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 (1473 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 — 1 of 1 players here have that, and the rest show —. Choose it under Apply from to write this column instead of the Elo one. Field average margin is -5.4 a frame.
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 0 of 1 players.
| # | Player | Elo | Handicap | Suggested | Pts/frame | Margin HC | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mike Monegato | 1473 | 4 | scratch | -5.4 | scratch | +4 |
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.