Handicaps

The start each player is given. Handicap is the number the club actually uses; Suggested is what the Elo formula would produce for this field. They are set independently — see below.

How the suggestion is calculated

handicap = clamp( round( ( field average Elo − player Elo ) ÷ divisor ), −50, +50 )

The baseline is the average of the field on screen (1498 here), not a fixed number. A handicap only has to be fair between the people actually playing — a field of strong players measured against a club-wide average would all get 0, which is level play dressed up as a handicap event.

The divisor (6) decides what a rating gap is worth: with 6, every 6 Elo points of difference is worth 1 point of start. Unrated players count as 1500.

A player above the average gets a negative handicap and starts the frame behind, rather than everyone above average collapsing onto the same 0 — which threw away a 188-point gap between your strongest players. The overlay has always drawn this as “+12 / −15”, with 0 shown as scratch.

Pts/frame and Margin HC are a second opinion, measured from the frames themselves rather than from match results: average points scored minus conceded, then the gap to the field's average. There is no divisor, because a handicap is already in points. It needs at least 15 scored frames — 15 of 32 players here have that, and the rest show —. Choose it under Apply from to write this column instead of the Elo one. Field average margin is -1.7 a frame.

Nothing calculates the Handicap column. It is typed in by an admin on the player record. The formula above exists only inside a tournament, where it is opt-in per event — so the two columns agree only by coincidence. Right now they match for 20 of 32 players.

Players32
With a handicap23
Average Elo1498
Elo range1381–1725
Highest set20
Suggested range-38…+20
# Player Elo Manual HC Suggested Pts/frame Margin HC Diff
1 Andreas Rogoz 1381 20 +20 -31.3 — —
2 Yaseen 1400 17 +16 -7.6 +6 +1
3 Ivan 1423 13 +13 — — —
4 Jamie Berkoff 1421 13 +13 -15.3 +14 —
5 Prasanna 1435 10 +11 -8.6 +7 -1
6 Ram 1458 7 +7 -4.5 — —
7 Ali Syed 1473 4 +4 -6.9 +5 —
8 Mike Monegato 1473 4 +4 -5.4 +4 —
9 Misaq 1489 3 +2 -0.1 -2 +1
10 Ze Dong 1484 3 +2 — — +1
11 Raj Bansal 1479 3 +3 -23.8 — —
12 Tony Bolahood 1479 3 +3 -8.4 — —
13 Private player 1477 3 +4 -8.1 +6 -1
14 Harry Berkoff 1488 2 +2 -79.0 — —
15 Bharath 1501 0 -1 -20.9 — +1
16 Eyad 1500 0 scratch — — —
17 Himalay 1500 0 scratch — — —
18 Jeremy 1500 0 scratch — — —
19 Syed Salman 1500 0 scratch — — —
20 Tai San 1500 0 scratch — — —
21 Zack 1500 0 scratch — — —
22 Zubeen 1500 0 scratch — — —
23 Nag Patluri 1499 0 scratch — — —
24 Pushkar 1510 -2 -2 -8.3 +7 —
25 Sudarshan 1510 -2 -2 -3.1 — —
26 Hemanth Kumar 1550 -3 -9 +10.6 -12 +6
27 Shreyas 1531 -5 -6 +2.5 -4 +1
28 Jerry 1519 -5 -4 -2.7 +1 -1
29 Felix Zheng 1530 -6 -5 -6.0 +4 -1
30 James Kosinski 1539 -13 -7 -15.6 +14 -6
31 Renat Denhka 1671 -29 -29 +35.7 -37 —
32 Tom Tan 1725 -36 -38 +9.8 -12 +2

Diff is Handicap minus Suggested: a positive number means the club gives more start than the rating gap alone would justify. A handicap is only added to the starting score when the scoreboard is opened with “apply handicap” — otherwise it is recorded against the match but the frame starts 0–0.