to ITBYC

[Franco Seppia]

FOR YOUR JOIN

To ITBYC (International Team Racing and Beer Drinking Yacht Club) Committee

This communication has been written up and agreed with the unanimous vote, of the representatives of the Italian virtual sailing teams listed below.

In the NoR of WTRC 2011 it was introduced the rule 3.4 (All Teams must be registered and comply with all requirements of the VTC), recalling application of Article 1.3 (National criteria) of the VTC Rules asserting, some exceptions made, that teams must be composed of members of the same nationality.

We would report here why we don’t agree with this choice and why we would like the Organizing Committee reconsidered the matter before next editions of WTRC.

We believe that this rule, introduced for sure in order to definitely achieve a solution to the known problems of management of an international virtual team racing ranking (occasional composition of teams, difficulty in handling the changes of team by the skippers, and so on..), not only doesn’t give a solution to these problems, but it also generates further unpleasant complications, and especially denies to many skippers the opportunity to participate in the prestigious WTRC tournament together with their virtual friends, and just because they are of different nationalities.

1 – As first, we believe that a rule, as it could be accepted and respected, should be applicable and its application certain to everyone. We know that in virtual world many people and organizations tried to introduce blocks and discriminations linked to nationality criteria, but a few got success, given the particular nature of Internet world. And then how can you certify that a Virtual Skipper player certainly belongs to a country?

Activating the license, you just click on a flag to be assigned a national identity, but who can prove that a player, when joining, clicked on the same flag of own passport? And so we have first possible discrimination between those who told the truth and may not be able to participate and those who, while entering the WTRC, clicked on a more "convenient" flag. Who could do these checks? Who may surely say that all participants are really what they claim to be?

2 – The second question that we would ask is about the mode of introduction of this rule. When we started to disagree we were told that the decision was taken by the ITBYC Committee, who had asked the opinion of the representatives of different nations.

Then we would like to point out that none of the teams listed below, which certainly represent a large majority of Italian teams and players, was ever consulted about it. Italian virtual sailing is now, for number of members and organization, an entity second only to France, and probably an event that is named "world" should take this fact into consideration.

Obviously we do not debate the right of anyone to organize at own home a tournament under the rules he prefers, but if the intention is to manage an event of more widespread interest (or even global) might be good that the organizers regarded opinions of those who should then participate in the event.
3 - Another question that in our opinion should be taken into account is that of national representation, referenced under the subject of our reasoning.
Will the exclusion of teams in multinational composition perhaps give some sort of representation of the country of origin of each team? And which authority may today assign and certify this representation?
It would be easier to give official representation to teams, recognized and easily identifiable through their reference sites, as they are well identified the skippers belonging to a team. If the art. 1.3 of VTC rules was referring to the teams rather than the countries of origin, all problems we are discussing today might be considered immediately solved.

At last, we would like, therefore, that from this debate the intentions of the ITBYC Committee for next editions of WTRC would be clarified.
That is, if you intend to apply in the future the rules above (taking this way the risk to turn the WTRC in an event with less following and participation), or if you want to encourage and increase the participation of all the international teams, which probably would mean to review the rule 3.4 of the VTC rules.
In case of willingness by VTC Committee we suggest:
1. Modification of the rule in question, with regard to Clubs and not countries
2. The specification (in compliance with the ISAF regulations) that the team races can be played with a composition (2 vs 2, 3 vs 3 or 4 vs. 4) at any time defined by the specific NoR for each tournament.
3. The obligation for Clubs to register at VTC one or more teams that will have to retain the same name
4. The obligation for Clubs to specify, at the end of the period when transfers are allowed, the list of members in each team, in a list which will remain valid and unchanged throughout the official season (September-June) and where possible exceptions may be granted only by the VTC Committee.
5. The publication of names of the permanent members of VTC Committee.
6. In a cooperation framework that could lead to determine the same basic regulation for all forms of TR, the entry into the VTC Committee of two representatives elected by Italian clubs.
In case of acceptance of these proposals, the Italian virtual sailing organization would offer its commitment to implement and to cooperate with any TR event by applying this new version of the regulation.
We look forward to hearing your opinions, and take this opportunity to wish our GW to all WTRC 2011 participants
The Italian Teams:
CANAGLIE RACING TEAM
I-TEAM
GW*ALL
LUPIDIMARE
SCIOSCIO TEAM
SEPPIA TEAM
VISKIP
VSKIPPER
WARRIORS TEAM

[euphoria]

Hi Franco,

Thanks for your constructive approach.
The VTC Race Committe will get back to you when WTRC is over.

Harald

[euphoria]

We believe that this rule, introduced for sure in order to definitely achieve a solution to the known problems of management of an international virtual team racing ranking (occasional composition of teams, difficulty in handling the changes of team by the skippers, and so on..), not only doesn’t give a solution to these problems, but it also generates further unpleasant complications, and especially denies to many skippers the opportunity to participate in the prestigious WTRC tournament together with their virtual friends, and just because they are of different nationalities.

It actually gave a solution to the problems we had, but for sure we agree that a negative effect is the one you highlight in the end of the paragraph above. The original "problems" we had, was teams being created not just because the skippers were virtual frinds, but because they were strong team racers, already racing for existing teams.

1 – As first, we believe that a rule, as it could be accepted and respected, should be applicable and its application certain to everyone. We know that in virtual world many people and organizations tried to introduce blocks and discriminations linked to nationality criteria, but a few got success, given the particular nature of Internet world. And then how can you certify that a Virtual Skipper player certainly belongs to a country?

Activating the license, you just click on a flag to be assigned a national identity, but who can prove that a player, when joining, clicked on the same flag of own passport? And so we have first possible discrimination between those who told the truth and may not be able to participate and those who, while entering the WTRC, clicked on a more "convenient" flag. Who could do these checks? Who may surely say that all participants are really what they claim to be?

As we all have seen during WTRC 2011, there are methods to reveil cheating on nationality information. However no one in the VTC committee enjoy doing "police work", and we did not expect cheating being performed to the extent we have seen. However, with respect to the big majority who are obeying to the rules, this work had to be done.

2 – The second question that we would ask is about the mode of introduction of this rule. When we started to disagree we were told that the decision was taken by the ITBYC Committee, who had asked the opinion of the representatives of different nations.

Then we would like to point out that none of the teams listed below, which certainly represent a large majority of Italian teams and players, was ever consulted about it. Italian virtual sailing is now, for number of members and organization, an entity second only to France, and probably an event that is named "world" should take this fact into consideration.

Obviously we do not debate the right of anyone to organize at own home a tournament under the rules he prefers, but if the intention is to manage an event of more widespread interest (or even global) might be good that the organizers regarded opinions of those who should then participate in the event.

It is not right that we have not consulted any members of the teams listed in your post. But we do agree that we cannot host a world event, if the world doesn't agree with the way we are organizing it. However, we thought we did the right thing on this matter, and in particular with regards to the Italian teams which you represent. In fact no of the Italian teams had to be reorganized as a result of the change. Though this spring we learned through a very long forum thread at VSK Italia that parts of the Italian community had been misled by a few activists. Making them believe our motives for changing the rules were different than they actually were.

3 - Another question that in our opinion should be taken into account is that of national representation, referenced under the subject of our reasoning.
Will the exclusion of teams in multinational composition perhaps give some sort of representation of the country of origin of each team? And which authority may today assign and certify this representation?

No, we did not have any plans for such representation.

It would be easier to give official representation to teams, recognized and easily identifiable through their reference sites, as they are well identified the skippers belonging to a team. If the art. 1.3 of VTC rules was referring to the teams rather than the countries of origin, all problems we are discussing today might be considered immediately solved.

We agree that this would be easier, but it would not have solved the original problems, of which made us change the rules in the first place.

At last, we would like, therefore, that from this debate the intentions of the ITBYC Committee for next editions of WTRC would be clarified.

Yes, we agree, and we're in the process of doing this now. We will evaluate the rule and invite the team admins to give input on the prefered direction for the future. We will send an invitation very soon.

Best regards,
Harald, Chairman VTC Race Committee