Mike,
I really wish that Fargorate was patterned more off the way that the U.S. Chess Federation handles it's ratings... Any individual player can buy their own membership, and any games they play in a rated event are rated. No need to get an entire league to sign on.. Players can hold their own 8-man tournaments without a league license, etc....
I understand your goal is to get large groups of people paying into the system at once, so you can make a profit, so you are going after the leagues, but it leaves international players who play at more of a regional level, and already have well-developed league systems in place, out in the cold.
We need some kind of option for an individual to register as a tournament director, and be able to hold any size tournament they wish (including two-man), and report to Fargorate. I just don't see that option when I look at the LMS site, and I feel it's purpose is to try to get area leagues to adopt en masse. That simply will...not...happen... in Europe, because their league systems, websites, and reporting, are already FAR better than anything the U.S. has in any of it's major leagues...
Am I missing this option somewhere? The more tournaments that are held at a local level here in Europe, that we can get Fargo-rated, the more European mid-level players will have a FargoRate.. And the more that have a FargoRate, the more likely it is that the larger area Liga systems will mandate Fargorating across the board, and start charging the yearly fee.
Of course, to get off the ground, every local Fargorated tourney would require the yearly Fargorate fee from each participating player. Is there some option for this?No fee required
Also, in the USCF system, I can look up any player in the system, and look at every single game/match they've played, since they were a USCF member. This allows me to see if they've made a recent improvement to their game, I can predict what my rating change will be if I will/lose/draw to them, etc. The system is extremely addictive, and pushes people to improve.