I've heard this mentioned several times, especially for Philippe - but do you have actual data to back it up? I went to their rating/match history and could not really see wild rating fluctuations or obvious examples of match throwing, at least in the last 6 months or so (and Richard seems to play in every tournament he can).
They do sometimes lose to lower-rated players, but don't we all? Rapidly increasing junior, bad style matchup etc. can do it for you.
You could look at the complete ratings history and see some stuff that sticks out, but to truly decide for yourself if someone is sandbagging or just losing to someone who simply played better for one match, you need to know the player and his/her abilities, know their game, know their motivations, know their opponents, and know the situations.
If you got all that, and you are paying attention for long enough, you will have a very good basis to decide for yourself if someone is sandbagging and keeping their official rating significantly lower than if they competed to win every match in the tourneys vs that field of players you know.
A tip-off is your assessment over time knowing the player's level and their official rating... if those two are super different, like 100-200 points or more different, then you can be confident.
Rich D. will tell you up front he shows up to a tourney to WIN his primary event and have a good chance to win the next one up. He does not want to show up to the tourney if he is not confident of his chances to win. I have not seen how Phillipe rolls, but there is enough out there for everyone to make their opinion, like if he of Rich are really too worried about it.
I don't blame Rich too much. If he went all out every match tried to win at all costs (conserving enough energy for semis and finals) I am convinced his rating would be a lot higher. How much? Whatever. Rich stays around 2100s or so... given his true playing level, in the Northeast region, there really isn't a but a few players with any chance to win vs him in the final of U2250, U2200 or U2150, and their chances are not very good. Rich can afford to lose a match in Group stage and still advance and win. Call it pacing oneself, call it giving the little guy a chance at ratings points, call it whatever, you watch Rich and form your own opinions.
Myself, I play to win every time, and damn the torpedoes if my chances are slim, I come to compete and win, but it takes more skill and sometimes luck to win vs the crowd in the NE region in the events you qualify for, because the ones making the semis o final are playing at a much higher level than the ratings cutoff, like 1, likely 2 levels better. Korea is worse, you play two levels above the division average, you might not make the semis!
I am like Rich in that I show up to win. Often, my rating is right below the cutoff, I don't always win, but I fight for every match, lose some, get unlucky sometimes, but generally, I make the expected result in making the semis or final if I am among the top 5-6 rated players in the field.
Yes, along the way, you run into growing players, or a player who was just in a zone and also got some good breaks. That is how it goes sometime.
If I kept my rating around low to mid 1700s, I am sure I would win the U1800 event just about every time or at least make the finals.
I enter the lowest event I qualify for and the next one higher, maybe the finals if I feel a lot of energy. Rich pretty much does that and will nearly always be the favorite to win or make the final at least. No one should blame him too much, we just think he should be higher rated and play one level higher.
Again, in Korea it is 10x more fierce, at city level, at ALL the regional tourneys and the worst is the National tourneys that have 1000 players in Div 4. That Div should be for players in USATT 1600-1800 playing level range, but at a tourney that size, there are 20-30 each 1900-2000 level players (heck I tried to play Div 4 national when my level was around 1850ish and the director kicked me out !!! to Div 3 to die) and in Div 4 National, the top players are 2100-2200 level. I would have ZERO chance to make the round of 32 in one of those tourneys. Heck, Next Level is a solid 1950-2050 and would get waxed before round of 32, he would have to play out of hiz azz just to make round of 16 to die a spectacular death in front of 20 screaming enemy supporting 50 year old lady cheerers. I got waxed in group stage 0-3 ave score I made was 5 points, I told dude good luck and win the toruney, he said he was gunna die before round of 32.