Colorado Springs, Colo. (Feb. 6, 2018) – The 2018 Triple Crown Tour (TCT) guidelines, the outline and regulations for the 2018 club division season, were released today. Each year, the guidelines are adjusted as needed and reflect changes agreed upon by members of the club working group. The biggest changes to the guidelines for the 2018 season are the full implementation of the World Flying Disc Federation’s (WFDF) Mixed Gender Ratio Rule B and the addition of women’s growth bids for regional championship events.
After being introduced experimentally, and with a very positive response, at the 2017 U.S. Open Club Championships, WFDF’s Mixed Gender Ratio Rule B will be in effect for all 2018 TCT events. Mixed teams will flip at the beginning of each game to determine which end zone will regulate gender ratios, instead of using the “offense dictates” rule that has been commonplace in recent years.
Women’s growth bids are included in this year’s guidelines in an effort to help grow the women’s division. The growth bids use new scaling rules, for the women’s division only, which will add bids from sectionals to regionals. The new scaling rules allow women’s teams to earn sectional growth bids to increase the size of their regional championship, up to 16 teams. Any ranked teams that remain after standard bids are applied will earn a growth bid for their section, allocated in order, based on the highest ranked team that has not already earned their section a bid to regionals. The extra bids will increase access to regionals, providing many teams an additional local, cross-flight tournament where they can play top competition in their region.
Women’s teams have high levels of participation in the regular season, but the division is comparatively small in overall numbers. As a result, the women’s division is the only club division that did not have any 16-team regional championship events in 2017. The new growth bids reward teams that compete in the regular season and complete the 10 games required to earn a spot in the rankings. Increasing bids to regionals provides more women’s teams with cross-flight competition opportunities and an additional local tournament, combating challenges associated with travel, which are particularly difficult for new and developing teams.
The growth bids are an experiment USA Ultimate is testing for increasing the size of the women’s division. Going forward, USA Ultimate and the club working group will continue to seek additional ways to support already-existing local tournaments to help more teams get 10 regular-season games, while also considering the possibility of creating another Select Flight-level event to increase access for teams around the country.
More information about the new women’s growth bids is included in the 2018 Triple Crown Tour guidelines.