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Help on "IAC Pairs Ladder"

Rules for the IAC Ladder

1. Registrations: An individual can only register in one partnership
2. New partnerships will start at the bottom of the ladder. Any partnership changes will result in the new partnership being treated as a new one.
3. Partnerships will identify three available times of at least 90 minutes, preferably with varying start times and varying days. These times will be noted in the "Availability" section for each partnership.
4. Vacations: You can take anything up to 30 days worth of "vacations" from ladder requirements when you won't be around or able to respond to challenges or play matches. You can cancel a vacation before it actually starts, but not once the vacation period has commenced. If you are in the top three, you may not take a vacation of more than 3 consecutive days (or more than 6 in a two week period)
5. Challenges: You may only challenge a pair up to 5 places above you in the ladder. The Pair(s) you can challenge at any particular time are shown in green.
6. You may only make 1 challenge at a time.
7. You cannot challenge a pair already involved in another match.
8. You cannot challenge a pair you've already played in the previous 14 days unless you are in the top three ranks, in which case only 7 days has to pass before you can challenge again.
9. Making a Challenge: It is the responsibility of the challenging pair to immediately contact their opponents to arrange a time/date for the match. The challenger must choose a time the other team shows as being available.
10. Making a Challenge: The challenged pair must accept the challenge given in their reported available time slot. If the challenged pair can't accept that time, they must accept an available time chosen by the challenger in their pair's list of "Availability".
11. Making a Challenge: If the challenged pair can't play in their own available time, nor in the available time of the challenger. They forfeit the match.
12. Note also, that you are playing in agreed time slots, therefore matches should reasonably be concluded in the 90 minute spots provided. A team is not obligated to begin another board after the 90 minute mark past the start of the match. Deliberate stalling will be considered unethical play and result in forfeiture of the match.
13. The Ladder publishes your opps' email addresses once a challenge has been issued so you can cut and paste them into your own email client. Alternatives are to use the private messaging system on the site, or BBO itself, but email is definitely the most reliable route.
14. Responding to a Challenge: Once a challenge has been issued, the challenged pair must respond within three days in order to give sufficient time to arrange the match time, and the match must be played within 10 days of initial challenge.
15. If the response deadline is not met the challenging pair will be awarded the win.
16. Type of Match:These matches shall be played in 12 Boards. You can use whatever type of scoring you wish (Matchpoints or Cross-IMPs), but both Pairs must agree. Easier and quicker to get a full set of results with Cross-IMPs, but Matchpoints is the more traditional method for Pairs events. If no agreement can be reached between the two pairs, then Matchpoints (MP) scoring should be used.
17. Match Deadline: If the deadline is not observed both pairs will drop by 2 places. The match must still be played, but the deadline extension is only for a further 7 days or a further 2-rank penalty occurs. Appeals will be considered when one particular pair has been unresponsive or unhelpful in arranging a date for a match.
18. Lateness: If you've agreed a time/date for the match, it's courteous to be there on time (preferrably 5 or 10 minutes before). In any case, you must be on BBO within 10 minutes of the agreed time. Offending Pairs who turn up later than 10 minutes after the agreed time will forfeit one Board (ie: A Zero (Matchpoints). If they fail to turn up within 20 minutes of the agreed time, they will forfeit the match entirely. This also applies to disconnects, and leaving the table for any other reason (BRB - Be Right Backs are included). 10 mins is a loss of board, 20 mins forfeit. More than 2 disconnects/away from tables of any amount of time is a forfeit.
19. Alerting: Please remember that all artificial bids (or ones with a special meaning Opps might not be aware of) should be alerted. Just giving the name of the convention is not sufficient. You should alert what your partnership understanding as to the meaning of the bid is. In addition, Full Disclosure Convention Cards (FDCC) may only be used with the option to alert your own side turned off.
20. Match Location: Matches must be played in IAC at a normal table. The challenging team must set the table. Kibitzers should be allowed but must be kept silent (as in a Teams Match in the Teams Series).
21. Match Result: Please bear in mind that each Board score is liable to change until it has been played at 15 other tables, when it becomes fixed. A Match result is final when each of the 12 boards has been played at 15 other tables, and either team may result the match at that point. A team may decide to concede the match, and the conceding team is responsible for reporting immediately.
22. Tie-breaking: In the unlikely event of a tie after your match, it is suggested that you play an additional 4 Boards to settle the match.
23. Rank Changes: If the challenger wins, they take the place of the loser, who moves down 1 rank. If the challenger loses, nothing happens.
24. Inactivity: A Pair that has been inactive for 3 months will be deleted from the ladder.
25. You must play a match, issue a challenge or be challenged at least once in any 21-day period. A Team not doing this will drop 10 places in the ladder for inactivity.
26. Disputes, Problems, & Queries: Any problems or disputes should be notified to Joe Albert Garcia (yleexotee - Ladder Admin), or Oliver Clarke (OliverC - Webmaster)

Hints

• You must be logged into the website to use the Pairs Ladder. If you're not logged in the site will not recognize you.
• To register, simply select your partner from the drop-down list for Player 2. People already in another partnership will not be shown in this list.
• Once registered, you can change your partner by selecting from the drop-down list. You can also remove your partnership from the ladder. If you change your partner, you will automatically drop to the bottom of the ladder.
• To issue a challenge, simply click on the name of the pair you want to challenge. Only Pairs eligible to be challenged by you are shown as a green clickable button.
• Pairs shown in blue below you are pairs who can potentially challenge you.
• Once a challenge has been issued, your Opps' email addresses and time zones will be visible to you. This should assist in organizing the time/date for the match.
• To result a match, all you have to do is to click on the relevant button to shown them as the winners. Please do not do this before you have actually played the match and agreed the result with your Opponents.