The Fibs International Team Tournament

[dorbel]

Entries for the initial Fibs International Team Tournament are going well. At this date, we have entries from 14 countries, 6 of which already have enough players to field a team. I am pleased to be able to announce that the Dorbel's Gazette column on Gammon Village can offer a 6 month Gold subscription to www.gammonvillage.com, to each of the players on the winning team and a 3 month Gold subscription to the runners-up.

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 TD, who is dorbel. The deadline for submission of names will be [2359UTC, 16th October, 2004] . 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, i.e, each team member plays a match against each member of the opposing team. 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. Teams should complete all the matches in each tie, even if it is no longer possible to win, because in the event of teams being level on ties won at the end of the group stage, matches won will be the tie-breaker.
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.  

That's it. Keep those entries coming!

[dorbel]

The random draw for the group stage of this tournament will take place on Tuesday 19th October at 2300 UTC. It will be live on fibs, so don't miss it. Here are the teams

AUSTRALIA . Anakin, Bggun, ozgit. Still waiting to know their captain.
AUSTRIA. Aquarius captain, Cheetah, satori.
CANADA. grolactwo, jaysbird, sunray. Still waiting to know their captain.
CZECH REPUBLIC. jelly, plasticmillion, LooseCzecher. Still waiting to know their captain.
EUROPE. Spielberg, DirtyHarryII, Iceborg. Still waiting to know their captain.
FINLAND. Team not yet finalised.
FRANCE. mano captain, moyang, pantar.
GERMANY. Team not yet finalised.
GREAT BRITAIN. dorbel, gnomystwo, jag. Non-playing captain diane.
ITALY. zakasax, sirlad, Marla. Still waiting to know their captain.
REST OF THE WORLD. Team not yet finalised.
ROMANIA.  aslengyel captain, atias, exquisite.
SWEDEN. nilla captain, MND, Cheesedick
SWITZERLAND. cis captain, sidie, amarganth
USA 1 dlevy, zare, burper. Still waiting to know their captain
USA 2. Team not yet finalised.

Still waiting for the Americans to make a tie breaking re-vote for their second team, also votes from reima (Finland), LisaS (Germany), dizaveli (Rest of the World). The three last named wil be judged to have withdrawn if they do not vote before the draw is made.

This may be the first ever Inter-Nation Team Tournament where the teams have been chosen by their peers. Thank you everybody for your entry and your votes. You got us off to a flying start and I have high hopes of an exciting tournament.