Topic:
"Seventh Heaven" -- New Pente Tournament Now Open For Registration
Replies:
16
Views: 100,792
Pages:
2
Last Post:
Feb 13, 2010, 4:31 AM
by:
jhs55
Posts:
542
Registered:
May 9, 2002
From:
Northeast USA
"Seventh Heaven" -- New Pente Tournament Now Open For Registration
Posted:
Jan 1, 2010, 3:53 AM
To All Pente Players:
I just wanted to draw your attention to the Tournament Tab and Forum where a new Pente tournament has been created that I will oversee as Tournament Director.
This tournament is now open for registration and will be open for registration for about a month so that we can try to get a good turn out for it.
HOWEVER, before signing up, please read the custom rules for this tournament. This is a bit of an experiment and things will work much differently than other tournaments in the past.
One of the major downsides to tournaments has been that they often drag on forever because opponents are unwilling or unable to coordinate a time to play their matches and that holds everything up for all of the other players. This kills the excitement of the tournament and people lose interest.
Introducing: "Tournament Tuesdays"
Instead of two players being asked to communicate with each other and coordinate a mutually convenient time to play their match, the time of your match has been chosen for you. THERE WILL BE NO FLEXIBILITY AND NO EXCEPTIONS to this so PLEASE decide beforehand if the chosen time will work for you and ONLY register for this tournament if you can commit to play during the chosen time each week.
People that sign up for tournaments with little or no intention of actually participating has been an ongoing problem and with this new format it might even be worse. So PLEASE, again, only sign up if you are quite sure that you are going to play. Forfeits are bad for tournaments, and this new format might actually increase the forfeit rate -- but you know what? Forfeits are not as bad as tournaments that drag on forever and ruin the interest in tournaments for the entire community. So give this a try and let's have some fun on TOURNAMENT TUESDAYS!
Posts:
2,220
Registered:
Mar 4, 2007
From:
San Francisco
Age:
45 Home page
Re:
Posted:
Jan 1, 2010, 8:44 AM
wow cool Up2. so whats the timer? 7/7? double elimination or single? max number of players that can join? number of days from weekly dead line for sign up before tourney? is this one tourney across several tuesdays? or does a new tourney start and complete every tuesday? whats the rank restrictions? i assume none. is there a prize for winning? is there a prize for second runner up? are there separate sections for rank classifications? is there a new room to play this tourney in? when does sign up start? when does the tourney begin? does set based ratings apply to these games? i assume so where do we sign up at?
zoeyk
Scire hostis animum - Intelligere ludum - Nosce te ipsum - Prima moventur conciliat - Nolite errare
Posts:
542
Registered:
May 9, 2002
From:
Northeast USA
Re:
Posted:
Jan 1, 2010, 7:13 PM
Thanks for your interest Zoey...
> wow cool Up2. so whats the timer? 7/7?
Yes! The timer will indeed be 7/7
> double elimination or single?
This one will be double elimination. I think Swiss would work ok also but double elimination was chosen instead.
> max number of players that can join?
I don't remember if there's any maximum. I think a good number would be 16 - 32 players. So let's get people registering!
> number of days from weekly dead line for sign up > before tourney?
Hmm, not sure about this one, I think this is N/A, but I'll get back to it later if necessary...
> is this one tourney across several tuesdays?
YES! I wasn't sure how clear this was from the rules so hopefully I can clear up any confusion. The idea is that one tournament will be played all the way to completion in about two months by completing every round in one week. To enforce this completion, everyone will check in with the director on Tournament Tuesdays and get started playing their set with 7/7 settings at around 9:00 PM. IF several sets are played without a winner and it is after 11:00 PM, the match MAY be postponed until the next day, Wednesday, at the same time, where the match will be continued under the same rules. This will continue every day until the match is completed -- BUT part of the reason for the 7/7 timer is that several sets should be able to be completed in two hours so it will be rare to have to postpone a match until the next day. Once this match is completed, everyone that still remains in the Tournament will play to meet again on the following Tournament Tuesday to play their next round match. A Double Elimination will take maybe 6 - 8 weeks to complete. So PLEASE set aside a couple hours on Tuesday evenings for a couple of months to complete this tournament, or DON'T sign up for this one -- wait for the next one.
(NOTE: I realize that this time will not work for everyone, specifically European players will find this time very inconvenient. Hopefully in the future we can set up other similar tournaments with different times to accomodate other players.)
> or does a new tourney start and complete every > tuesday?
No, this is NOT what is happening. For a brief period the Tournament description included "Speed Pente" in the description so this might have been confusing. That has been updated since this is NOT a speed tournament that completes all in one day. This is a NORMAL tournament that will run over 6 - 8 rounds of play, but you will not be coordinating playing times with your opponent -- you will show up to play at the designated time.
> whats the rank restrictions? i assume none.
For this one there are no restrictions. If this becomes a popular format we can try other tournaments with restrictions. If we had a large enough player base interested in tournaments I'd like to see one for every "color" rating.
> is there a prize for winning?
The prize for winning this time will be eternal glory. I have a unique idea for a cash prize tourney but it would require some software changes ... I'll explain that below for those interested.
> is there a prize for second runner up?
No.
> are there separate sections for rank classifications?
Not this time. I'm more interested in finding as many players as possible that can commit to playing under the strict rule set.
> is there a new room to play this tourney in?
I assume there will be a Tournament Room once registration closes. All players should report to the Tournament Lobby during the check-in period and get the attention of the Tournament Director to verify attendance and then play their match as soon as possible.
> when does sign up start?
Registration is now open! Click the Tournament Tab, carefully read through the custom rules and sign up!
There is a difference between registering for the tournament and "signing-in" for your current match. Every week you must report to the Tournament room at the designated room and make sure the Tournament Director sees you. If your opponent doesn't show, please wait there until the Sign-In period is over and again wait for the Tournament Director to see you waiting there so that you will win your match by forfeit.
> when does the tourney begin?
This Tournament will begin on the first Tuesday in February. Matches will be played every Tuesday until the tournament is complete.
> does set based ratings apply to these games? i assume > so.
I'm not positive if the set-based ratings have been applied to Tournament rooms, but I believe they are. All Tournament matches should be played as Rated matches as per standard Tournament rules.
> where do we sign up at?
Click on the Tournament Tab and find the Seventh Heaven tournament listed under Upcoming Tournaments. Read through the custom rules first and then register if you are interested!
-------------
Here's my idea for a cash tournament in the distant future. Everyone contributes a Tournament Entry Fee via Paypal or something similar, say $5. Assume we get 32 signups. Prize Pool = $160
Next, we play a single elimination (or double elimination) tournament, but no one gets totally eliminated. You continue playing bracket style matches until everyone's final placement is exactly determined. For example, your last match might determine if you get 24th or 25th place in the tournament. I've actually designed double elimination brackets for 16 and 32 players that handle this added complication, but there's nothing currently like this in the software.
When the tournament is completed, the top 3 players (out of 32) will win half of the prize pool, as follows: 1st Place: 25% ($40) 2nd Place: 15% ($24) 3rd Place: 10% ($16)
The other half of the prize pool ($80) will be paid out to a lucky lottery winner! The lottery winner will be chosen at random using the following system: 4th Place: 29 lottery balls 5th Place: 28 lottery balls 6th Place: 27 lottery balls ... ... 30th Place: 3 lottery balls 31st Place: 2 lottery balls 32nd Place: 1 lottery ball
All of these lottery balls will be thrown into a drum, thoroughly mixed together, and then the lucky winner is chosen.
Players who do not participate all the way to the end would lose their rights to the lottery participation. A single no-show forfeit in the middle of the tournament may or may not be acceptable based on the specific rules for that tournament, the number of rounds, etc.
This gives average players who have virtually no shot at the winner's prize purse another reason to pay to sign up for this tournament. The lottery structure provides a reason why each and every match is important even if you've already lost two matches (double elimination) and been knocked out of contention for the winner's prize purse. So this should cut down on players simply not showing up for their matches because they've been mathematically eliminated (this happens in the Swiss system a lot). Every step higher up in the final standings that you can get provides you with slightly better odds to win the lottery and the lion's share of the prize pool so all matches will be played hard by all players until the end!
I would LOVE to organize and run a tournament with this format some day, I think it would be a blast. I think this would work especially well for a live OTB tournament where you could have actual lottery balls and the excitement of the lottery drawing at the end during the prize payout ceremony.
I would really like to play in this tournament, but unfortunately I will be in class from 9 to 10:30 Eastern time every Tuesday night starting 1/19. Am I out of luck?
It's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.
Posts:
542
Registered:
May 9, 2002
From:
Northeast USA
Re:
Posted:
Jan 7, 2010, 1:37 PM
Hey Karl,
Wow, those are some late classes!
Yes, don't bother signing up for this one. Since the intent is wrap these tournaments up in just a couple of months, the hope is to start up more tournaments like this more frequently. Perhaps we can get one started every month or so. Days of the week and/or playing time will vary to try and accomadate more players.
Posts:
542
Registered:
May 9, 2002
From:
Northeast USA
Re: "Seventh Heaven" -- New Pente Tournament Now Open For Registration
Posted:
Jan 8, 2010, 11:15 PM
Hi, smptexasma,
If you do not have to be at work until midnight this should work out for you perfectly!
Play times are Tuesday evenings (and possibly the following day when matches are still tied at the end of scheduled play) from 9:00 EST to 11:00 EST PM. That's 8:00 - 10:00 PM Central time so you should have plenty of time to make it to work after having a little fun playing in a Pente tournament!
If after checking your schedule you will not be able to make it to the scheduled times, please do not sign up for this one, we'll have more tournaments soon.
Posts:
542
Registered:
May 9, 2002
From:
Northeast USA
Re: "Seventh Heaven" -- New Pente Tournament Now Open For Registration
Posted:
Jan 8, 2010, 11:23 PM
Let's go people! So far we only have two signups so let's get this going. I would sign up also but I'm not sure if I'll be able to pay attention to my own matches AND monitor who is showing up to play at the same time so I was going to sit this one out to see how it goes.
I appreciate people not signing up if they know they will not be able to make it to the schedule play times, but let's not get too concerned about the committment. For most players it will typically be just a few weeks on Tuesday evenings for a half-hour or so. The whole tournament will last less than two months on a weekly basis.
Where are the regular players? Why haven't you signed up yet!?
Part of the fun will be that you can socialize with other players and actually watch their tournament matches since you KNOW when they will be playing! This will have a similar energy to speed tournaments which most people enjoy.
So let's go people! Double elimination tournaments don't make a whole lot of sense with less than about 8 people, and I was hoping to hit 16. Sign up already if you can make it!
Posts:
542
Registered:
May 9, 2002
From:
Northeast USA
Re: "Seventh Heaven" -- New Pente Tournament Now Open For Registration
Posted:
Jan 15, 2010, 11:11 PM
There are just a couple of weeks left to sign up for this tournament! Signups have been scarce so far. I assume people like to wait till the last minute on these things but please go ahead and check your schedule and register for this tournament if you have no conflicts and feel like playing a fun little Pente tournament!
Posts:
2,220
Registered:
Mar 4, 2007
From:
San Francisco
Age:
45 Home page
Re: "Seventh Heaven" -- New Pente Tournament Now Open For Registration
Posted:
Jan 16, 2010, 5:44 AM
i dont do 7 minute rated,..if its unrated is ok, or if its rated but 20 minutes also ok,.. but when it comes to regular pente rated i dont liked to feel rushed on my moves. speeds ok since i dont take those points seriously.
z
Scire hostis animum - Intelligere ludum - Nosce te ipsum - Prima moventur conciliat - Nolite errare
Posts:
542
Registered:
May 9, 2002
From:
Northeast USA
Re: "Seventh Heaven" -- New Pente Tournament Now Open For Registration
Posted:
Jan 17, 2010, 12:58 AM
Perfectly understandable. Everyone has their preferences.
There is a reason for the shorter time settings. Mainly, so that we can actually get matches played and completed and move through and finish up the tournament in a timely manner. In a two hour window, many sets can be played and it will be unlikely for so many draws to occur that the match needs to be postponed until the following day. That should be helpful for people's schedules so that they do not have to necessarily leave Wednesday evenings open in addition to Tuesdays.
We'll see how this goes. Perhaps future tournaments will have longer time settings. However, I'm not sure that a 30 minute timer would work in this fixed-time format.
Anyone else up for trying this out? I'd like to see signups increase at least a little bit since this is set up to be a bracket style tournament. If the numbers remain small perhaps we can switch it to round robin if players are interested.
Posts:
542
Registered:
May 9, 2002
From:
Northeast USA
Re: "Seventh Heaven" -- New Pente Tournament Now Open For Registration
Posted:
Jan 31, 2010, 9:24 PM
Hello Pente Players,
This tournament will be postponed one week until 2/9/2010. Other tournaments have had some issues since the recent software upgrades and I want to make sure that these issues are resolved before moving forward with this tournament.
