play within the one-week period of the round, or be withheld from that round’s board assignments by the captain. Adjourned games are only scheduled when times cannot be agreed upon and both players want to play in the adjournment week. (NEW)

Section 14 - Adjournment Procedures

1. The term "adjourned game" has two separate a distinct meanings within Team 45 45 League.
   1. ICS adjournment has the meaning used by the ICS programming and applies to games that have been started, but are not completed.
   2. T45L adjournment has the meaning of a game that has not been completed, and has been delayed past the Game Completion Deadline for the round the game is to be played. T45L adjourned games may include ICS adjourned games.
   3. If the term "adjourned" is used in any context without the specification of which of the two definitions it applies to, it will be the T45L adjournment definition.
2. The following conditions must be met at the time of the Game Completion Deadline to have the game declared adjourned:
   1. The game shall be still pending and not designated as forfeit or set game,
   2. Both players shall agree to adjourn the game,
   3. The time and day the game is to be played is set, and this time and day shall not be past the Game Completion Deadline for the following round.
   4. The Tournament Director shall be informed by the Game Completion Deadline by both players (or their Team Captains) of the adjourned status, and the time and day the game will be played.
3. An adjourned game shall be counted as a draw for the purpose of determining seed order for a position round.
4. The deadline to complete adjourned games in the final round of regulation play shall be 22:00 server time of the Sunday following the Game Completion Deadline.¶ SC 26-27.

Approved - 9 yes, 0 no; 11 June, 2007

Item 3.  Adding 3rd place teams to playoff consideration in some circumstances.
Suggested by Two-DogMan; 12 June 2007

A player has suggested that 3rd place teams be given consideration as wild cards in the playoffs. The argument is that half the teams are being considered as wild cards for Best Second Place in 4-team divisions, but only two out of six teams (one third) in a 6-team division. As an example, in T33 the third place team in the Angel division had the same record, 4.0 MP, 14.0 GP as the last seed in the Aquatic playoffs, but was dismissed from consideration because it was a third place team.

Rules has drafted the following addition to Section 6.C to cover this proposal.

Section 6.C (New). Qualification and ranking of wild card teams.

i. All ‘Best Second Place’ wild card teams shall be ranked below all Division Champions and seeded according to their records in regulation play.

ii. In any section with a 6-team division, the 3rd place team shall also be eligible for a wild card position and will be ranked along with all second place teams.  (New)

Not Approved -  Yes 2, No 7; 14 June 2007

Item 4. Clarification of the rule on rescheduling a game delayed by disconnections.
Submitted by the Rules Subcommittee, on behalf of the Oversight Committee; 12 June 2007

The Oversight Committee has asked that we consider clarifying the term “reschedule” in Section 11.E.iii when disconnections have delayed the game.

‘It seems that there is a possibility of a misunderstanding in the phrase in Statue 11.E.iii "the offended player may request a set game win, may offer to reschedule at times convenient to him . . ." and the Oversight Committee suggest it should be clarified to indicate whether "reschedule" means the game is continued or restarted. In the <snip> Appeal both interpretations were used in respective arguments and it is viewed that if the Oversight Committee have differing views then the rule certainly needs clarification.’

Several suggestions were made by Rules for how the statute might be clarified. One solution is presented here, in blue. “Resume” is a well understood ICC command.

Section 11.E.iii In other situations that can best be described as technical difficulties, the intent and spirit of the league is that the games be played to a conclusion if possible. However, should a player disconnect for more than 15 minutes (or multiple times totaling 30 minutes), the offended player may request a set game win, may offer to reschedule (resume the game) at times convenient to him, or may choose to continue with the game as originally scheduled. It is expected that players and captains will discuss resolution of affected games with Section 3.B. in mind, and not question the motives of the opponent.

Other phrases that were suggested are:

1. No change.
2. reschedule (resume the game at a later time)
3. reschedule (continue) the game
4. may offer to complete the game at a time convenient to him
5. may offer to resume playing the game at a time convenient to him
6. may offer to schedule resumption of the game at a time convenient to him
7. may resume (reschedule)

Approved - Yes 9, No 0; 17 June 2007
Solution, by a vote of 6-3: "... may offer to resume playing the game at a time convenient to him"

Item 5. Derogatory comments.
Submitted by Rules Subcommittee; 16 June 2007

As the result of a recent appeal the Oversight Committee made the following recommendation.

“It is the recommendation of the Oversight Committee that the Steering Committee consider making it an enforceable regulation that any league participant who makes derogatory remarks in a public forum (channel 345 and finger notes for example) should immediately be given a Yellow Card warning or its cumulative penalty."

Rules addressed this recommendation but could not reach unanimity. Finger notes were strongly objected to by some as a communication to be mentioned, since finger notes also fall under the ICC “atmosphere” policy. With no clear direction from Rules, the following is presented to the full SC.

The SC has several choices. (1) Leave 3.B unchanged. (2) Provide examples of communications. (3) Add Letters of Reprimand to our statutes as something less than the official warning of a yellow card.

(1) Make no changes.

(2) Section 3.B. (Add examples of communications). “Each participant shall behave in a friendly and courteous fashion in all communications (e.g. mail, game forums, games, league channel 345) associated with Team 45 45 League. They shall be diplomatic, truthful and understanding at all times. Each participant will act in a manner that does not disrupt the peaceful enjoyment of this League by the other participants.”

(3) Section 17.B.ii (new) Letters of Reprimand may be written by the Chief TD or the Conference Director to caution members regarding their actions. There is no penalty for a Letter of Reprimand; thus it cannot be appealed.

Result: No Change. ( 7 for #1, 1 for #3, and 1 abstain).

Item 6: "Should we allow an appeal of a non-card, unless there is evidence that the decision-maker has a tainted or personal agenda?
Suggested by the Chief TD, addressing Section 17.E. Appeals: The issuance of any Card except for cheating is subject to appeal. 18, June 2007

Result: 7 no, 1 yes, and 1 abstain; 20 June 2007

Item 6.b.  During SC33-34 The Chief TD issued Administrative Rule 6 in response to questions raised during committee discussions.

Admin Rule 6 - Appeals by Committee Members

“If an Oversight Committee member is given a card, and the carded OC member wishes to appeal, a Special Steering Committee Appeals Subcommittee will be formed to hear the appeal. Precedent and the new rule, summarized.

1. OC member carded, appeal heard by Special Subcommittee of SC.
2. SC member carded, appeal heard by OC.
3. Someone serving on both SC and OC carded, appeal heard by Special Subcommittee of the SC.

 This rule will serve to head off and circumvent any perception of conflict of interest, or favoritism.
June 18, 2007

Item 7. Limitations on appeals.
Requested update by SC member.  24 June 2007

During SC discussion of Item 6 (no appeal of non-card decision), it was suggested that the statutes be clarified on what can and cannot be appealed.

Section 17.E. (Rearranged and amended). Appeals: All appeals are filed with the current Oversight Committee during the tournament, or with the Steering Committee between tournaments.

i. Appeals permitted: (a) The issuance of any Card (yellow, red, double red) except for cheating is subject to appeal may be appealed. (b) Appeals of Reliability Rating reductions are limited to disputes arising from whether or not a game was scheduled and determinations that one player had “greater blame” in the failure to schedule a game that was not played. (c) Incorrect application of the rules concerning board assignments, pairings, set games, or disconnections.

ii. Appeals not permitted: (a) Double Red Cards for cheating—immediate ban. (b) Non-issued cards (yellow, red, double red) in response to a complaint. Complaints are replied to with “Thank you for this information, we will take appropriate action.” Since final resolution is not announced, there is no informed basis for an appeal. (c) Decisions of the Entry Clerk regarding fixed ratings. (d) Admittance to the league refused (disclaimer, et al).

Approved - Yes 9, No 0; 26 June 2007

Item 7.b  During SC33-34 The Chief TD issued Administrative Rule 7 in response to questions raised during committee discussions.

Admin Rule 7 - OC Votes on Appeals of TD Rulings

When there are multiple entities with a stake in a TD ruling (the player’s team, opposing team, and third party teams with appeal privileges), as per Section 15.D of the League Statutes, a majority vote by the Oversight Committee will be required to overturn a TD ruling of a game result. However, this does not affect voting policy for penalty cards. July 1, 2007

Item 8.  In response to member questions, a general discussion of “Should any limits be placed on the range of allowable ratings on teams?”  
Submitted by the Chief TD 18 July 2007

Item 8.a Agenda Item #8 - New TieBreak - has passed by a vote of 7 yes, 1 no, and 1 abstention.
The main purpose of top-loading has been due to our tiebreak system as it is written.  Item 8.a adds a tie-break rule, between #3 and #4 which says that tiebreak #4 is to determine which team has the least no-show and no-contact forfeits, thereby rewarding reliability, and adding a buffer before we get to the dropping of boards.

1. MP
2. GP
3. Fewer RR reductions (new)
4. Boards removed high to low in odd tourneys, low to high in even tourneys.

Item 8.a Editorial Application: New 13.B.ii.4

Section 13 - Standings and Tie-breaks

1. Standings shall be ordered by accumulated Match Points.
2. If teams have equal amounts of Match Points, the following tie-break methods shall be used in order, excluding those that are clearly meaningless:
   1. During the course of the tournament,<snip>
   2. See also 13.I  At the end of the tournament, teams within any division with equal Match Points shall be ranked in order by:
      1. For the situation where two teams are tied for a place:
         1. Game Points,
         2. Head-to-Head Match Points,
         3. Head-to-Head Game Points,
         4. Fewest number of Reliability Rating Reductions--forfeits) ¶ SC33-34
         5. Head-to-Head Match Points modified by removing the results of all Board 4 games,
         6. Head-to-Head Game Points modified by removing the results of all Board 4 games,
         7. Head-to-Head Match Points modified by removing the results of all Board 3 and 4 games,
         8. Head-to-Head Game Points modified by removing the results of all Board 3 and 4 games,
         9. Head-to-Head Match Points modified by removing the results of all Board 2, 3 and 4 games,
         10. Head-to-Head Game Points modified by removing the results of all Board 2, 3 and 4 games, then:
         11. A coin toss by the Tournament Director.
      2. <snip>
3. -  I.  <snip>

Item 8.b.  - Board 4 Ratings Floor - passed by a vote of 7 yes, 1 no, and 1 abstention.

A rating floor where for team average purposes, board 4 (the prospective team's 4th rating to the Entry Clerk) would be counted as 300 points below the section rating limit. For example in the U1600 section for purposes of team eligibility in that section; if the 4th highest rated player on that team had a rating of 1200, it would count as 1300 when calculating the team's average rating.

Item 8.b Editorial Application:  Edits to 4.C, 4.F and 4.G

Section 4 - Team Entry

1. The team's official entry shall be submitted to the Tournament Director by the Team Captain or designated agent no later than the Team Entry Deadline as set by the Steering Committee.
2. A team at entry, and through the course of the tournament, shall have a minimum of 4 players, and a maximum of 6 players.
3. The minimum required information shall be:
   1. Team Name, which shall be moderate in length;
   2. Tournament Section the team wishes to compete in, if qualified. ¶ SC25-26
   3. Which ICS they wish to have as their "Home" server; and
   4. The list of players, their e-mail addresses, and their time zone with respect to GMT
4. Once a player's rating is fixed by the Tournament Director, it shall remain the same for the duration of the tournament, and is called the player's Fixed Rating. The Fixed Ratings shall be used to calculate Team Average Ratings and to determine board order throughout the tournament.
5. Team Average Rating will be calculated using fixed ratings.  after the player's ratings are fixed and shall be the average of the top four rated players on the team.
   1. The Team Average Rating shall be the average of the top four rated players on the team.
   2. Each Section shall have a floor (base) rating 300 rating points below the Section limit. Should the fourth (or higher) highest rating on a team roster be less than the floor rating, the floor rating(s) shall be used for team calculation and Section eligibility purposes. The teams may have players on the roster with ratings lower than the floor rating.
   3. Ratings on each roster are arrayed in descending order. Once a team is entered, if two or more ratings are equal, the captain shall notify the Entry Clerk of the preferred board order. The clerk will change one rating one point to break the tie and force board order. ¶ SC33-34

Item 9.  Editorial revision of Section 15.A. ii to reflect changes per Item 2 of this SC.
Posted 17 July, 2007

Statute 15.A.i and 15.A.ii
A.  A game can be designated as a forfeit when the game is not played, and blame for this can be clearly established on the one of the players. The "offending" player is that player who bears a higher level of blame, the "offended" player is the player who is either blameless in the matter or has a lower level of blame.

Current version, showing markups of proposed changes:

1. Blame can be clearly established when:
   1. The offending player was not present to play during the 30-minute grace period following the Agreed Game Time. ¶ SC 27-28
   2. The offended player sends contact messages to the offending player conforming to the requirements of Section 10 and receives no reply after 72 hours of the Pairing Posting Deadline. ¶ SC 27-28.
   3. The offending player fails to agree to a playing time offered by the offended player when the offending player is required to do so. ¶ SC 11-12.
   4. The offending player refuses to play their designated opponent, regardless of the reason.
2. Two occurrences of partially established blame by one player in regards to one game shall constitute clearly established blame. Blame can be partially established when:
   1. One A player fails to meet the 48 hour contact deadline established in Section 10(A) (D), but makes contact within the next 24 hours agreeing to one of the three times the offended player has set in their original message. ¶ SC 27-28
   2. During the continuing communications, the offending player fails repeatedly to reply in a timely manner as determined by the Tournament Director. ¶ SC 27-28
   3. The offending player sends a message less than 24 hours before the agreed playing time requesting a change of that time. ¶ SC 27-28          <Outdated, as an occurrence of partial blame.  We now have other statutes handling rescheduling.>
      
      New ii.c:
      c.  A player makes offers during the first week, but fails to make three distinct offers as specified in 10(C).
   4. The offending player logs off before the end of the Grace Period. ¶ SC 27-28

New version of 15.A.ii:

2. Two occurrences of partially established blame by one player in regards to one game shall constitute clearly established blame. Blame can be partially established when:
   1. A player fails to meet the 48 hour contact deadline established in Section 10(D), but makes contact within the next 24 hours agreeing to one of the three times the offended player has set in their original message. ¶ SC 27-28
   2. During the continuing communications, the offending player fails repeatedly to reply in a timely manner as determined by the Tournament Director. ¶ SC 27-28
   3. A player makes offers during the first week, but fails to make three distinct offers as specified in 10(C).   ¶ SC 33-34
   4. The offending player logs off before the end of the Grace Period. ¶ SC 27-28

Under our editorial revision policy, unless a SC member wishes to bring it up for further debate, this change will be incorporated into the Statutes in one week.

Effective as of 14 Aug, 2007.

Item 10. Amendments to Section 10.C to clarify how times are to be expressed, and Section 15.ii to define technical violations of 10.C as partial blame.

Introduction. During the first tourney using the new scheduling rules, several questions have arisen. The following proposed changes are presented for full SC debate. 

Section 10 - Scheduling Procedures

1. Overview.  Each round begins as soon as pairings are posted.  <snip>
2. Pairings are Posted.   <snip>
3. Contact Procedures - Each player shall make contact with his/her opponent via Game Forum posts as soon as possible in order to negotiate a time to play.
   1. The player who initiates this dialog shall specify three or more distinct times to play on at least two different days within the one-week playing period of the round.
      1. A range of times, or several distinct times within a three-hour period, counts as one offer.
      2. A range of times greater than 3 hours (e.g. 09:00 – 13:00) is counted as two offers.
      3. If a range is offered (e.g. Saturday 07:00 – 15:00 or “How about Tuesday”), the other player could accept any time within those ranges or on that day (Tuesday 00:00 to 23:45), and be binding on both players. The accepted time, however, must be exact, such as 13:30 Saturday  ¶ SC 33-34.
   2. The recipient of this initial contact shall either select one of these possible playing times or specify at least three other distinct times or ranges to play, as in (i) above. Offers still outstanding by either player may be removed or amended until accepted. ¶ SC 33-34.
   3. After each player transmits these initial offers, a lesser number of counter offers may be made. The timeliness and workability of each successive message shall be evaluated by the dTD if a dispute arises.
   4. The back and forth offers should be done within 24 hours of each other, preferably even more quickly.
   5. Once both players have made the required initial offers, the Thursday and Friday deadlines (described next, in 10.D) are no longer applicable. In this case, negotiations can extend to as late as the Game Completion Deadline. ¶ SC 33-34.
   6. <snip ... 24-hour rule stuff is here>
4. Deadlines for scheduling.   The following two deadlines, <snip>
5. Game Completion Deadline = Tuesday, 22:00 ICC   <snip>
6. The Agreed Game Time and the 30-minute Grace Period.  <snip>
7. Rescheduling Agreed Games, Advance Notice, and Game Not Played  <snip>
8. Time offers are made and accepted in the game forum in text. Once an offer is accepted, the Post Agreed Game Time button will be used to post the time to the programming.  If the Posted time disagrees with the texts, the written texts have priority. The Post Agreed Game Time button may not be used to offer times. However, should an offer be made and the responder, without making any other comment, post one of those times using the button, the Post will be considered to be a binding acceptance on both players.

Section 15 - Forfeits and "set game"

1. A game can be designated as a forfeit when the game is not played, and blame for this can be clearly established on the one of the players. The "offending" player is that player who bears a higher level of blame, the "offended" player is the player who is either blameless in the matter or has a lower level of blame.
   1. Blame can be clearly established when:
      1. The offending player was not present to play during the 30-minute grace period following the Agreed Game Time. ¶ SC 27-28
      2. The offended player sends contact messages to the offending player conforming to the requirements of Section 10 and receives no reply after 72 hours of the Pairing Posting Deadline. ¶SC 27-28.
      3. The offending player fails to agree to a playing time offered by the offended player when the offending player is required to do so. ¶ SC 11-12.   The offending player refuses to play their designated opponent, regardless of the reason.
   2. Two occurrences of partially established blame by one player in regards to one game shall constitute clearly established blame. Blame can be partially established when:
      1. A player fails to meet the 48 hour contact deadline established in Section 10(D), but makes contact within the next 24 hours agreeing to one of the three times the offended player has set in their original message. ¶SC 27-28
      2. A player only partially fulfills the contact requirements of 10(C.i) prior to the 48-hour deadline.
      3. During the continuing communications, the offending player fails repeatedly to reply in a timely manner as determined by the Tournament Director. ¶ SC 27-28
      4. A player makes offers during the first week, but fails to make three distinct offers as specified in 10(C).
      5. The offending player logs off before the end of the Grace Period. ¶SC 27-28
   3. In cases of partially established blame, both players are required to schedule their game in accordance with Section 10. In cases of clearly established blame, the game shall be ruled a forfeit. (SC26-27)
   4. <snip>

Approved - Yes 9, No 0; 18 Aug 2007

Item. 11. Remove other ICS references from our Statutes.
Posted 3 Sept., 2007 for 7-day editorial revision period.

We no longer operate our league on more than one chess server. There are several unneeded references to ICS in our statutes. We propose, under our edit procedures, to remove the references below, and any others that may have been missed. The only reference we need to keep is in Section 3.A.iv, referring to computer usage on other servers.

Unless an SC member raises a question, these changes will become effective 7 days from now.

Section 4 - Team Entry.

3. The minimum required information shall be:
   1. Team Name, which shall be moderate in length;
   2. Tournament Section the team wishes to compete in, if qualified. ¶ SC25-26
   3. Which ICS they wish to have as their "Home" server; and
   4. The list of players, their e-mail addresses, and their time zone with respect to GMT.

Section 5 - Preliminary Rounds (Quad Format).

1. Once the Team Entry Deadline has passed, the Tournament Director shall set each team into the section they requested if they are eligible for that section. The teams will then be separated by ICS.
2. Each of the teams within a Section/ICS group will be assigned a Seed Number starting with the team with the highest Team Average Rating.
3. Divisions shall be formed in the following manner:
   1. 1 team shall be incorporated into another Section/ICS group;
   2. 2 teams. When there are only two teams for a Section on an ICS, those two teams will compete for the Section divisional title by playing a 6-round head-to-head match, following all other procedures as provided for in these Statutes. The winning team shall be declared Section champion and may compete in any cross-server ICS championships. ¶ SC 16-17.

Section 9 - Pairings

4. If the two teams paired against each other are from different ICS's, then the "Home" player shall have the option of playing on the ICS of their choice.

Under our editorial revision policy, unless a SC member wishes to bring it up for further debate, these changes in Item 11 will be incorporated into the Statutes in one week.

Previous SC Agendas: