The start each player is given. Handicap is the number the club actually uses; Suggested is what the Elo formula would produce for this field. They are set independently — see below.
The baseline is the average of the field on screen (1500 here), not a fixed number. A handicap only has to be fair between the people actually playing — a field of strong players measured against a club-wide average would all get 0, which is level play dressed up as a handicap event.
The divisor (6) decides what a rating gap is worth: with 6, every 6 Elo points of difference is worth 1 point of start. Unrated players count as 1500.
A player above the average gets a negative handicap and starts the frame behind, rather than everyone above average collapsing onto the same 0 — which threw away a 188-point gap between your strongest players. The overlay has always drawn this as “+12 / −15”, with 0 shown as scratch.
Pts/frame and Margin HC are a second opinion, measured from the frames themselves rather than from match results: average points scored minus conceded, then the gap to the field's average. There is no divisor, because a handicap is already in points. It needs at least 15 scored frames — 0 of 6 players here have that, and the rest show —. Choose it under Apply from to write this column instead of the Elo one.
Nothing calculates the Handicap column. It is typed in by an admin on the player record. The formula above exists only inside a tournament, where it is opt-in per event — so the two columns agree only by coincidence. Right now they match for 6 of 6 players.
| # | Player | Elo | Handicap | Suggested | Pts/frame | Margin HC | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anson Chan | 1500 | 0 | scratch | — | — | — |
| 2 | Anson To | 1500 | 0 | scratch | — | — | — |
| 3 | Icue Billiard Club | 1500 | 0 | scratch | — | — | — |
| 4 | John Poon | 1500 | 0 | scratch | — | — | — |
| 5 | robin Wang | 1500 | 0 | scratch | — | — | — |
| 6 | Zhuobin Liu | 1500 | 0 | scratch | — | — | — |
Diff is Handicap minus Suggested: a positive number means the club gives more start than the rating gap alone would justify. A handicap is only added to the starting score when the scoreboard is opened with “apply handicap” — otherwise it is recorded against the match but the frame starts 0–0.