[CQ-Contest] Posting Scores

[Ken Low]

Fully agree with Dave.

Consider this analogy - one of my sons in is a world class gamer who builds his own computers.   He explains in Korea they have pro gaming competitions where competitors are up on stage, and all competitors and spectators have instant access to all the same info on big monitors.   That works since the battles are one-on-one, or team-vs-team.

Radiosport is very different.   We use the ionosphere.   In CQWW and ARRL DX we do 48 hours straight and the earth turns on its axis twice to present different propagation challenges to all the participants located on 6 continents.   Participants never know the conditions ahead of time, and they don't know the current propagation elsewhere in the world even in real time.

Think about what makes up the 'intellectual property' of radiosport:   knowledge of propagation, band choice, choice of run vs S/P, dual CQ, dual pouncing, off times, callsign recognition, pileup management, CW ability, where to point your antennas, when and how to split power between antennas - it's a long list, learned through years of experience and hard work.

Now think about the information advantage provided when a top competitor posts his/her score to a live score website.    Immediately they are revealing many of the factors I just listed:   band choice, off times, Run vs S&P ... it can all be deduced from the live score, which eliminates much of that 'experience advantage'.

Yes - the same intellectual property can be unveiled by checking Open Logs afterwards, which most serious competitors do.   But that is after the event - not during it.   To a lesser extent, it can also be done by monitoring other stations during the event - where are they running, how long have they been there, what's their rate ... that is very useful information, but it takes some work to obtain it.

Part of the thrill of competing is precisely because the relative order of placement is NOT known during the event.   The other part is because the magic of the ionosphere and radio propagation does not lend itself to live monitoring and direct comparison.   All the participants are not  seated on the same stage - there are 35,000 of them spread around the globe.

This debate mostly relates to Assisted and Multi-Op entrants anyway - the Unassisted ops don't have Internet enabled on their computers and would not be watching Live Scores in the first place.

Back to NQ4I's original post ... I think Rick's point was "if you're going to monitor a live score website, you should contribute your own score to it."   That seems a fair enough point, although I don't see how it could be enforced.

I can only say I tried posting Live Scores once, found it was a distraction and did not enjoy seeing myself getting killed by the big guns (in DC that happens all the time anyway - I certainly don't need to be reminded of it every 3 minutes).   I doubt I will try it again.

73,

Ken KE3X



> On Mar 25, 2015, at 4:28 PM, Dave Mueller <daven2nl at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> As a serious SOAB competitor, I don't want to see how my competition is doing.  I always want to think that I am on the verge of losing, so I don't slack on the 2nd radio and keep pushing to do the best that I can until the end of the contest.  With visibility of how my competition is doing, I could see myself slacking off or take off time for a nap should I know that I am trouncing my competition, or possibly quit altogether if I know that I am the one being trounced.  It's simple human nature.
> 
> As a serious SOAB competitor, I don't want to share my score with my competition because I don't want to give them any sort of free advantage.  I don't want them to see that they are losing to me by a small amount, and work harder to catch up and pass me.  I don't want them to see that in the last 20 minutes, I worked a bunch of new multipliers or had a big jump in score, possibly letting them in an opening that they otherwise would have missed.
> 
> As a several-time member of the K3LR M/M team, one of the most memorable moments of the entire contest actually occurs after 2359Z Sunday, when Tim, Frank, and the other M/M competition gets on 75m to exchange scores.  Until this moment we have no idea of how our competition did.  Everyone huddles around the speaker with pads and pencils, to write down the summary and see how they stacked up to their band competition at other stations.  Sometimes there is exhilaration when we learn that our claimed score was higher.  Other times, there is disappointment.  Either way, that moment is very special and memorable to all of the K3LR team mates and likely for the guys at W3LPL, WE3C, etc as well.  By sharing scores during the contest, this special moment would not exist.  By sharing scores during the contest, you can find yourself bummed out for the entire 48 hours because you are aware that your competition has some sort of propagation advantage and there is nothing you can do to catch up which frequently happens in M/M situations.
> 
> WRTC is different - the scores are posted online but none of my competitors have access to the data so I am OK with that.
> 
> Granted, this is just more more opinion, but I hope to explain why I am not likely to ever shares online, unless required to do so.  I know that others operate with a different mind set, but it doesn't work for me.  It is a little frustrating to see a movement to try pressuring guys to participate in something that they'd rather not do, for the enjoyment of others.
> 
> 73, Dave N2NL
> 
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