Suggested Solutions to Sandbagging
First of all, is sandbagging really a problem to be solved? Others might disagree, but I would argue that it is. Ratings events are intended to give players of a certain level the chance to compete against others of a similar standard, and to have a fair chance of winning the event. The sandbagger is unfairly taking this opportunity away from his fellow players for selfish reasons of his own.Without claiming to have all the answers, here are some suggestions of my own on how to reduce the amount of sandbagging that occurs in tournaments. I'm sure some ideas are more practical than others, but I'll throw them all out there anyway.
- Move players who win a rating event such as the Under 2000 up to the next rating event (such as the Under 2200) immediately, and keep them at that level for a minimum amount of time, such as 2 years (so that a crafty sandbagger can't sandbag and win the same event year after year). This is the best suggestion that I can think of, since it would mean that any sandbagger is only going to be able to do so once every couple of years. It wouldn't remove the problem completely though.
- Lower the amount of prize money, and scale down the trophies. This would probably not be a popular suggestion, but it might remove some of the sandbaggers who are out to win undeserved cash prizes or large trophies. Or at least make sure that the prize money increases as the rating events rise in level, to try to encourage players to win the higher rated events.
- Change from rating levels to age group events only. This would remove the possibility of sandbagging completely, but it might be a bit on the drastic side. Rating events are a good thing, and to simply stop having them is a bit of an overreaction in my opinion.
- Rating by peers. Have a peer group for each tournament who would evaluate different players and double check that players are in the correct rating events. This could be difficult to set up, but an effective peer group who are familiar with each of the players in the tournament would probably be one of the best ways of making sure that a sandbagger is caught beforehand. It could get tricky when national tournaments are involved, since it might not be easy to make sure that all players are well known. And of course, you are relying on the ability of the peer group to spot a sandbagger, so human error is always possible.
- Rating evaluation by the tournament director or committee. Having the tournament committee make a decision on the playing strength of any possible sandbaggers could be useful, but it does place a weighty load on the tournament committee, and again is prone to human error.
- Play the lower level events first (i.e. the Under 1600 before the Under 2000, and the Under 2000 before the Under 2400). If a player wins a lower level event and makes it as far as the semifinals of the next event up, he can be considered too strong for the lower rated event, and the runner up in the event is given the trophy instead. Of course, there is nothing to prevent a sandbagger dumping a match in the higher rated event in order to keep his win in the lower rated event. And if the sandbagger hasn't even entered the higher rated event, what then?
- Try a different system instead of rating events. Perhaps something similar to the Swiss system, which allows a number of players to play a tournament, and finds a winner without having to make every player play each other (as in a round robin), since the players are sorted into playing strength as the matches progress (64 players would typically take around 6-8 rounds to find an overall winner). Prizemoney could then be given according to the number of wins each player achieves. So all the players could be entered in the one event, and there would be no need to have rating levels at all.
