[CQ-Contest] Real Time Scoreboards

[Randy Thompson]

I have now had the opportunity to use real-time contest scoreboards in two
contests and have some observations to share. For CQWW Phone 2006 and SS CW
2006, I was submitting my scores and watching the scores through the on-line
scoreboard set up by Gerry, W1VE.
http://www.w1ve.com/livescores/default.aspx


The good.

I am a competitive person.  Unfortunately, it is difficult to really compare
scores unless you and your competition do a full out effort and even then,
you only find out how you did after the contest is over.  If you are just
playing around, it is hard to find a source of competitive motivation (other
than just enjoying the fun - which reduces the "competition" aspect to
busting pileups and holding a frequency).

In the CQWW Phone contest, I was not planning a full effort.  It was very
inspiring for me to have the scoreboard up on the screen during the contest
so I could measure how I was doing against other participants in real time.
I could see their score, then operate for a few hours and see if I was
gaining or losing ground. In other occasions like this, I would bring up the
previous year's results and compete against those, which helped but was
always subject to my own 'adjustment' of the year to year difference in
conditions. 

The scoreboard really made the contest much more fun for me.  By seeing my
score compared to others, it actually motivated me to operate more than I
had originally planned.  I would think this is good for the contest overall.

During the contest, I noticed my son kept coming into the shack to see how I
was doing.  (He is 16 and recently got his Tech license.) He has never shown
this kind of interest during a contest before. Turns out, he was coming in
to see how I was doing on the scoreboard.  So live scoreboarding may provide
a vehicle to demonstrate the ebb and flow and fun and competition of
contesting to others. 

In SS CW, Andy N2NT reported after the contest that he and his son were
watching my progress on the scoreboard while guest op John N2NC was in the
other room operating.  John wasn't getting info from them, but it was making
the whole experience more interesting for Andy.

The not so good.

Information is everything.  One of the real challenges of single op has
always been dealing with the isolation.  You work only with your own
observations and experience. Your motivation is tested by fatigue.
Unfortunately, many operators now use the Internet for propagation info (and
other things such as Instant Messenger) during the contest, so we have a
widing definition for what single op really means (and a lot less isolation
providing much more information).  If we are going to allow any Internet
use, then a scoreboard becomes just another tool. 

As opposed to a propagation or weather report, the scoreboard lets you know
if you are winning or losing against others in the contest right now!  This
may be motivational, or this may cause some to quit the contest (just like
guys quit contests with serial numbers once they feel they can no longer
"win").

But there is a much bigger danger from real-time information. In the CQWW
Phone contest, I knew conditions were predicted to be better on Saturday
than on Sunday.  When I had good runs on 15m in the morning, I made an
assumption that I had better work it for all I could.  I never even thought
to check if 10m was open.  It was and this mistake easily cost me 20+
multipliers.  IF I had been watching the band breakdowns that are part of
the scoreboard, I would have started to see the movement on 10m from others.
This small clue would have caused me to go check the band and catch the
opening.

Should on-line scoreboards have a built in delay of 15 or 30 minutes (kind
of like stocks on the Internet financial sites)?  Would that be enough?

Summary

On-line scoreboards are here.  They can serve a valuable service that makes
the contest more fun for more people (participants and non-participants
alike).

On-line scoreboards can also shift the order of finish in contests for
single ops (or other categories) just by providing additional information
about the conditions being experienced by other scoreboard participants.
Just as with runners in a Marathon, some are motivated by the chase and some
are broken by the pass.

It is unreasonable to expect that any contest committee could legislate how
technology is implemented by independent sites.  You can only define what
participants are allowed to do.

The committee has to make a choice -- is Internet use permitted for single
ops in any form or not?  My preference would be for a total ban.

If Internet use is permitted, then the committee needs to specify the
boundaries of what is accetable use.  As part of this, I would suggest that
scoreboards be allowed for single ops, but the committee specify that only
total score, total QSOs, and total multipliers be permitted information that
can be viewed during the contest.  I.e., no band breakdowns.  Don't know how
practical this is, but it is how I intend to use scoreboards going forward.

Whatever your decision, I will always view contesting as a sport that is
best enjoyed solely by what can be done on and through the radio.

Randy Thompson, K5ZD
k5zd at contesting.com


PS - I intend to post my scores in CQWW CW on Gerry's scoreboard in order to
provide an additional data point.
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com 
> [mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Bob Cox
> Sent: Friday, October 20, 2006 6:08 PM
> To: cq-contest at contesting.com
> Subject: [CQ-Contest] Real Time Scoreboards
> 
> 
> 
> Dear Fellow Contester,
> 
> The CQ WW Contest Committee is discussing whether use of 
> real-time contest scoreboards is likely to convey information 
> about band openings and profitable tactics to an extent that 
> participants using the scoreboards should be categorized as 
> assisted. The 2006 CQ WW contest rules have already been 
> published and they will govern the 2006 contests.
> 
> We welcome your comments on this, and suggest the possibility 
> of also sending the comments to the CQ-Contest reflector so 
> that others can see them and possibly follow up.
> 
> Comments can be sent to live at cqww.com 
> 
> 
> 73
> Bob, K3EST
> CQ WW Director
> For the CQ WW Committee
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