Boosting

This documents a suggested award-issuing convention, not yet accepted or official.

Why does (class) size matter?

1. Because in a class with few competitors (a “small” class), there are more often awards for which there are no competitors, so they go unused. Also, a rallyist in a small class will win frequently; if they win first place repeatedly, our rules lead to their promotion to the next higher class, even if they won't be competitive in that higher class.
2. But in a class with many competitors (a “large” or “crowded” class), even good rallyists will statistically win infrequently, and therefore take longer to be promoted out of the large class. Rallyists are often frustrated if they rallye often but win infrequently and take a long time to “earn a promotion”.
3. Together, these facts tend to make small classes smaller and large classes larger!
4. The number of awards we prepare are based on the classes, not on the number of competitors in the classes. Therefore, good teams in large classes don't earn awards and awards in small classes can go unused.

Goals of “Boosting”

1. Improve balance of class sizes (the number of competitors in a class).
2. Effectively increase the number of winners from large classes.
3. Delay promoting of winners in small classes (into a class where they would be frustrated).
4. More often issue more awards. That is, fewer awards are created, unissued, and discarded.

“Boost” Concept

Under certain circumstances, instead of issuing a rallyist 1st place in their (crowded) class, we “boost” that car into the next class up temporarily—just for this rallye, and issue them an award in the next class up. Then remaining cars in that lower class move up one notch; this allows the next car in their (lower) class to earn that class's 1st place, rather than 2nd place. This effectively increases the number of awards issued to cars in that (lower, crowded) class.

The circumstances require a lower class car to have a score that would be competitive (award earning) in the class above and the lower class to be much larger than the higher class. We expect that boosting would still be relatively rare.

Simple Example

I have given cars letters, rather than numbers, in hopes this is easier to read, and show only two classes, the Senior (higher) class and Novice (lower) class:

   Senior Scores: Car W=940 Car X=910
   Novice Scores: Car A=930 Car B=920 Car C=910 Car D=900 Car E=890

Normally, we would issue

   2 awards to Seniors: 1st: Car W, 2nd: Car X
   3 awards to Novices: 1st: Car A, 2nd: Car B, 3rd: Car C

Using the “Boost” rules described below, we “boost” Novice Car A to become 2nd place Senior

   2 awards to Seniors: 1st: Car W, 2nd: Car A
   3 awards to Novices: 1st: Car B, 2nd: Car C, 3rd: Car D

During the award presentation, we might say “Doing so well in the Novice class that they won the second place in the Senior class is Car A”. We would probably give this award before stating that Car B earned 1st place Novice, because it could be confusing to both of these cars.

What is the Boost Rule?

For each rallye, consider pairs of adjacent classes (from top class down: M & E, E & S, S & N, N & B), here called the higher class and the lower class.

1. Only consider boosting a car if there are more than twice as many cars in the lower class than the higher class. This possibility is known when registration closes, before rallye scoring.
2. Boost the top scoring car of the lower class into the higher class for this rallye if that car's score will earn an award in the higher class, because there aren't as many cars in the higher class as there are awards or because the boosted car's score was superior to at least one score in the higher class.

   A boosted car shall be a clear win, without consulting tie breakers. If the lower class' top score does not have a clear win in the higher class, that car is not boosted. A RM may want to assure that the score difference reaches some threshold (like that of a full gimmick) to allow boosting.

3. If a car is boosted to the next class, repeat these steps with the new top score of the lower class. For example, if after registration there are no Novice cars and 5 Beginner cars, they would become 1 Novice car and 4 Beginner cars when 1 car is boosted. The next iteration makes 2 Novice cars and 3 Beginner cars. There are no longer more than twice as many cars in the lower class as the higher class, so no more cars are boosted.

Issue: We may want to special case the situation that allows the last car in the lower class to earn an award, as that car may not really have a competitive score. What does this mean for Promotion?

I'm choosing to use the term “boost” for the temporary, one rallye movement of a car into the next class, to avoid confusing it with “promotion,” the permanent “graduation” of rallyists from one class to the next. For the purpose of counting first-place award wins to determine when a rallyist should be promoted to the next class, every boosted car's award counts as a first-place award in the lower class.

In the “Sample Example” above, both cars A and B increase their count of “first-place awards”. Car B was literally awarded the first-place Novice award. Car A would have earned that promotion-worthy win, but instead was issued something “better.” If any Novice rallyist in car A or B has earned the 3 first-place awards, they will be promoted (permanently) to the Senior class. Car A already knows that they are capable of winning an award in the Senior class.

Historical Examples

I looked back at posted results from the past year, to see how the rule would apply. In the rallyes not mentioned here, classes were better balanced: there were no classes with more than twice the count in the next higher class. Scores of cars actually boosted to the next class are in boldface. Cars that then moved up in their class are in italics. The “3/5” syntax means 3 awards were issued and 5 cars were in the class. (Remember that we make 3 each Beginner and Novice awards, 2 Senior and Expert awards.)

Rallye   | Actual Awards Issued      | Awards Using Boosting

Oct. '11 | 3/3 Novice: 840, 820, 810 | 2/2 Novice: 820, 810
         | 1/1 Senior: 890           | 2/2 Senior: 890, 840

July '11 | 2/5 Senior: 970, 910      | 2/3 Senior: 910, 890
         | 1/1 Expert: 870           | 2/3 Expert: 970, 910
         |                           | Note: true Expert car didn't award.

June '11 | 2/5 Senior: 970, 940      | 2/4 Senior: 940, 920
         | 2/2 Expert: 970, 960      | 2/3 Expert: 970, 970
         |                           | Note: true Expert 960 car didn't award.

June '11 | 3/5 Begin.: 920, 870, 830 | 3/4 Beginner: 870, 830
(again)  | 2/2 Novice: 930, 900      | 3/3 Novice: 930, 920, 900