... that the NSL News completes the coverage of the recent rule book updates?
USPA Competition Committee member Danny Page
posted Apr 15th, 2004 -
The NSL News can now complete the coverage of USPA's rule changes for the 2004 season. The last NSL News update of April 1st mentioned that there was still one open issue on the 4-way agenda that required additional information. USPA Competition Committee member Danny Page now responded to the NSL inquiry and clarified a section of the Minutes of the last BOD meeting that was in question. Subject of the discussion was the penalty situation that used to cause the "double bust".
"Satori Situation" at the SSL Valentine's Meet 2004
The NSL News explained one of the critical "double bust" situations already in detail on April 8. Elsinore Satori demonstrated how two different infringements would still be penalized with a deduction of only two points off the total. This "Omniskore Rule" never had documentation in either the IPC's or USPA's rule book. However, the regulated "old double bust" situation can be found in both documents. USPA's Competition Manual explains it at Section 5-1.9 ("Scoring"), Paragraph A, Sub-paragraph 3b:
If an infringement in the scoring formation of a block sequence is carried into the inter, this will be considered as one infringement only; and no additional points will be deducted, provided that the intent of the inter requirements for the next formation is demonstrated and no other infringement occurs in the inter (if an NJ occurs, this principle also applies both for random formations and block sequences).
Omniskore judging at the SSL Valentine's Meet 2004
This rule does not directly cover the situation of the "Omniskore Rule" (infringement during the inter carried into the second formation of the block, or infringement during the inter plus incorrect or incomplete second formation of the block). This "Satori Situation" would actually end up with a three-point deduction, which does not exist for Omniskore penalties. The background information of the USPA Minutes explains it this way:
Currently, if a team has an infringement while executing an inter, and then goes on to build the second formation of the block incorrectly, this mistake is actually judged to be two separate infringements. The way the rule reads, the team should actually receive two infringements, for a total of minus three (-3) points added to their score for the two perceived errors. This language change is an effort to remedy this difficult to read and apply rule.
The new language of the same section in the USPA Competition Manual is not much different compared to the old one. It also does not point clearly to the "Satori Situation" or the "Omniskore Rule". It just simplifies and cleans up the paragraph. The NSL News was not quite sure if this new language was supposed to cover the second double bust situation, as well.
If an infringement in the scoring formation of a block sequence is carried into the inter this will be considered as one infringement only, and only one point will be deducted, provided that the intent of the inter requirements for the next formation is demonstrated and no other infringement occurs in the inter.
USPA Competition Manual
USPA's Danny Page confirmed for the NSL News that this rule now officially covers the "Satori Situation": "The intent of the rule adjustment is to capture both of the scenarios that you’ve outlined." It will be only a two-point deduction for two infringements due to the new rule interpretation. The fact that Omniskore does not know three-point deductions for penalties has become irrelevant and is no longer a reason for the milder punishment. Nothing has practically changed. The penalty situations at any IPC, USPA and NSL competitions will be judged the same way as they have been judged in the past. USPA has simply made an effort to clean up the language and is a little step ahead of the IPC with this. However, Section 5-1.9 ("Scoring"), Paragraph A, Sub-paragraph 3b of the USPA Competition Manual still requires knowledge of the backgound information: it also counts for the "Satori Situation".
