Mad Robin/Rules

This page describes the structure and rules of the Mad Robin League.

Summary

Players in a ladder of divisions compete in a series of seasons, in which each of the six players in the division selects a button, and then plays a game against each of the other five players in their division. After the season, the players with the best and worst records in each division move up or down between divisions for the next season; there are also two post-season events (which don't have any bearing on the divisional rankings), Turntables and Wallflowers.

Divisional structure

The league consists of a set of ordered divisions: Division A is the highest, then Division B, and so on. Each division consists of six players except for the lowest one or two; the bottom one or two have four to eight players, so that everyone who's interested can have a chance to play. (As of Season 13, this replaces the original "waiting list" concept.) A single commissioner (usually one of the players) administers the entire league.

Button selection

At the start of the season, the commissioner selects eight buttons for the players to choose from. The commissioner should select eight buttons that are relatively well-balanced (e.g. with similar winning percentages), and may wish to select eight buttons that have never played each other. Each player then privately submits a preference list to the commissioner, ranking the eight buttons in order. (If the commissioner is also a player, they should finalize their own preference list before soliciting the other players' lists.) The commissioner then assigns buttons to the players in each division, such that the sum of the squares of the preferences (first choice is 1, second choice is 4, etc) in each division is as low as possible. If multiple assignments tie for the lowest sum, the commissioner picks randomly between them.

Matchups

The commissioner then generates matchups among the players, a three-round game between their two buttons. The commissioner monitors these games, and keeps track of the results on a wiki page, including games won and lost, rounds won and lost, etc. The season ends when all games in all divisions have been completed.

Stale games

If a league game is stale for more than 30 days, the opponent of the stale player may nominate that player for ejection from the league. If at least three of the other four players in the division agree, the stale player drops out of the league. If a player knows that this might happen to them in advance, they should post on the league board to let the other players know. (The other players aren't obligated to let them stay, but it seems courteous to do so.) Players should not delete stale games until or unless a player drops out the league.

If a player drops out of the league before the end of the season, all of their games (completed or not) are voided, and don't count for the standings. (If applying this rule seems unfair to any of the players in the relevant division, the commissioner may discuss an alternate resolution with the other players in the division, and resolve the situation differently if all agree.)

Promotion and relegation

At the end of each season, the player or players with the worst record (games won and lost) in each division are relegated down to the next lower division. If more than one player is tied for the worst record in a division, they are all relegated. The player(s) with the worst record in the lowest division remain in that division if it remains the lowest, or are relegated to the new lowest division if there are enough new players to form a new lowest division.

A number of slots are then available for promotion into the higher division. The number is always determined by (and equal to) the number of players who were relegated from that division. Those slots are filled by the player or players with the best record in each division. If more than one player is tied for the best record for a given promotion slot, they are sorted by head-to-head record against the other tied players. If that's not sufficient to break the tie, the commissioner will pick randomly who is promoted.

If a player wishes to drop out of the league, they should do so after the end of a season. In that case, this creates an additional slot available for promotion from the next lower division, and likweise for the division below that, and so on.

Post-season events

After the regular season, there are three additional events which the commissioner can optionally organize, perhaps ideally running concurrently with preparation for the next season.

Turntables: In the regular season, each player plays the button they picked, in a game against everyone else in their division (who each play the button they picked). In Turntables, each player plays against the button they picked, in a game against everyone else in their division (who each play against the button they picked) -- in other words, a reverse match for each game from the regular season.

Wallflowers: In each division, there will typically be buttons that no one selected. The commissioner will solicit volunteers to play those buttons, against each of the other buttons in the division (perhaps a player who played the unselected button in another division).

Turnflowers: Exactly like Turntables, but for the Wallflowers games.

None of these post-season events affect relegation and promotion, which will be based only on the regular season results.

Commissioner

If the commissioner doesn't log in for 30 days, the top player in the top division from the most recently completed season becomes acting commissioner long enough to select a new commissioner. The acting commissioner solicits volunteers to become the new commissioner; if more than one person volunteers (and does not defer to one of the others), the acting commissioner conducts an election to choose between them, in which all players in all divisions may vote, and whichever receives a plurality of the votes becomes commissioner. If the acting commissioner is interested in becoming the permanent commissioner, and anyone else volunteers as well, all volunteers should select by consensus someone else to run the election.

If the commissioner wishes to step down, they solicit volunteers and/or conduct an election to select the new commissioner, as described above.

irilyth is the current commissioner.

Changing the rules

The players may modify these rules in any way they like by consensus. The commissioner adjudicates any disputes that can't be resolved by consensus. The commissioner may also change the rules without a formal review and consensus-gathering process, but should revert the change if there are objections.