I counted 107 forfeits in the main tournament at SuperNationals, 64 of those being players who never showed up. I was wondering if there is something we could do to try and limit the number of forfeits that occur at the National Scholastic tournaments. You would think it would be common sense to let the organizer know if you aren’t going to show up, decide to withdraw from the tournament after a certain round, or can’t make a round for whatever reason but my experience as a TD and organizer has shown that is not always the case.
Never-shows that were paired already give up any entry fee refund. A 2-3% no-show rate is fairly common at events in general, with many organizers giving such no-shows a full or partial credit for later events. The current ease in the ability to notify organizers has dropped the no-show rate way down from the 5-8% that seemed common in the late 1990s. At Supernationals with no refunds for paired no-shows the rate dropped to about one and a half percent, some due to last minute travel glitches, illness or emergencies. Going any lower would require such players to truly know far enough in advance that they would not be able to make it.
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