So we have 17 teams at this time. As always, suggestions on section make-up are welcome from all here. I'll make a final decision on Friday, at around 22:00.

Update: seems we may have a late-joining team, which I think everyone would agree is beneficial.

Here are my initial thoughts admittedly prior to late-joining team

1. I think bottom section has to be 4 teams as otherwise one of RainbowWarriors_Amarilla and RainbowWarriors_Verde is likely to be eliminated as they're both 5 player teams with 3 shared players
2. I think Fischer Section may well be best with 4 teams as Archbishops_ArchDukes and NewBlood/Leuko are only 9 points apart and NewBlood/Plasma would clash with NewBlook/Leuko.
3. I think main call is whether to place Arequepay (1922) in section up where rest of the teams are 2018.25 to 1936.25 or in the lower section where rest of the teams are 1900.25 to 1829.0. I think this would depend on where the extra team slots in.

So it would mean assuming we have a late joining team it would be 4/4/6/4 or 4/6/4/4

I don't think there would be any clashes with that proposal. Should the additional team fall through then it's a 4/4/5/4 or 4/5/4/4 grouping that would be best

We now officially have 18 teams.

So it would mean assuming we have a late joining team it would be 4/4/6/4 or 4/6/4/4

Sounds good!

Have fun in T85, everyone!

Even though the total number dropped a bit (from 21 to 18), the overall configuration looks quite good. My primary suggestion would be 4-6-4-4, but of course 4-4-6-4 works as well, as KRM and pchesso have already pointed out.

Recent roster changes might suggest 5-5-4-4 as well?

LightSpartans does definitely seem more like a Fischer Team with new additions so Fischer Section should probably be at least 5 teams. 5-5-4-4 seems sensible unless Archbishops_ArchDukes wants to play up a section to make it 6-4-4-4.

5-4-5-4 is also a possible option since Arequepay is kind of between the two sections. Overall I'm pretty much fine with any of these possibilities.

I went with a 4-4-6-4 split. Spassky is a bit more unbalanced than usual, but my reasoning is that the difference between the top and bottom team is still less than the top and bottom teams in Fischer, so moving WorldWideWolves up to Fischer seems hard to justify.

Thanks for the work and the explanation, sbc.

There are two Fischer teams (RW, LS) in the rating vicinity of WWW, so I think WWW would have fit in there well; hence my 5-5-4-4 suggestion. The rating gap within the Fischer section is huge, anyway; WWW wouldn't add much to the gap that already exists.

Putting WWW in Spassky, with no team in their rating vicinity, creates yet another big rating gap, this time within Spassky.

But, we'll accept the decision, of course, and look forward to playing, especially the stronger teams!

I would assume the rationale is that a 5 team section gives all teams 4 matches plus a final while a 4 team section gives 6 games with a double round robin. Whether having a bigger rating gap justifies more games is a judgement call.

Having said that I have no issue with groupings chosen and appreciate all the work taken to get TL organised.

This looks good, with as many games as possible for everyone. Thanks once again for your work, sbc, and a great season to all!

Pairings are now up. As always I encourage people to have a look and report any errors they find.