[EricH]

Originally Posted by Jeff Waegelin

I think this is the most interesting description of <G14> that I've heard yet. In essence, what you are saying is that it should penalize the teams that are "riding the wave", so to speak, with good partners. A team that can put up enough points to double (or triple) their opponents' scores will be largely unaffected, but the teams that they're paired with will get a larger impact. Some may say that is unfair to the partner teams, but it might indeed help to have the rankings better represent individual performance.

That being said, I think this effect may be rather small, but it's certainly an interesting way to look at things.

It might actually be what was intended by the rule in the beginning. A while ago, I looked at the effects of <G14> on individual teams, sorted into 5 categories by performance. Interestingly enough, only 2 of the 5 would affect themselves seriously. Those are just the type that would have to use SCs a lot. But, when you factor in alliance pairings, there can be a huge impact.