FIBS Board backgammon forum

I am proposing to run an Invitational International Team Tournament on Fibs. I sent several fibsters a draft form of the rules and the format and the responses that I have received so far have all been supportive. Encouraged by this, here are the rules. I welcome the opinions of anybody who wants to express them. The original draft has already been amended in several ways and this draft can still be amended further if I think that it can be improved.

I intend to e-mail as many fibsters as I can, inviting them to submit themselves for selection. However, entry isn't in any way restricted to those formally asked, so please consider this an invitation to submit yourself for inclusion into the initial list. I will need your nick, your e-mail and the country that you wish to represent.
Your name will be added to the list for your country. The list will close on October 16th and you will then be sent the complete list, so that you can vote for the players that you think should make up the team. That's it. If we can get a good entry, it will be a great tourney.

This is not a competitor in any way for the World Cup. It is a different tournament, with the teams selected in a different way and it's aim is to get the best possible teams representing as many countries as possible. I wish every success to World Cup and those who wish to draw unfavourable comparisons between that competition and this will get no encouragement from me.

                        An International Team Championship.

To be played on Fibs, for three person teams of players from the same country.



Selection procedure. All players interested in taking part shall submit their name, the country that they wish to represent and their e-mail address to the provisional TD, who is dorbel. The deadline for submission of names will be    [2359UTC, 16th October, 2004] provisional.   Players may submit their names by e-mail, fibs message, fibsboard message or any other convenient means and receipt of their entry will be acknowledged. Immediately after the cut off point, complete lists of all possible participants for each country will be published and the players from each country will vote for the two players that they would like to have as team mates. We can assume that each player has voted for himself! There shall be no experience requirement or bar on new nicks, but players will be required to play with the nick used for the voting round.
   Players from countries that cannot field sufficient players for a team, will be invited to group together, e.g. Team Europe or Team South America say, in order to have a chance to participate.
The three players who receive the highest number of votes will be the team. In the event of a tie breaking process being called for, the voters shall have a second ballot.

Pre-tournament procedure. The team will elect a team captain, who will be responsible for the conduct of his team, choosing the playing order, posting results etc.
   The team captains will also have an opportunity to select a TD of their own choice to replace the provisional TD. Any captain may nominate another fibster for this position and there will be a vote, confined to team captains.
   The team captains will ex-officio be members of an appeals committee. In the event of a dispute arising, that cannot be resolved by the TD in consultation with the parties involved, then the TD shall invite three disinterested captains to give a ruling and the parties in the dispute will have an opportunity to present their side of the case. The decision of this committee will be final.

   It is to be hoped that the tournament will attract the very best players, but participants should note that the main aim of this tournament is to foster good international relations, through the medium of friendly competition. With this in mind, only players prepared to adhere to the highest standards of courtesy and sportsmanship should submit themselves for selection. Players should note that insulting language, or other behaviour likely to bring their country or the tournament into disrepute is not tolerated. This includes derogatory language directed towards participating players and/or their countries in shouts, tells, kibitzes, fibs forum or any other medium. Such actions may render that player and/or his/her country liable to disqualification.




   Format. In the first stage, teams will be divided into pools of three or four teams by random draw. In each pool, each team will play every other once. Each tie will be all play all in 7 point matches. The team winning the greater number of matches, e.g 5-4, will win the tie. The team with the best record when all matches are completed will advance to the later stages of the tournament. It is hoped that this stage will take a maximum of three weeks to complete.
   The later stages of the tournament will be sudden death knock-out, for two, four or eight teams, depending on the number of groups. Each tie will be all play all in 9pt matches.

   Teams will have an opportunity to enter into an optional prize pool of $100 US per team. Such monies will be returned in full as prize money to the winning team. There will be a runner up prize if the number of teams entering the prize pool is 8 or greater.

   This is an invitational tournament and the Director may refuse entry at the initial stage to any player without giving a reason. The Director reserves the right to amend these and any other supplementary rules published by him at any time, in the interests of fairness. At all times he will seek the opinion of the team captains and take their opinions into consideration.

   Playing rules. Players are not permitted to use any aids during play. Watching is welcomed, indeed encouraged, but watchers should not make comments during the play other than with the ââ,¬Ëœwhisperââ,¬â,,¢ command. Watchers should not communicate with either player by tell or other means during the match. An incorrect resign or cube action shall stand, so it is the responsibility of all players to protect themselves in these matters.
   Team captains shall be responsible for telling their players who their opponents are and players shall make their own arrangements as to time and day of play. Clearly if teams are all able to play at the same time, that will add to the sense of occasion, particularly in the later stages.


This tournament is intended to be as inclusive and as broad based as possible. Please encourage fibsters who do not play in fibsleague and/or who donââ,¬â,,¢t read fibsboard to submit their names to me, by e-mail, fibs message, fibsboard message, chat, smoke signals or carrier pigeon.
I am trying to arrange translation of this into as many languages as possible. Players who would like to assist me with this will be very welcome.
   
   

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This is not a competitor in any way for the World Cup. It is a different tournament, with the teams selected in a different way and it's aim is to get the best possible teams representing as many countries as possible. I wish every success to World Cup and those who wish to draw unfavourable comparisons between that competition and this will get no encouragement from me.

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It is to be hoped that the tournament will attract the very best players, but participants should note that the main aim of this tournament is to foster good international relations, through the medium of friendly competition. With this in mind, only players prepared to adhere to the highest standards of courtesy and sportsmanship should submit themselves for selection.
Players should note that insulting language, or other behaviour likely to bring their country or the tournament into disrepute is not tolerated. This includes derogatory language directed towards participating players and/or their countries in shouts, tells, kibitzes, fibs forum or any other medium. Such actions may render that player and/or his/her country liable to disqualification.

This sounds an interesting tournament - I shall watch how it progresses with interest.  You have been very thorough with the format - and sincerely hope you intend to stick the format.  With that in mind - particularly the above quote - has Biggles already exluded himself - or does he get another chance - since the rules have only just been posted.

By way of example - I include the following from tonights shouts...

Quotetryout shouts: Biggles_two says: lololol, dorbel coming up with a REAL World Cup tournament that will make yours look like complete sh** (which it is)

QuoteBiggles_two shouts: I'm pretty confident dorbel will run a proper World Cup, and not the sh** that you come up with tryout

Quotedorbel shouts: My tournament, which is at this time in the planning stage, is not called the World Cup, nor is intended to conflict with that enterprise in any way.

Biggles_two shouts: maybe so dorbel, but I think we know it will have that effect   rofl

Quotedorbel shouts: then there will be a group stage, followed by a knock out stage
Biggles_two shouts: you mean they won't be chosen by Guys that wear diapers named Tryout?

You probably also noted tryouts only input to this was to repeat in shouts the tells he was recieving.

Well it's a fair question. Some will think it should disqualify him I have no doubt. I have an opinion, but I prefer to reserve it for the moment. However, players who choose to indulge their sense of humour at the expense of others should be aware that they run the risk of (a) not receiving an invitation, ( not being elected by their peers and © being disqualified after the tournament has started. In the event of ©, the player will of course have the right of appeal, as described in the rules. Voters will have to consider whether they should take the risk of selecting a player who might well be thrown out later! A team suddenly reduced to two players will have a tough time of it.

Entrants must read the rules regarding behaviour very carefully and take them seriously. The rule means what it says and I won't be afraid to apply it if I have to. Testing the limits of what is acceptable is not recommended. Behaviour during matches is of the first importance of course, but I believe the concensus to be that shouts, tells and fibsboard postings are also relevant, on the grounds that they may bring the game into disrepute. There are precedents for this in all sports.

However, it is not my intention to seek conflict, nor to exclude anybody without very good reason. Let those who are very sensitive to this sort of thing consider whether they might be more robust and let those who enjoy this sort of thing consider whether they might tone it down a bit. One person's pornography is another's erotica, one person's robust exchange of views is another's offensive abuse.

Let's talk about how to have a friendly and competitive tournament. I invite all parties to consider how they may best bring it about.

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Let's talk about how to have a friendly and competitive tournament. I invite all parties to consider how they may best bring it about.

I am always for that    

Me too
Maybe i will contribute to this one

Go for this new competition  
I will not take part in this first event cause I really have no time but I hope you many suscription and a friendly-fair tournament as all other around Fibs.

hi,

i hope this event will be as great and fair as it looks like now in the planning stage !

In this way i would like to participate ; my country is france and my email is mano_back@tiscali.fr

just a precision for the format :  do all matches will be in 7 points ?

Thanks for these good wishes and others that I have received.
Mano, I have planned at present that all matches in the group phase will be 7 points and that the knock out stage will feature 9 point matches. If anybody feels strongly that these lengths are not ideal, tell me. Almost anything can be changed at this point if it is desirable.
Already we have entrants from 10 countries. They are Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the USA. This could be fun.

Now we have entrants from 11 countries and Finland and Germany already have the minimum requirement of three players. Many more entrants from those countries welcome of course and we will need all the entrants possible from Romania and the Czech Republic. Any Caribbean players out there?
In response to a question, teams will be permitted to a substitute a player in the later stages if there is a genuine reason for one of the team becoming unavailable. This would normally be the player who came fourth in the voting, but in any event, it must be a player from the original list of entrants. That seems fair to me.

Hi dorbel,


this is a great idea! Thanks for organizing!!! I hope, the olympic spirit will dominate this tournament.

I try to participate, only hoping, I am good enough to represent my country ;-)

All the best,


Hardy

Already we have enthusiastic entrants from 13 countries and 5 countries (GB, Germany, Italy, Finland and the USA) already have the minimum 3 players registered. More wanted from those countries of course, to make the (s)election process as interesting as possible and more to fill up the other countries. Any other players from Georgia (the country!) to join dizaveli? Thank you everybody.

I don't know if it will be or not.
But if too many usa players, why not have states rather tan country team ?
Something like usa-states

It would change the character of the tourney, from "best players of a country" to "everybody who wants to play, one team from one region".
Then you should allow german states too or split GB in England, Scotland and so on.
Would be fun too and allow more people to play, but you won't have the best of a nation in one team.

Yes I'm inclined to agree with soky. That would be a good tournament, but something different. The argument about splitting up the British Isles is more persuasive, as they are at least  different countries, with a strong national identity and seperate language. However, nobody has asked for that yet! I think we'll stick with what we have started with for now. Keep those entries coming and spread the word to the sort of player that you want on your team.