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The 32 week Bloody Mary Season VI started Sunday, 10-Oct-2010. Winners of the 32 weekly tourneys will be invited to participate in the Bloody Mary Championship Series (BMCS VI). Winners of two or more tourneys will receive two entries. Winners of three or four tourneys will receive a first round bye or byes.

Bloody Mary -- Season VI - Week 7

Live Challonge! Brackets
Today marks the first time a TourneyBot tourney has also been published LIVE at Challonge!

The process today was experimental and all manual, but is hopefully a sign of things to come.

During play, you must refresh periodically to see the latest changes.

Bloody Mary "Sunday Special" -- Season VI - Week 7


Supreme Champion: spielberg
Worthy Adversary: RickrInSF

3rd place tie:
sunray
rif_raf

5th place tie:
vegas_vic
yourfuturexwife
tjraczko
Tanika

9th place tie:
Slipshod
sixtie
adrian
TriAtma_III
oldreddog
saukriver
aviator
palladin

17th place tie:
LuckyDice
Picasso
jackdaddy
socksey
pollemanden
rollingfool
Cigale
bifz
Toado
WiFi

Live Challonge! Brackets with TourneyBot

TourneyBot now publishes parallel brackets simultaneously in Challonge! The Challonge brackets are created directly from Tourneybot pairings. During tournament play, results of each tournament match are detected by TourneyBot, new pairings are announced, and the Challonge bracket is updated immediately.

This feature has been working on all of TourneyBot's automatic tourneys since 06-Jan.  When TourneyBot announces Round 1 pairings and results, about 5-10 minutes after play begins, the following message appears in FIBS Shouts:


You'll notice that the player entry in the Challonge bracket also includes the FIBS player rating at the time of registration. In the Bloody Mary weekly results in this thread, beginning with the 09-Jan-2011 tourney, I have also included a hyperlink to Challonge brackets. This makes it very easy to not only see who won, but who played and the bracket winners in each round during play.

For those who enjoy using Challonge for visual brackets (and who doesn't?), Tom has created the best of both worlds with this new feature enabling full TourneyBot functionality and automatic reporting of results to Challonge and even added information by now including FIBS ratings in the Challonge brackets. While this has largely gone unnoticed (since it has been working so well), I have noticed on several occasions, when a player asks the inevitable question of "Who do I play next?", regular tourney players are now referring folks to the visual brackets at Challonge. Tom has even made that easy to do by creating a unique Challonge group for TourneyBot tourneys. It is simply



Thanks, Tom, for your continued excellent work at maintaining and improving TourneyBot to meet the needs of the tournament players at FIBS. As much as we all like to gripe and lament about the woes and limitations of TourneyBot, you've supplied us with a very powerful FIBS specific tournament manager now fully integrated with the most widely used Internet tools for creating visual brackets. As a TD who attempted to run a tourney using TourneyBot and then publish the results live in Challonge before the end of the tourney, I can truly say, TourneyBot has come a long way, baby!

vegas_vic is the new Bloody Mary TD

by the powers vested in me as the Bloody Mary Czar, a self-annointed title, i hereby proclaim that effective immediately our new Bloody Mary TD is vegas_vic .. vic is a regular FIBS tourney player and widely known around FIBS for his whining abilities in SHOUTs and excellent playing skill .. however, vic also brings years of on-line TD experience from tourneys here at FIBS (run using the old TourneyBot) as well as years of experience playing and running tournaments at Pogo

so, i expect nothing but the best from vic as a TD .. i will help him with the transition as much as possible and socksey will be there as a weekly backup when necessary .. regardless, beginning with tomorrow's tourney, assuming Tom adds vic by start time, there will be a new sheriff in town for ALL Bloody Mary decisions

i expect vic to hold these few guidelines as paramount:

• Be fair
• Be fast
• Be firm
• Keep it fun

it is a simple, but not always so easy list of things to do, but vic has my full support as our new TD in taking the Bloody Mary to the next level -- perhaps FIBS first regular tourney with more than 32 players a week (TourneyBot is ready to take it to 64 players anytime we are) .. so, i hope you all, as players, will welcome him as well

you have my most sincere thanks, vic, for taking on this responsibility .. i have enjoyed playing in and TDing the Bloody Mary since creating it .. i look forward to continuing to play from time to time, and will host the post-season tourney for Season VI, but baseball, travel, reconstructing my old 1937 home, and life in general are telling me it is time to move on .. so, vaya con Dios, y'all .. we'll see you down the road

Congrats Vic!

I am sure you will do a GREAT job!

This is some kind of joke, right?

Full bracket, vic running it like a pro...nope, no joke...

oh ok 

The 32 week Bloody Mary Season VI started Sunday, 10-Oct-2010. Winners of the 32 weekly tourneys will be invited to participate in the Bloody Mary Championship Series (BMCS VI). Winners of two or more tourneys will receive two entries. Winners of three or four tourneys will receive a first round bye or byes.

Bloody Mary "Sunday Special" Season VI Weekly Winners:

[table=]
Week,    Date,Tourney #, TD(s),Seeding,Registered, Winner
,,,sixtie,,,yonay,
,,,sixtie,,,rif_raf,    
,,,sixtie,,,sunray,
,,,sixtie,,,sixtie,
,,,sixtie,,,inim,
,,,Naavanaxx,,,Picasso,
,,,sixtie,,,spielberg,
,,,sixtie,,,yoyo,
,,,sixtie,,,vegas_vic,
,,,sixtie,,,KDP,
,,,sixtie,,,spielberg,
,,,sixtie,,,aviator,
,,,sixtie,,,DeaDice,
,,,sixtie,,,austin,
,,,sixtie,,,DisraeliGears,
,,,sixtie,,,pollemanden,
,,,sixtie,,,TriAtma_III,
,,,sixtie,,,magic_one,
,,,sixtie,,,JonPrud,
,,,socksey,,,DeaDice,  
,,,vegas_vic,,,DiceMechanic,
,,,socksey,,,magic_one,  
,,,vegas_vic,,,saukriver,
[/table]


* TourneyBot results for #3847 are incorrect. The last two rounds of the tourney finished while TourneyBot was off-line. DisraeliGears defeated jackdaddy in the finals with 30 players registered in the tourney.

Congrats Vic, you handled all the "abuse" like a pro! I know everyone "tested" you, but you came through it with flying colours! Keep it up, you MAKE everything fun and I hope that you will be around for a long time to come as the new TD !

Comments from the Czar

Bloody Mary Seeding
Changing the seeding to random came up again before the last Bloody Mary tourney started. On reflection from my new role as Bloody Mary Czar, I'd prefer leaving things as they are through the end of Season VI (11 more weeks). After that, perhaps we can consider changing the seeding and even dropping registration limits.

Keeping It "Special"
Since I began hosting the Bloody Mary "Sunday Special", I've attempted to make the Bloody Mary a distinctive event by using devices like seeding and registration limits, but both distinctions may have served their purpose. The Bloody Mary remains the ONLY tourney that uses seeding by rating at FIBS and the only tourney that sets very high registration limits for Exp, Rep, and Rating. I've never turned anyone away that wants to play in a Bloody Mary but doesn't meet registration limits and the seeding debate is much ado about nothing, IMHO.

"Fairness"
Frankly, I have enjoyed the attention debate over "fairness" here at FIBSboard brings to FIBS tourneys in general. The Bloody Mary is squarely entrenched as one of the most popular tourneys at FIBS despite the numerous comments in posts, shouts, and private tells concerning "fairness". It is difficult to determine how much those often monotonous debates have effected tournament participation, if at all. IMO, the controversy, if any, created by the debates (public and private) with dorbel and others like LuckyDice have had a net positive effect on tournament awareness and participation. For example, the Bloody Mary field continues to grow each week and it is the consistent leader in registration among ALL FIBS based tourneys. Of course, the time slot has a lot to do with that.

Post-season Tournament
The post-season tournament is another part of what appeal the Bloody Mary "Sunday Special" has a FIBS tournament. To my knowledge, the Bloody Mary was the first to offer an invitational post-season tournament for WINNERS ONLY. Additionally, we introduced the concept of multiple entries and even guaranteed first round byes for multiple wins during a season. Such incentives keep previous winners interested in participating throughout the entire season.

I will run the post-season tourney for Season VI, as I have in the past. Quite a lot of behind the scenes work is required to pull it off with invites, arranging the brackets, and monitoring slow play once it is started. But I've enjoyed doing it each season. Additionally, Tom and I have discussed ways that TourneyBot may be modified to accommodate this format for post-season play making it much easier on the TD, but we haven't done anything about it to date. Maybe we can devote more time to that before the end of this season.

Sponsorship
Further, it has long been my goal to obtain corporate or private sponsorship for our post-season tourney offering nice prizes for ALL participants and VERY NICE prizes and trophies for the top three winners, but that is still just a personal pipe-dream. For example, how much attention and participation might a few hundred dollars for the winner generate? Even just nice gift certificates or something like that would be great. If anyone would like to help set something like that up, please contact me, ASAP.

Final Thoughts
Finally, back to the topic of seeding, Tom and I have discussed between ourselves and with other tournament admins a method for determining first round byes randomly which we call BALANCED SEEDING. While first round byes would be determined randomly, initial starting positions for all players would be ordered as if seeded by rating. Such a seeding method should, IMO, satisfy both adherents of random seeding and seeding by rating. Ideally, that would be my preference for subsequent seasons, if Tom can make it happen. Maybe we should call it FAIR AND BALANCED seeding, but we all know "fair and balanced" is a lie, but that's another story.

So, for now, whenever anyone complains or asks the new TD about random seeding, vic can blame it on me, the Bloody Mary Czar. We will keep seeding by rating until the end of this season, unless Tom can implement BALANCED SEEDING before then. Having a Czar to blame may be a useful device to keep our new TD out of trouble on other occasions. If so, feel free to abuse me anytime you think it may help, Mister vic.

BTW, the view from my throne room in my new palace is spectacular -- being a Czar is way cool, even if only a self-annointed one

This is my rules for Bloody Mary Tourney .

Watchers : I only care about the people that have registered and joined the tournament .
                I would enjoy if they were allowed to watch all and every match but i cant enforce this .

MY ONLY RULE WILL BE THIS : YOU MUST ALLOW ALL AND EVERY TOURNAMENT PLAYER THAT HAS REGISTERED TO PLAY BE ABLE TO WATCH THE FINAL MATCH .

NO IF AND BUTS !!

THANK YOU AND LETS JUST CHILL OUT AND HAVE SOME FUN .

Given the circumstances surrounding the recent suspension of vegas_vic, I am resuming my role as TD for the remainder of Season VI, about 8 weeks. I know that I will have conflicts on some dates and will be traveling on at least 4 of those Sundays, but I will arrange a sub whenever I cannot be there to get the tourney going. For now, socksey and spielberg are the only designated co-directors. For the next few Sundays, I may be late for registration, but I will log in by 10:15 AM my time (1515 UTC). So, please be patient.

This Sunday the rest of the world joins us on Daylight Savings Time (DST). Theoretically, the start time of the Bloody Mary should still be at 1515 UTC. So, for the USA, our local DST start time should remain the same, Euros and others will have to arrive an hour earlier thanks to "spring forward".

I will resume my search for a new Bloody Mary TD, effective immediately. But the announcement of a new TD will likely be delayed until the beginning of Season VII. The new TD will be expected to commit to at least one full season, 32 weeks, and be willing to continue the Bloody Mary tradition at FIBS with enthusiasm and without controversy. I will retain my title and responsibility as Bloody Mary Czar. Which simply means I will work with the new TD as a backup and be responsible and accountable for establishing with the new TD the ground rules for our new season and conducting the post-season tournament.

Meanwhile, I look forward to seeing you all Sunday for the next Bloody Mary "Sunday Special", tourney number 25 in our sixth season.

Count me in as a TD sub too. The more TD`s, the better. Even if sometimes we may step on each other`s toes and sometimes we`ll all be late.
BM will not die, I will fight for it.

The 32 week Bloody Mary Season VI started Sunday, 10-Oct-2010. Winners of the 32 weekly tourneys will be invited to participate in the Bloody Mary Championship Series (BMCS VI). Winners of two or more tourneys will receive two entries. Winners of three or four tourneys will receive a first round bye or byes.

Bloody Mary "Sunday Special" Season VI Weekly Winners:

[table=]
Week,    Date,Tourney #, TD(s),Seeding,Registered, Winner
,,,sixtie,,,yonay,
,,,sixtie,,,rif_raf,    
,,,sixtie,,,sunray,
,,,sixtie,,,sixtie,
,,,sixtie,,,inim,
,,,Naavanaxx,,,Picasso,
,,,sixtie,,,spielberg,
,,,sixtie,,,yoyo,
,,,sixtie,,,vegas_vic,
,,,sixtie,,,KDP,
,,,sixtie,,,spielberg,
,,,sixtie,,,aviator,
,,,sixtie,,,DeaDice,
,,,sixtie,,,austin,
,,,sixtie,,,DisraeliGears,
,,,sixtie,,,pollemanden,
,,,sixtie,,,TriAtma_III,
,,,sixtie,,,magic_one,
,,,sixtie,,,JonPrud,
,,,socksey,,,DeaDice,  
,,,vegas_vic,,,DiceMechanic,
,,,socksey,,,magic_one,  
,,,vegas_vic,,,saukriver,
,,,vegas_vic,,,Cinderella,  
,,,sixtie,,,WiFi,  
,,,sixtie,,,hobbit,  
,,,sixtie,,,KDP,
,,,sixtie,,,sunray,
,,,sixtie,,,RickrInSF,
,,,sixtie,,,KDP,
,,,sixtie,,,Cigale,
,,,sixtie,,,Leudwulf,
[/table]


* TourneyBot standings stored for #3847 are incorrect. The Challonge bracket is correct up to the point where TourneyBot went off-line but is incomplete. The last two rounds of the tourney were finished manually while TourneyBot was off-line. DisraeliGears defeated jackdaddy in the finals with 30 players registered in the tourney.

** The Challonge results for #3996 are incomplete. The tourney finished normally and the TourneyBot standings are correct. While the final match ended in a TIMEOUT, the timeout was legitimate as one of the players apparently lost their connection during play (or maybe they needed a nap).

BMSC VI

Challonge! Brackets
Since we allow double entry in the BMSC for players winning more than once during the regular season, TourneyBot could not manage a consolidated bracket. Since I created that double entry idea, it falls on me to do it manually. The live brackets below represent tourneys #4119 and #4120, top 16 and bottom 16 respectively. I will update them as matches are completed just as I will continue to do in the text fromat in my previous post.

While the readability of this image is a little problematic for my old eyes, I can zoom in with Ctrl + and it becomes quite readable. Also, the hyperlink above the image points to the Challonge brackets themselves.

FIBS Bloody Mary Season Championship VI