Conditions of Contest 

  1. Hierarchy of Regulations:
    The IMP League will be governed by (in order of precedence) the Laws of Duplicate Bridge, ACBL Regulations, the Special Regulations governing each flight, the Conditions of Contest and the IMP League Commissioner. Appeals on the rules or on a decision of the Commissioner may be appealed in writing to the Unit 430 Board of Directors. No appeal will be considered if more than 30 days have passed since the incident happened or the Commissioner's ruling was announced.

  2. Dates and Schedule:
    IMP League play will begin in early October (early November for Flight C) and the regular season will conclude in April, or earlier if the number of teams warrants fewer matches. Teams will play 8-12 matches in Flights A, X or B and 4-8 matches in Flight C. If any IMP League division has 14 or more teams, teams will be seeded into two or more divisions. In this case only, the schedule will not be a complete round robin.

    Approximately half of the teams in each division will make the playoffs. In Flights A, X and B, all playoff matches will be 32 boards; all other matches will be 28 boards. In Flight C, the final playoff match will be 32 boards; all other matches will be 26 boards.

    The playoff schedule will be a single elimination knockout. Any playoff match resulting in a tie will be resolved by an immediate six board playoff. In each round of the playoffs, the highest ranked surviving team, based on the final regular season standings, will play the lowest ranked surviving team (of the other division, if available). Exception: if the number of surviving teams means bye(s) will be necessary, the bye(s) shall go to the highest ranked teams and the rest will be paired as above.

    For the 2001-2002 season, four teams from each of Flights A, X and B will advance to the playoffs. Three teams shall advance in Flight C; the round-robin winner will receive a bye to the finals.

  3. Team Rosters:
    No team may use more than 6 players. Additional substitutes are not allowed to play. No player may play on more than one team, even if the two teams are in different flights.

    In Flight X, all players must have 0-3000 masterpoints; Flight B players must have 0-1500 masterpoints; but Flight C players must be non­Life Masters with 0-500 masterpoints. The Flight C division will be stratified 0-100/100-NLM, according to the team member with the largest masterpoint holding. A player who is eligible to play in a flight on September 1, 2001 is eligible for the entire season.

    Teams must start the season with at least four players and no more than six. One of the players must be designated as captain and is responsible for contacting other captains to arrange matches. After the initial rosters have been submitted, roster moves will be limited to the following.

    1. Deleting a player:
      A player who has not yet played in any match but appears on a team's roster may be deleted from the roster at any time. A player who is unable to continue playing due to an unforeseen emergency may also be deleted.

    2. Adding a player:
      A player who has not yet played in any match for any other team may be added, so long as the addition does not cause the team to have more than six players. No player may be added after the conclusion of the regular season.

    3. Using an emergency player:
      If a captain is unable to field a team because an expected player has not arrived, and there is an eligible player present who has not played in any match for any team, that player may be used as an emergency player, unless the other team objects. Each team is permitted to use up to two emergency players during the regular season. No emergency players are allowed to play in the playoffs.

    No player may play for his team in playoff matches unless he has played in at least 40% of his team's regular season matches. Participation is counted according to the number of half matches in which the player has competed.

    The Commissioner may penalize teams that stretch the rules.

  4. Matches:
    Active ethics and good sportsmanship will be the first priority in all matches.

    League matches will be scored in Victory Points using the Victory Point Scale shown below. Matches will be played in two halves with comparison of scores at half­time.

    Seating rights will be given to each team for one of the two halves, which half to which team to be decided before the match by the team captains. Disputes will be resolved by a coin toss. If the captains do not consult before the match and a dispute arises at half­time, neither team has seating rights for the second half.

    Matches may be played at bridge clubs or at any venue agreed by the team captains. Matches played outside of a bridge club should have a means by which a director can be called if necessary.

    The winning captain is responsible for ensuring that the report slip is completely filled out and that the report slip gets to the Commissioner.

  5. Late Arrivals:
    When a match begins later than the agreed time because of one or more late arrivals on one team, the non­offending side receives a penalty bonus of 3 IMPs per 5 minutes of delay up to a maximum of 18 IMPs. The captain of the non­offending side can waive the penalties before the beginning of play. An emergency player may be used until the late player arrives. If 30 minutes have elapsed, the match must be:
    1. rescheduled without penalty to the non­offending team;
    2. forfeited to the non­offending team; or
    3. completed using the emergency player, only if permission was given by the non­offending team before any boards were played.

  6. Scheduling Difficulties:
    When the Commissioner is made aware of a scheduling problem, the teams will schedule the match for the next period (but they must also play the originally scheduled match for that period as well). If no date can be found, the Commissioner can declare a forfeit or double­forfeit if it is determined that one or both sides are at fault.

  7. Standings:
    The order of teams for playoff purposes shall be decided on Victory Points. Matches that are forfeited are scored as follows. The offending team(s) get(s) zero Victory Points. The non­offending team gets the maximum of: (a) their average Victory Point total in all of their non­forfeited matches; (b) the average Victory Point total of the opponents of the offending side in all of the offending side's non­forfeited matches; or (c) 18 Victory Points. Any fraction awarded by this rule is sufficient to break a tie in the standings.

    In the case of a tie in Victory Points between two teams, or a tie among three or more teams which has been broken by the procedure in the next paragraph to leave two teams tied, the tie­breaking procedure is: most wins (a draw is 1/2), most VPs against common opponents (if not playing a round robin), most wins against common opponents (if not playing a round robin).

    If there is a tie in Victory Points among three or more teams, the tie­breaking procedure is (in order of precedence): most wins (a draw is 1/2); highest average VPs against teams in the tied group; best win­loss record against teams in the tied group; most VPs against common opponents (if not playing round robin). If teams are still tied after the tie­breaking procedure is used, and the playoff ranking is at stake, the teams must play a seven board playoff to decide the final positions.

    Forfeiting cannot disadvantage other teams. If a team forfeits a match against another team, and because of the VPs received by the forfeit, the second team finishes ahead of a third team, the Commissioner may reclassify the forfeiting team down enough positions so the forfeiting team finishes below the third team.

  8. Spectators:
    Any player may disallow an idle member of the opposing team for kibitzing his team's match. Any player may request that any one spectator be removed from his table without cause.

  9. Power of Commissioner:
    The Commissioner's word shall be final in all interpretations and applications of these Conditions.



28 Board Victory Point Scale

IMPs
VPs
IMPs
VPs
IMPs
VPs
IMPs
VPs
TIE
1
2
3-6
15 - 15
16 - 14
17 - 13
18 - 12
7-10
11-15
16-20
21-26
19 - 11
20 - 10
21 - 9
22 - 8
27-33
34-41
42-50
51-60
23 - 7
24 - 6
25 - 5
26 - 4
61-71
72-83
84-95
96+
27 - 3
28 - 2
29 - 1
30 - 0



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Unit 430 IMP League.
Written by: Brad Bart
Maintained by: Brad Bart
Last Updated: October 1, 2001