Six Ten year-olds and One Gets an "E"

[Basquet]

Originally Posted by fencerbill

You can only get an A or a B in a 50 + Veterans event if you beat fencers who earned those ratings in an all-age event.

Does the guy who beats John Moreau deserve an A? Moreau recently won the Div 1 Championship.

Well, that depends. If Moreau is having a bad day (we oldsters sometimes find that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weaker on some days than on others), then the answer would be no. If he is having a good day, then the answer is probably yes. If you can beat Moreau on one of his good days, you should be able to earn an A at a regular open, don't you think?

[Dr. Pfleschbach]

I agree with those who think that the letter ratings system a bit flawed, but it isn't meant to function like a high school grade transcript. It's just a tool to try to seed the pools and for that function it works reasonably well. The national rolling points are a better indicator of ability, and they are also part of the calculation that decides how pools are seeded, even in local tournaments.

[swordsen]

You know, everyone says "the rating system is only there for seeding purposes" Of course the purpose of seeding is so that the better fencers don't get lumped together in the pools. So the rating system by default indicates who is supposedly the better fencer.

[fencerbill]

Originally Posted by Dr. Pfleschbach

The national rolling points are a better indicator of ability, and they are also part of the calculation that decides how pools are seeded, even in local tournaments.

Dream on.