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Team 45 45 League
Serious Chess and Team Spirit on the ICC
Captains’ Handbook

This handbook covers things captains and assistant captains need to know.  It is assumed you are already familiar with the Players' Handbook and most of the Statutes.  Captains represent their teams in dealings with the league.  Captains put a team together, enter the team, submit weekly board assignments, monitor their players' game forums, encourage their players, and represent the team in communications with the league. 

Please take the initiative in encouraging communication among your teammates, and especially in helping new members with league procedures.  Impress upon them that every game should be taken seriously, because every game counts in the TEAM standings. In case a captain is unavailable to act at any given time, teams must also have assistant captains, who have all the rights as captains.

1.  Putting a Team Together	4.  Spokesperson for your Team
2.  Entering your Team	5.  Problem Solver for your Team
3.  Weekly Duties	6.  Sample Game Forum

1 - Putting a team together.  

As captain, you will put together a team of 4 – 6 players, using the following considerations:

• Who?  You may find teammates from among your ICC acquaintances, by advertising in server channels, or by looking at the Interested Player's Page.  Talk to any prospective teammates, making sure they understand what they are committing to, and making sure that they agree to be on your team.
   
• How many players? If you have only four players, each player will need to play in each round.  If you have five or six players, you can rotate the play opportunities however you see fit, for example giving a week off to a player who tells you he will have a busy week.
   
• What section? The average of the standard ratings of your top 4 players determines the section you play in.  In calculating this average, a floor of 300 points under the section cap is the lowest number used for any player.  See floor.  
   
• You can verify that your proposed team fits in the desired section, and that your desired players have Registered and Profiled, by using the Team Ratings Calculator, after Fixed Ratings have been published for the tourney in question.  
   
• How Many teams? Each player may be on (as a player and/or captain) only one team per ratings Section (U2200, U2000, U1800, U1600, U1400, U1200).   New players may be on only one team in their first tourney.  Players in their first tourney upon returning from a red card suspension also may be on only one team, and may not be captain (but may be assistant captain). 
   
• Prepare your players!  Before entering your team, have each player Update his/her Profile, to enable our automated management features.   (See Players Handbook,  How to Join.)  You will not be able to enter any player who has not done this.
   
• If you are a new leaguer, you will be assigned an experienced leaguer to help you as assistant captain. 

2 - How to Enter your Team to Participate in the Next Event

1. Click on Captains' Menuin the left margin of this page, and fill in the form that appears, choosing between Team to Create, and Select a Team.
    
   • Team to Create:  If you are entering a brand NEW team that has not previously participated in the League, type the name of your team here,.   The name should be appropriate, and short (no more than 28 characters, including spaces).
     
     
   • Select a Team:  If you are entering an EXISTING team, use the drop down menu to select the team name.  If your existing team is to play in a different section than previously, you may need to follow the instructions for new teams.
     
     
2. Enter your players’ handles. At least 4 players are needed to enter your team.  Enter only those players who have agreed to play on your team. 
   
   
3. Select Check Now, and Click SEND  This does not enter your team.  This step will gather and display to you necessary information about the team you propose entering.  The program automatically:
    
   • Calculates the team average of the top four players and tell you whether the ratings average of the team you propose fits the ratings section you have chosen.
      
     
   • Alerts you if any of your players have not completed the needed Profile update.  If any players have not yet done that, instruct them to do so (See How to Join in the players' handbook), before you return to this page to continue.  Problems displayed (in red) identified by the program must be resolved by the individual players before they can join your team.
     
     
   • If two of your players have the same rating, you have this one opportunity to specify which shall have the higher board order, by placing them in your desired order in the roster and in the “Default Boards”.  Once finalized, that order cannot be changed.
     
     
4. Click Finalize. This:
    
   • Enters your team into the tournament.
     
     
   • Sends an email to the Conference Directors and to each member of your team, verifying your team’s entry into the tournament, and sharing the team members' email addresses with each of those recipients. 
     
     
5. You may return to the Captain's Pages to update your team roster (replacing players or adding players) at any time during the course of the tournament (until round 6), as long as the new team composition still conforms to all team requirements, as explained above in "Putting a Team Together".  (See Statutes, Section 16 for more details.)  Each time you make a roster change, you must click “Finalize” to complete the change.
   

3 - Weekly Duties -  Cheerleader, Caretaker, and Supervisor of your Team (i.e. “Mom”)

• Board Assignments – Each week, decide which of your players will play in the next round, communicate that decision to your team, and submit that lineup (Board Assignments) via the Captains Menu  prior to Tuesday,  22:00. ICC time.  If you forget to enter the board assignments by the deadline, your default board assignments will be used.

You may makes changes to your Board Assignments for the next round right up to the Board Assignment deadline, but changes to default board assignments should not be made within the last hour before the Deadline. If you submit your board assignment, then change your team roster, be sure to resubmit your board assignments if you intend a change in board assignments for the upcoming round.

Please submit the lineup even if you wish your defaults to be used, to spare the Entry Clerk a bit of stress.

• Player Availability!  Be sure that the players you assign will be available to schedule and play this week. You should already have checked with them and told them who will be playing. Keep your players out of forfeit issues, and your team happy with you.
   
• Only 3 players available this week? - 

This is an unusual situation that should be avoided with prior planning.  However, if you find it unavoidable, do NOT assign the player that you know is unavailable.  This misleads your player's opponent, and puts your player or you at risk of a Reliability Rating reduction (every unplayed game results in a RR reduction for the player, or for the captain if the captain posts an admission of blame).  

Submit the board assignment, with only those players that are available.   AND send an email to the Entry Clerk, so they can make sure the proper pairings take place.   You will take a loss at board four, but no RR reduction for anyone.  

• Monitor Game Forums  - Watch Scheduling, game completion, and PGN reporting of each of your team members.  Pay attention to the Game Forum emails that come to you any time a post is added to the Game Forum of one of your players.   Even better:  visit the forum of each of your players every day to read each strand in context.
  

4 - Spokesperson for Your Team

You are the conduit for information between your team and the division Tournament Director (dTD).   Your players should not communicate directly with the dTD; please have your players go through you whenever possible in order to streamline things, since you are more familiar with League procedures than the other players on your team.   You will try to verify the rules, using the handbooks, FAQ’s, and Statutes before conferring with the dTD. 

Things you’ll want to post into the Game Forum for your players:

• Questions for the dTD
  
  
• Requests for dTD action, such as forfeits, or set games.
  
  
• When making a no-show claim against the opponent of one of your players, put the log of both players in the Game Forum. To see a player’s log, the command on both servers is “log <player>”.
  
  
• If there is something in your player’s Game Forum that he should be attending to, and hasn’t, you can either encourage him to do so (e.g. using the Game forum or e-mail.  You received his e-mail address when you entered the team), or if he is not available, you can speak for him if you know his intentions.  However, use caution, because any scheduling you do for your player is binding on him/her.

5 - Problem Solver for your team

Be on the lookout for any problem that your intervention could solve.  If your player has a dispute with an opponent, try to intervene.   You and the opposing captain might discuss the matter via the players’ Game Forum.  If you cannot come to a solution, post a request that the dTD resolve the issue.   You may be asked for more information.  Once the dTD issues a ruling on the matter, his/her decision is final, and there is to be no further debate or comment.   If you think the ruling does not correctly apply the bylaws, you may appeal to the Oversight Committee. 

Questions for the TD?  Almost always, you will use the game forum to contact the TD.  However, if there is a matter which is not appropriate for the Game Forum audience, please use email.  For email information, see Contact page.  Please do not ask a TD who is online for a definitive ruling.  He/she might be glad to help you with general information, but the online conversation will not be considered official. 

6 - Sample Game Forum - The Captains Save the Game;