First take a look a this which I have pulled from the top of a recent MSA report:
Crosstable data is shown in score group/rating order, which is not the same as the tiebreak order used at the event.
Crosstables are not intended to show the distribution of trophies or prize monies. (See Frequent Questions)
Crosstable data is shown as reported to the USCF by the Tournament Director.
Now the first part used to be both bold and in red. Not that made much difference in that few folks looking at the crosstables noticed it before. But, at least we could say “did you see the sentence in red??”
Now the last sentence “…as reported to the USCF by the Tournament Director” is clearly not correct. For it is nearly always not in the tiebreak order as reported by the tournament director. Or at least, this is a reasonable way it seems to me of interpreting this sentence, and a way it has been interpreted by several of those parents attending our tournaments.
At the least, can this last sentence be restructured??
I think the definitions from the first two sentences clearly defines what a crosstable is for people looking up MSA data and the third states that the crosstable information/data is reported to the USCF by the TD. Should there be a mistake, they should contact the TD, whom would later contact USCF to fix the error.
The point is that the the order they are reporting is NOT the order in which is usually
supplied by the tournament director The data is in fact different on MSA from the data
as submitted, as part of the data is the order of finish.
The problem is that the way the sentence reads, there is an incorrect finger pointing to
the TD for ‘making a mistake’ when in fact, no mistake was made.
The crosstable data does not include order of finish, says it does not include order of finish, and is exactly as reported by the tournament director (USCF IDs, opponents, game results, sometime game colors). The crosstable sequencing of that data is a different issue and is covered by the first two sentences.
Something that could use a correction is on this page: uschess.org/component/option … temid,181/. If you put in a name (not an ID), it says “Ratings followed by a letter are provisional ratings based on fewer than 25 games.” It should say 26 games.
Juxtaposing that last sentence after the first two does, indeed, seem likely to cause confusion, especially on the part of parents who want to be confused anyway, for the benefit of their kiddies.
Two problems: Wording and placement.
Wording: Change to “Game results are shown as reported to the USCF by the Tournament Director.”
Placement: Put this sentence before the other two (instead of after) and make it a separate paragraph.
That way, it won’t look as though “as reported” is still talking about score group order.
Bill, I really liked using red to highlight
“Crosstable data is shown in score group/rating order, which is not the same as the tiebreak order used at the event.”
Not that this was read either, but at least I could ask the complaining parent “did you read the statement highlighted in red”
I like your other idea as well, because parents do quite frequently interpret the current wording however it benefits their kids.