Peter asks whether NAQT has changed its ICT invitation algorithm for this year from what it was before. The answer is yes, in part. In a nutshell, the necessity of comparing SCT "performance" across different tournaments using different formats and having very different field strengths previously led us to base our invitation rankings most strongly on a factor of points scored per tossup heard, with a crucial adjustment for actual strength of schedule (based on the collective points per tossup heard average of each of a team's actual opponents), and bonus conversion, a factor essentially unaffected by strength of schedule--and then with only a very weak further adjustment for won-loss record, which is not very meaningful between tournaments. This we have now adjusted so as to hugely increase the value of won-loss record in ordering teams from the same tournament, while eliminating it altogether in comparing teams from different tournaments. Hold your questions about the details of that. A webpage will soon be provided giving an overview of how invitations to the NAQT ICT are now determined. Apart from the newly-crucial weight given won-loss record for rankings within a tournament, the explanations of previous years (messages like 1405, 3897, 3920 and 3921, 4127) are mostly still true, except that, obviously, there is no longer any backdoor route to the NAQT ICT through the discontinued NAQT Fall Tournaments. The goal continues of making it matter as little as possible which sectional you play in--your chances ought to be about the same coming out of an easier sectional as out of a harder one; at any rate, it would not be clear ahead of time whether your chances would be better in an easier field, where you'd presumably score more points but have a lower schedule difficulty multiplier, or in a tougher field, where you'd presumably score less but have a higher schedule difficulty multiplier. Wherever your team goes, your strategy needs to be to win as many games as possible, and also to score as many points as possible in all games, both wins and losses. Eric Hillemann, for NAQT
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