Mail In Series Guidelines Discussion
I'm starting this thread for people to discuss creating a set of Mail In Race Series guidelines. After a while I hope to get a bunch of info in one spot. Get it organized. Then we can create a sticky or put it in an easy to find place for anybody looking for this information.
Maybe We Could Come Up With A Standard Set Of gUidlines That Every Host StaRting A Series Can Follow. The Guidlines Would Include Rules For 1 Class Single Elimination Either Single Car Entries And Multiple Car Entries And Also Double Elimination Guidlines. Then Other Set Of Guidlines For A Multiple Class Series.
Here is some more stuff I think that has been standardized.
When you mail your cars please include inside the box a piece of paper with this info:
1) Redline Derby Forum Name
2) Car name/Brand/color (ex: Red/Ferrari F-40/ Hot Wheels)
3) Race Team Name
4) Return address (if you want your cars back)
5) If you are a host please include the address you would like the race cars mailed to.
6)Please send $5.00 to the last host to help with shipping costs. If you want your cars back. Hosts do not need to send money.
Discussion
TLD, great start!
I'll add:
Each series should have a running list of who raced who, and who got bye rounds...Hosts should mail the previous brackets with the cars.
Once a race is posted as a "new" event all rules, points, cars etc. should be set. Discussion of what is legal, what cars can run should be done outside the race thread...”mail in events sub forum”
Hosts: List a track description of your race day set up.
Shipping: mail these cars like they are your own….With care. Stock or not people have taken the time to test, tune, and tweak them into “race cars”. Pack them like eggs that will be tossed down a flight of stairs.
HAVE FUN, that is what this is all about.
If you guys can come up with some solid guidelines then that will help me when I try to make things to support the mail-in stuff. I'd love to have a mail-in section of the site with official dates, rules, etc. and this will go a long way in helping make that happen.
I know I'm not involved much with the mail-in stuff in terms of making cars but my job here is to give you all tools to help have fun so if there's anything you guys can think of that would help - forms, calendars, whatever - let me know and I'll do my best to make things happen.
Here's the thread on shipping cars:
http://www.redlinederby.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1163
follow the rules laid out by the host. If you want to race something different then by all means offer to begin a series (or a single race, they don't all have to be serieseses!).
This is true! One thing about hosting a race is several people send their cars to the host. Once all the race cars are in one spot it's "easy" to send them all together to the next host and so on.
If scoring and organizing a series seems a bit overwhelming, people have hosted one off races before. It's a good way to go.
This is good. Nice work Jim.
If we're going to keep racing, and I think we will , we might as well have some set guidelines for consistency and fairness. I personally like to go with double elimination where possible, but for the events when we have a large number of entries/cars, single elimination will have to suffice.
Keeping the points consistent will also be key. I like what Jim TLD has:
Double elimination 1st = 4 points, 2nd = 3 points, 3rd & 4th = 2 points, 5,6,7 & 8 = 1 point
and then 1 point per win for the larger single elimination tournaments.
I actually enjoy putting together the scoring spreadsheets and keeping track of the points.
AND I especially like the idea of mixing up the brackets among hosts so we get to see different first round match ups.
Each series should have a running list of who raced who, and who got bye rounds...Hosts should mail the previous brackets with the cars.
Thanks for starting this thread TLD, this will help GREATLY. I truly appreciate all the work everybody has put into all these mail in events. I think some general rules, guidelines will be helpful even more when added in with what all of you guys have worked out. I'm going to keep racing, that is for sure.
Shipping/Scheduling a Series
Try to set them up geographically to ensure the quickest delivery times. For Example. California to Colorado to Ohio to Maine, ect...
Oh, and while it might be assumed, need to say that EconoCarl should be the person to finalize the guidelines as he is mail-in coordinator for RLD. Doesn't mean he gets to set all the rules, per se, just that for any rules to become "official" they need to come to me from Carl. Thanks.
Oh, and while it might be assumed, need to say that EconoCarl should be the person to finalize the guidelines as he is mail-in coordinator for RLD. Doesn't mean he gets to set all the rules, per se, just that for any rules to become "official" they need to come to me from Carl. Thanks.
I think these statements can be taken as they were not intended!
Brian is trying to help us out by coming up with more tools for the racers to use here at Redlinederby. Once we the group of racers here get everything ironed out I, as "mail-in coordinator", will get them to Brian. I can't see these rules being set in stone but more as a guideline for those wanting to start a race or a series.
We need to all work together on these rules and a big THANKS to TLD for getting us talking about all of this again. By all means keep the discussion going. Coming up with a set of rules or guidelines that we can publish on Redlinederby is something we really need.
Yes, sorry if my post was confusing. Carl's not the mail-in czar or anything, I just want one person as my contact when it comes to getting things that I can put on the site permanently, and that person is Carl. That's all. This is still a democracy so keeping banging out the details.
Scoring
I think if we have a "perfect bracket" of 8, 16, 32, 64 cars ect... Then one point per win is something that has been proven to work.
In the past, when we had an odd number of cars entered, this scoring system worked well.
1st - 4 points
2nd - 3 points
3rd & 4th - 2 points
5,6,7 & 8 - 1 point
Brackets
Something several host have used in the past is Printyourbrackets.com they have brackets for just about any odd number of entrants you can think of. That's someplace to start anyway.
Mail in Racer Database
I'm not sure where this stands, but it's a good resource for getting racers cars back to them. viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1005
Keeping Track Of Points
In the past Google Docs spreadsheets have been made where people can access the spreadsheet. Here is an example
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AsHhG6BdxkSedDhYN3lucXA3R2ZNbzNlTHZRWFEtTWc&output=html
Single Elimination vs. Double Eliminations
Off the top of my head Single eliminations work best when there are "a lot" of cars entered in a race. For example running a double elimination race where 32 cars are entered could be a very time consuming and maybe a bit confusing to keep track of.
"A lot" of cars, or "a lot" of time means different things to different people. One race host may be willing to spend a lot of time doing double eliminations whereas a different host just may not have the time or patience. The important thing is that it should be decided before the beginning of a series and be consistent throughout. (so the scoring doesn't get messed up)