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Head TD
Guide
DISTRIBUTION OF RESPONSIBILITIES
CASE’S LADDER HEAD TD RESPONSIBILITIES
Team Online Support (All HTDs)
HTD Monthly Meetings (All HTDs)
Tournament & Tournament Rules Page Review (All
HTDs)
Tournament Cancellations (All HTDs)
21-day Purging Reminders (_____)
Message Forum Daily Postings (_____)
Congratulations on becoming part of a truly elite group – the Head TD team of your ladder! As part of this team, you'll be a leader, setting the example for all TDs to follow and truly shaping the future of your ladder. Herein lie the tools to help you on your road to success as a Head TD.
Head TDs are the second level tier in our Tournament program. The Head TDs are responsible for keeping the TDs on their team organized and united towards the end goal of all TDs; keeping the Ladder and Tournaments fun and fair for everyone participating. Head TDs focus on one ladder in particular. Their job consists mainly of coordinating the Tournament Directors on their Ladder so that the tournament schedule runs smoothly and keeps the players’ options open for plenty of tournament competition. Overall, they act as the general tournament system coordinator on their ladder.
As a Head TD you will work with a TD Manager who will act as your personal trainer until you are comfortable with your duties and position as a Head TD and familiar with the tools available to you in carrying out this duty.
Log-in to the Head TD Tournament Center at http://tourneys.igl.net/tk/headtd/. Enter your TD name and password and click the link for your ladder.
The following is a brief introduction to the links found on your menu and what they will enable you to do. If you have any questions after reading this document please address them with your TD Manager.
This utility will allow you to administer any tournaments on your Ladder. You will use this tool to manage tourneys for TDs on your ladder when they are not able to be there for whatever reason. You can also utilize this tool to complete a tourney for a TD who has to leave before his/her tournament is finished. Clicking on this link will take you to a list of all of the tournaments scheduled for your ladder. Choose the applicable tournament number and from that point on it’s as if you’re administering your own tournament. This tool can make you the hero of the day!
Be sure to make an entry in the TD’s file any time you manage or take over a tournament for them and the reason you were required to do so.
This is just another way to get to administer tournaments. If you already know the tournament number, you can use this link. You can also use this to find all the tournaments created by a particular TD. Once you are there, it’s the same as above.
Once a TD has been trained in the Swiss System format you can use this tool to approve them to host Swiss Style tournaments. Simply select the Tournament Director from the pull-down menu and click Setup S.S. T.D. No one should be given Swiss approval until they have been thoroughly trained on administering a Swiss System tournament. When someone is approved, please email the other members of your HTD team so everyone is kept on the same page.
This tool allows you to change the current “status” of a Tournament Director on your ladder. When a status change is done on a TD for any reason, the TD’s file should be noted accordingly. The available choices are:
Any new Tournament Director added to the ladder is automatically on “in training” status. On this status, they can not administer tournaments, but they are able to play in tournaments. Once they have been trained, you can change them to “Active” status.
Active is the default status for all TD’s. They can administer tournaments and play in tournaments. If they do not remain active and host a minimum of one tournament every 21 days, they will automatically purge from the director’s list.
This status is for an active TD and player who may on occasion not be able to host within the 21 day period. This might be used is if a TD is undergoing LadderOp Training, or if your gaming site is having problems. This status choice should not be made without approval from your TD Manager. **
Use this status if one of your TDs requests a leave of absence. It is only necessary to use this if someone will be gone longer than twenty-one days without holding a tournament due to unavoidable circumstances in his or her personal life. When submitting a vacation request, the TD should use the “Email Head TD’s” link at the TD Administration Center and give their name, a brief reason for the request and the expected return date. If the TD has not contacted his/her Head TD prior to their return date, remove them from vacation status. While on vacation status, a TD is not permitted to play in any tournaments. **
** This utility should NEVER be used just to keep a TD from being purged for inactivity if they don’t have a good reason for not fulfilling their duties.
This is a link to the same “Create Tournament” that is found at the TD Menu.
This utility will allow you to enter a note into the tournament record of any member of your Ladder. Simply enter the name of the player and click “Edit Player Notes.” When you have finished entering the notes, click “Add Entry to Notes File.”
If a TD reports having had a problem with a player, or if you observe a player causing problems during tournament play, enter a note in the file. Anytime you issue a warning or request a penalty for a player, for any reason, it must be entered into the player’s notes. Note date, time, and tournament number if not noted the same day of occurrence.
This is your “journal” of sorts. The more information you enter, the better off you will be. Your fellow HTDs and your TD Manager will look to this file for proper documentation should an incident arise. It is always better to have too many notes than to have too few notes. J
This utility will allow you to enter a note into the file of any Tournament Director on your ladder. Select the TD from the pull-down menu and click “Edit T.D.’s Notes”. When you have finished entering the notes, click “Add Entry to Notes File”.
There are a several things that should be entered in a TD’s file, including, but not limited to: training a new TD, a TD requesting vacation status, a complaint from a player, not showing up for a scheduled tournament, being late for a scheduled tournament, etc. Be sure to note any conversation you had with the TD in regards to the circumstance and what the outcome of the conversation was.
Again, it is better to have too much information than too little!
This is a simple way to communicate with the other members of your Head TD team. Communicate often to promote teamwork!
This is a very valuable tool that will allow you to E-mail all the TDs on your ladder with important updates and announcements.
Use this communication tool to keep all of your team on the same page. You can E-mail meeting announcements, rule changes, special tournaments of the month, etc. to your entire TD Staff at one time. Again, communicate often to promote teamwork!
Note: Make sure you choose the correct Email Tool so as not to email all the TDs on something intended only for the Head TDs!
This will take you to the Tournament Director forum, a private message forum for use by the TDs, HTDs and TD Managers of Case’s Ladders. This is great place to share creative ideas and offer general support. Important updates are posted here too, so you should stop by as often as possible.
This utility allows you to calculate the LadderBux payouts in bracket-style, single-elimination tournaments. Just enter the Number of teams, Players per team, Teams per match, Entry Fee, Membership level (of player), Finishing Place and click ‘Calculate Bux’.
This very useful utility allows you to check a player’s entire history of LadderBux winnings, redemptions, entry fees paid and any other modifications posted. This log also documents any LadderBux you receive as a TD for hosting tournaments. Should you or one of your TD’s ever have any questions about whether or not a TD or a player received credit for an in-the-money finish in a tournament or other LadderBux concern, you should check here.
This utility allows you to approve or decline any new TD applications on your ladder and place them on a waiting list where they will remain until a TD Manager gives final approval, making them a Tournament Director. Before making any decisions you should read over each application carefully and review the applicant’s time on the ladder, age, history, etc. If there are several Head TDs on your ladder, you should each view the application prior to approving or denying it. You might also consider speaking with the LadderOps on your Ladder if you are uncertain about an individual.
If you click on the application number itself you will be taken to the Player’s Notes file. This can be used to check if there are existing notes about a particular applicant, or it can also be used as a “voting booth” for all the Head TDs to enter their comments about an applicant.
Click 2 to approve an application. To decline an application, enter a reason in the appropriate field, and then click 1. After you have reviewed all the outstanding applications click the “Process Applications” button. NEVER decline an application without providing a reason.
This tool can be used to remove a TD’s ability to host Swiss System tournaments. Select the TD’s name from the pull-down menu and click Remove S.S. T.D.
This link will take you to a list of all the incomplete tournaments on your ladder. If you need to remove a tournament from the schedule, select the tournament’s number from the pull-down menu, enter the reason for removal and click “Remove Tournament.” This should only be done to remove a tournament for a TD who is having a problem removing it themselves. If a TD does not show up to manage their tourney and you cannot host it yourself or find someone else to take it over for them, please remove the tournament so the users aren’t left waiting and wondering what is going on.
This link will take you to the standard TD Administration Menu.
You can access the tournament calendar for your ladder here.
This utility displays a list of all the TDs on your ladder and their email addresses and current statistics. Review this list periodically to see how many days it has been since a TD last hosted a tournament. If a TD is approaching 21 days, you may want to send a friendly reminder urging them to host and checking in with them to see if everything is okay.
This will show you the current waiting list for TDs on your ladder. Applicants are listed by membership level (Diamond, Platinum, and Gold) first and time of submittal second. This is the same list that the applicants themselves see.
This link allows you to download the latest version of this guide!
As a Head TD you will be responsible for several duties above and beyond your general duties as a Tournament Director. Failure to carry out these tasks will be grounds for being replaced as they are very important. If at any time you feel that you do not have the time or desire to continue in this capacity please let us know as soon as possible in order to prevent your Ladder from suffering from neglect. We count on the Head TDs to keep the individual TD teams organized and focused so please always keep this goal in mind.
You and your fellow Head TDs (on your Ladder) will be responsible for holding at least one meeting per month for your TD Team. It is highly suggested that you hold more than that whenever possible, but one is the minimum requirement. The Head TDs should work together and cooperate in coming up with a time that will work best for most. If it is hard to coordinate a time that will work for everyone on your team on a consistent basis then I suggest holding the meetings on staggered days and times so that everyone can participate at least part of the time. At least 24 hours before each meeting, an E-mail should be sent to your TD Manager announcing the day, time and place that the meeting will be held so that the TD Manager may attend if available.
At each meeting one of the Head TDs should take the responsibility of being the ‘secretary’ and mailing a brief summary of topics covered to each of the TDs on their team. At the top of the E-mail should be included the ‘roll call’ from the meeting (in other words, a list of all who attended). A copy of this E-mail should also be sent to your TD Manager’s E-mail. The subject should include the name of your Ladder, the date of the meeting and the type of meeting (such as TD meeting – indicating that the entire team was present, Head TD meeting – indicating that only the Head TDs were present, etc.) that was held. Example: YGin TD Team meeting summary—7/10/02.
It is not required that all Head TDs attend each meeting, but it is highly recommended. We realize that there will be times when one of you might have a prior commitment and that is fine, but in general you should try to schedule the meetings when as many of you as possible can be there so that you all stay on the same page. Except for very rare situations, the entire Head TD team should be together for at least one meeting per week, or at least be in active conversation via E-mail.
It is very important that the TD team on your Ladder have good communication. As a Head TD you will be responsible for helping to make sure that goal becomes and stays a reality. The more that you talk with each other the less likely you are to have misunderstandings and problems stemming from a lack of communication. You can do this in whichever way works best for the members of your team. Some Head TDs have a quick daily meeting to inform each other of anything that they are currently involved in. Some teams have each of the Head TDs send a daily E-mail when they go offline for the day letting the other members of their team know briefly about anything that happened that day. Some leave ICQ messages for each other with updates. Whatever works best for you is fine with us as long as there is some good form of exchanging information.
Again, this is one of your primary duties as a Ladder Head TD. It is important to note that if the communication is found to be lacking or breaking down between the members of your team it is to you as a Head TD that we will be looking in trying to determine the problem and how to fix it. If you have any problems in this area or need help with suggestions or solutions please feel free to address them with another Head TD, your TD Manager, or Nike or Patti personally.
It is also very important that you try to work closely with your LadderOps. When something happens in a tournament that requires a warning letter be sent to a player cc: the email to the Ops on your ladder. Open communication between the two groups is important, as you are ALL part of the same team essentially.
Any email that is sent to TD’s, players or LadderOps should
also be copied to your TD Manager.
The more organized as a team you are, the more fun you will have. Communication brings a level of understanding and leaves no one in the dark, allowing everyone to have fun with his or her various roles. That, after all, is what this is all about!
When a new TD is added to your team they will receive their initial training from the Head TDs. You should review the TD Guide, cover the basics and introduce them to the tools and utilities. A great place to do your training is the TD Training center (http://www.igl.net/tdtraining/). This allows your TDs to create training tournaments without the pressure or real players and gives you, as the Trainer, the time needed to go through all the basics. It is up to you as a Head TD to familiarize them with the individual practices on your Ladder. Each TD team has its own quirks and styles.
In light of this it is important to realize that you will ultimately be the determinant as to what kind of TDs you end up with. I am sure that you are aware how important it is that a new TD receives good, thorough training, so I won’t bore you with a reminder (oh wait…I just did!).
As a Head TD you will assign the new TD to assist a veteran TD or a Head TD for each of two ‘training’ tournaments. It is helpful to have them complete each of these tournaments with different TDs in case one forgets to tell them something. Once they have assisted with the two tournaments you should assist them in setting up their first tournament. When at all possible a Head TD should try to be available to play in or assist the new TD with his/her first tourney. If a Head TD is not available, please find a Veteran TD to be there and assist.
If you ever feel that you need more TDs or have too many please let a TD Manager know. It is hard for us to determine what size team you need as each Ladder and its needs are a little different, so please don’t hesitate to share your opinion! Along the same lines, it is not always evident to us when a TD goes into early retirement (stops hosting) without letting us know. If you have TDs on your lists that are not active please let a TD Manager know so they can be removed. Any TD that does not host in 21 days will be automatically purged.
Only a Head TD can request a tourney penalty to be imposed on a player from their Ladder. These requests should be submitted via e-mail to your TD Manager and copied to the rest of your Head TD team. When the TDs on your Ladder feel a situation might warrant a penalty they will be responsible for turning it over to you. After hearing what they have to say if you both decide that a penalty is the only outcome that will suffice you should take it up with your TD Manager.
This does not mean that we want you running around with both guns drawn playing ‘bad cop’ by any means. Penalties should ALWAYS be a last resort measure. Whenever possible you should try to come to a solution that does not involve a penalty. It is almost always possible to work things out satisfactorily for all involved if you take the time to talk to all parties involved. You should consider yourself a mediator rather than an enforcer when disputes arise. The most successful Head TD Teams rarely have to resort to penalties in solving Ladder problems. If you gain the respect and support of your Tournament players then you will almost always also have their cooperation. Remember always that 99% of the people that are playing are after the same end goal—fun. Keep in mind that above all else each and every one of these individuals is a CUSTOMER of Case’s Ladder and whenever possible we’d prefer to reform and keep them over kicking them off and losing them to a competitor.
A few more points about penalties:
We NEVER penalize someone without giving them a warning and a chance to ‘shape up’ first. This warning might be issued in chat for situations that are happening right there at the moment, but they must also always be followed up with an E-mail reminder of the warning that was issued. As always, be sure to note the warning and the incident in the player’s notes files. Also, you may want to copy the Op’s on your ladder so they know of any problems that may fall out of the tournament situation and end up in an Op’s lap.
I know it is impossible to forget past history when dealing with a player, and I am not asking you to. It is important to find that happy medium where you both keep in mind the player’s history when making decisions but at the same time don’t hold it against them TOO much. Anyone can make an ‘Oops!’ and change. Everyone deserves a second chance.
It is the duty of the TD Manager who handles your Ladder to determine what penalty will be issued. You might not always agree with their decision but for many reasons we have found it works best this way. We have a guide that we follow when determining penalties in order to remain consistent as much as possible Ladder-wide. All you need to do when submitting your Head TD Report is let us know that a penalty is recommended and requested and the TD Manager handling the case will take it from there. They will handle notifying the player, notating the penalty on their record and letting you know the final outcome. You will then be responsible for letting the rest of the Head TDs on your team know what the result of this situation was.
As you probably know it is very difficult (a lot of times not even possible) to ban a person from playing in a tournament. For this reason we will VERY rarely attempt to permanently ban a player from joining a tournament. We have found in the past that it is usually unsuccessful and only results in more headaches for all involved. Please don’t even request that we ban a player except for in the most heinous situations. (I am talking about permanent banning here…not the tourney penalty box!)
As a HeadTD, you should never interfere
or try to take over a tourney when the TD is there; take notes and handle
things afterwards. TDs
are the bosses of their own tourneys and NEVER should anyone try to mess with
their authority in the middle of a tourney.
If something is truly a crisis, handle it via private message or private
chat. You can’t afford to have a TD lose
the respect of his/her player’s by “scolding” in public.
We don’t ever want to see Head TDs throwing their weight around in chat, threatening penalties, etc. This is not the way to gain the respect of the users, trust me. The most common result of this type of behavior (because yes, it has happened in the past) is an instant flood of E-mails to the support link email address demanding the removal of that TD or Head TD. Because you carry such power as a Ladder Head TD we are very careful to follow up on reports of such behavior. Abuse of your power is grounds for immediate removal from the Head TD program. It reflects badly on you, your TD team and Case’s Ladder in general and for those reasons will not be tolerated.
At the end of
this guide, you will find two additional pages.
These pages are a listing of the different responsibilities of the Head
TD team. Each HTD should review the
list individually, taking some time to just think about it. Make notes as to which member of your Team
should be assigned each task. The Team
should then meet to openly distribute the responsibilities, filling in the
spaces with the name of the individual HTD assigned. A copy should then be sent to each other as
well as your TDM. You may swap
responsibilities as time goes on, so as to gain experience in as many tasks as
possible. Sometimes, you may just need a
change to keep things fresh.
We all have
strengths and limitations. Capitalize on each other's strengths; support each
other's limitations. We do not have
weaknesses, since limitations are just things we are not quite good at yet. Think in terms of each other's
strengths. Assign those tasks
first. Eventually, you will gain
knowledge through experience.
Use each other
as sounding boards. Become masters of
the tasks together. Learn from each other's experience. Most importantly, COMMUNICATE WITH EACH
OTHER. DOCUMENTATION IS YOUR FRIEND!
Wow! You should now be ready to start your job as a Head TD. We’ve tried to include all of the tips and tools necessary to enable you to do your job well in this document, but I’m sure we will discover many things that have been forgotten over time.
If you have suggestions for improvement, please feel free to contact your TD Manager or to email tdmanager@igl.net.
Now go have some fun!!
Attached – Case’s Ladder Head TD Responsibilities Chart
· Responds to compliments, and notes accordingly, cc’ing the HTD team.
· Investigates and respond to concerns, issues, etc.
· E-mails and notes TD files accordingly, cc’ing the HTD team.
· E-mails and notes follow-ups, cc’ing the HTD team.
· Creates and disseminates Meeting Notice. (To Be Assigned)
· Creates and disseminates TD Monthly Updates (containing meeting informational updates). (TBA)
· E-mailing of meeting minutes. (TBA)
· Noting HTD files on attendance and/or absence information. (TBA)
· Creates and disseminates Meeting Notice. (TBA)
· Creates and disseminates (if necessary) Meeting Agenda. (TBA)
· Meeting Hosting (TBA)
· E-mailing of meeting minutes. (TBA)
· Noting TD files on attendance and/or absence information. (TBA)
· Review TD applicant responses and note files with feedback. (All HTDs)
·
Investigate applicant
for length on time on ladder and number of games. (All HTDs)
·
Op investigation on candidates
when necessary. (TDM)
· Voting privileges. (All HTDs)
· Approval/denial upon all HTDs final review. (TBA)
· Request to TDM for placement to TD Trainee status. (TBA)
· Disseminate the Welcome and Training Information letter. (TBA)
· Disseminate all training materials including rules, policies, procedures (TBA)
·
Review all training
materials including rules, policies, and procedures. (All HTDs)
· Assist in the downloading and installation of necessary software and message services. (All HTDs)
· Assist and review in the preparation of lobby and forum announcements. (All HTDs)
· Assist and review in the creation of a Tournament Rules Page. (All HTDs)
·
Supervise
initial tournament. (All HTDs)
·
Document each tutorial in TD
file. (All HTDs)
·
Update and/or retrain returning
TDs. (All HTDs)
·
TD training on paper tourneys. (All HTDs)
· TD training on Double Elimination format. (All HTDs)
· TD training on Swiss System format. (TBA)
· Reviews individual tournaments for calendar, time, and variety.
· E-mails and notes TD files accordingly, cc’ing the HTD team.
· Notes TD files accordingly and include reason, cc’ing the HTD team.
· Follow up TD file if additional reasons are presented.
· E-mails TDs when a pattern of cancellation occurs, cc’ing the HTD team.
· Reviews links for incomplete tournaments. (All HTDs)
· Maintains paper record of TDs Status beginning and ending dates including:
· TD Trainees.
· Personal Injury, Extended Illness, Personal Leave.
· Disciplinary Action.
· E-mails and notes TD files accordingly, cc’ing the HTD team.
· E-mail reminders between day 15 and 18.
· E-mails and notes TD files accordingly, cc’ing the HTD team.
· Post tournament name, tournament type information, time, bux, and jump number.
· Remind TDs to post recently created tournament as a follow-up posting.
· Remind TDs to post tournament winners.