World Cup selection

[NIHILIST]

I'm not sure in what context you've responded, since most of the discourse has been between Biggles, Dorbel and Tryout. If you have responded as the TD for BAGO and the Cup, then so be it, If not, I would still appreciate someone in an official capacity to address the issues.


NIHI

[diane]

If you have responded as the TD for BAGO and the Cup,

Try to keep up - these are separate issues and separate events    

[NIHILIST]

And it's still unclear whether you speak as any kind of official for EITHER of them. If you are, why not try answering the 4 simple questions I raised ?


NIHI

[EddieVedd]

Well that's it I'm done ! I could write a thesis on what has been posted and suggested and asked here, but i just can't be bothered. I wont waste another heartbeat on explaining why Nihilist has worn out his welcome. How his rudeness directly affects the lives of well meaning individuals who are then somehow called "power hungry". Yawn. Finished. Congrats , your continued kicks in the gut have prevailed.

I apologise to the dozens of friendly fibsters whom i have spoken with personally over the last 2 months about the World Cup. I'm sorry for giving in so early, but i can't stomach the thought of the constant whining, shouts & posts that will occur when we continue to refuse Nihilist entry. Which we will do. I have now been told I'm anti-american by a once friend on fibs ! A-farki'n Mazing !!

I got off my tail and tried to develop a fun global tourney that was fair for all countries. Others had thought and talked about it before, but I did something about it and got it underway. I recieved enourmous help from tryout, tomawaky and diane for which i thank them and would like to apologise to also. We tried.

Biggles - Nihilist, What have you done ?? What do you do ?? Well here's your chance. If you dont like the way it's being run i offer you control of The Fibs World Cup. The set up work has been done, you can change what you like. I offer you use of the rules page and if the 30 odd people who've given me their e-mail addresses dont mind i will give you the list of all who have qualified so far and their contact details.

What do you think everyone , will either of them do it ? Or will their preference for insult over altruistic effort prevail here also.

Thanks dorbel for trying to be constructive. I'm sorry to you for not devoting more time to your, at times, constructive comments.

For anyone who's lost go here to read the relevant history to this story. From that thread i'll leave you with a couple of quotes from the individual who had been denied entry from another tournament on fibs.

NIHILIST Posted: Jul 22 2004, 11:29 PM  

I have no problem with a TD setting rules that disallow different nicks. I'm a big boy, I know I can play as NIHI or not at all. I chose not at all.

NIHILIST Posted: Jul 21 2004, 11:43 PM

Get over it, people. The team whose name is the worst insult possible will never play a match. And the members of the team really don't much give a crap.

I'm off to have my third child with my American wife now so will continue to be busy for a few days. I will look eagerly for your response when i return and then contact all participants as necessary.

Take Care,

Eddie.

[NIHILIST]

I will be glad to accept your offer to hold it. Let me know when it's convenient for you to arrange the transfer.


NIHI

[NIHILIST]

Let me add that any qualifiers to date need not worry about being banned, nor will there be any banning of those who behave outrageously OUTSIDE the tourney environment.

If you have qualified and wish to continue, you are welcome to play too. As is Tryout, kari or anyone else. If it's a backgammon tourney, let's keep it as such without looking for reasons to deny play to those we have personal disagreements with.


NIHI

PS I doubt having made the offer, that you'll actually make good on it.

[NIHILIST]

Incidentally, the link Eddie asks you to click is a thread regarding an entirely different matter. Nowhere in there is a reference to the issue of this thread which is about BAGO and World Cup.

The TDs refused to show any honesty or candor regarding BAGO and now appear to be taking their bats and gloves and going home. Good riddance.

I am thrilled to take over BAGO and World Cup; I am willing to put up prize money for the eventual winning team if the particiants think it's a good idea.

NIHI

[socksey]

i offer you control of The Fibs World Cup. The set up work has been done, you can change what you like. I offer you use of the rules page and if the 30 odd people who've given me their e-mail addresses dont mind i will give you the list of all who have qualified so far and their contact details.

The offer was for Fibs World Cup, NIHI, not for Bago.  Gracious acceptance!  Good luck to you!

socksey




The Only thing Necessary for the Triumph of Evil is for Good Men to Do Nothing - Edmund Burke

[NIHILIST]

Yes, I stand corrected. I'm looking forward to having a great tourney.


NIHI

[Mort]

<<Well that's it I'm done ! I could write a thesis on what has been posted and suggested and asked here, but i just can't be bothered.>>

Hi Eddie,
Firstly, I'd like to thank you for implementing what I think is a great idea. Having World Cup Teams competing through Fibs tournaments is a way to bring a little more excitement to the Fibs community. Qualifying for this tourney, somewhat ensures that the participants will be playing against the 'best of the best' for their respective countries. I'm sure that this is what you had in mind.

One could hardly blame you for being bothered. It sometimes takes a thick skin to deal with the Fibs community. I'm also sorry that you got caught up in the 'fibs politics'. I was hoping this World Cup Tourney could be accomplished with just the thought of 'World Championship' backgammon in mind. Maybe it still can. Anyway, thanks again and congrats on your new family member.

I'd also like to thank Bob(NIHI) for accepting the task of running the 'World Cup'. I'm fairly sure this won't be an easy job, but knowing Bob through Fibs, I'm certain he will do a good job with this. I think the object is to get as much participation from other countries as possible and to try and assure an 'impartial' good time to all participants. For starters, I'd like to see a definitive rules page that shows fairness to all. You can't just make up the rules as you go, which is why this whole thread started. Secondly, I'd like to see the qualifying tournaments for the 'World Cup' held in a more impartial atmosphere. The bagolympics isn't quite getting the job done. The August schedule for bagolympics was already set, then changed. It now seems that under the current schedule, anyone from the United States would have to be here Tuesday afternoon or get up well before the sun rises on Sunday mornings. Do you call that fair? Bagolympics doesn't have to be the qualifying tournament format for the 'World Cup'. Bagolympics has succumbed to 'fibs politics', so why bother. Qualifying tourneys can now be held with tourneybot and posted on fibsboard, without the bias. I'll hopefully, be looking forward to the continuation of the World Cup, and to trying to qualify for it.

Regards,   Mort

[webrunner]

NIHILIST, if you are really taking up the management  of this tournament i will applaude you. Finally you put your money where your mouth is.
I am really surprised you are going to contribute to the community after all! :eeeek:


(or did it not occur to you that that is what you will be doing?)

I have to say though that i really regret EddieVedd stepping out like this.
Eddie, i advice you to ignore people who are nagging you. Just let them be.
Don't let this get to you, you are a great asset to Fibs and Fibsboard and i hope we  will see a lot more of you!
 

Congratulations on your new family member. Might we see pictures?
 

[boardking]

Hi All,  

I have fought myself for days now, and refrained from commenting on the issues that have threatened the World Cup from coming to fruition. But no longer. And though I am pleased to see that it appears the issues are being resolved, I am extremely displeased with the route that has taken us here.

First of all, I applaud you EddieVedd!  You should be proud, very proud. Your contributions to FIBS make it a fun and rewarding place to visit. I am sure that I speak for ALL of FIBS when I say you make it an enjoyable experience, whether  to log in, to play, to enter a tourney, or just to chat. I cannot imagine what the FIBS community would be like without the likes of you, or tomawaky, tryout, or diane or others who dedicate their time and efforts to make FIBS fun.

What seems to be at issue here is appreciation. ...or lack of it. You don't want your efforts to go unnoticed, or without gratitude. Understood. But trust me, EVERYONE, (including the ones you refer to as rude), appreciates your efforts! Their very participation into your tourneys is proof of that in and of itself. Some people just have a difficult time showing it. And although your efforts to shelter the FIBS community from a possible encounter with these 'rude' individuals (by not allowing them to compete in the World Cup) may seem noble, it would definately take away from the true meaning of World Cup. Especially banning a highly rated player. What makes FIBS fun is the competitive spirit, above all. Being treated civil is definitely a plus, but secondary to the desire to compete.

I would love to see you stay on as Director of World Cup, especially since you have spent endless hours in preparation, but must respect your decision to resign. In doing so, I trust you will give NIHo access to your work, so that he may continue on your fine efforts. And NIHo, I sincerely hope you WILL do as you say and take over, so that we may look forward to a World Cup.

I hope that people have noticed that I have taken no cheap shots at anyone, insulted no one, and hopefully gotten my point across. There is no law that says we must all agree, but there is an unwritten law demanding we must respect one another's views. I trust the transition of World Cup Director will be as respectful.

Sincerely,
boardking

LET'S HAVE A WORLD CUP TOURNEY!!!!!

[MadMatt]

Since this seems to be a popular competition (in theory), why not come up with a sound set of rules that could be implemented in TourneyBot as a tourney of its own type (like Fridays3?)

This is something I wouldn't mind coding if you could agree on the rules. I always wondered why more people don't come up with inventine tourney formats of their own.

Remember though that the model behind it needs to be sound, by which I mean it has to be general enough to be implemented in a way to allow the bot to pretty much handle everything itself, without human interference. Too many exceptions needing to be handled by the TDs would make for a poor tourney.

[lewscannon]

I'm off to have my third child with my American wife now so will continue to be busy for a few days.

No wonder you're anti-American!  

[burper]

NIHI,

First, thank you for picking up the torch.

Given that bago serves as the qualifying tournament for your world cup tournament, as a fellow American I would like to hear what your opinion is on what should be done regarding the timezone issue. I define this as the the bias towards convenient European playing times and away from convenient playing times for Americans.

Unlike some, I don't believe this was done intentionally. Call me naive, but I prefer to give people the benefit of the doubt. Anyway, I believe what happened, was that there were many more European TD's willing to host tournaments, and a uniform time to hold them was desired to reduce confusion. It was also thought that providing 2 time slots that were as far as possible apart on the clock would be the most inclusive, with a 12 hour difference as theorectically ideal.

In any case, I was wondering if you could drum up support for a couple of American TD's to help me add a Bago timeslot that was convenient for American timezones. I would give up the early Sunday morning time slot I do now as a start. 3 more people willing to commit would be ideal. Maybe you could be one? It would be once a month. If so, please suggest a time. dorbel? Biggles? HG?

As far as a bago tournament type, that's a great idea MadMatt! TBot already has had this for a couple of weeks. If you want the code changes, let me know. I took a quick and dirty approach, merely setting the particular bracket tournament type parameters, rather than extending the bracket type or using some sort of templating system, but it works. I also have some scheduling code that would help make TD'ing easier. I also have implemented silent bans (a long time ago). I also have intentions or adding some sort of 'attribute' system to support declaring countries, maybe as some sort of player profile, to make that part of it easier. Some day I hope to make point accumulation configurable, so that fridays3, saturday minis and others of it's kind can derive from the same type.

[Biggles]

A big Thank You to Eddie for setting up the first World Cup and to provide a way for it to be held appropriately, without additional politics and chaos.

Also a big thanks goes out to NIHI for taking over the facilitation from Eddie, so that the World Cup can be rescued so that it can be played it the way it was meant to be played from the beginning.  Hopefully the transition can take place without any additional problems.

I am looking forward to the commencement of World Cup.  I am hereby back on the USA team.

Good Luck to all participants.

Bigg

[tryout]

EddieVedd, I'm surprised and sad to learn that you want to step back from World Cup.  

Please take in mind that all the b*llsh*t only comes from a very small minority. Unfortunately, they are louder than the entire rest of FIBS. But still, as others have mentioned, it's a good thing what we do. So I'd like to ask you to reconsider your decision.

There's a problem though with your offer to NX to take over World Cup. Sorry to have to say this here, but since we run this event together you can't decide this for both of us.    I'll try to contact you personally before writing more in this regard.

[NIHILIST]

I think you're surprised and sad that I called his bluff. It's pretty obvious that your action is designed to take Eddie off the hook and prevent him from looking like a bigger fool than he already is.

You guys decide what you want to do, in the meantime I'll proceed in setting up a tourney based on the World Cup format complete with prize money and NO ENTRY FEE.


NIHI

[tryout]

... meanwhile it's obviously necessary to address some major misunderstandings.

The decision to not let the person playing under the nicks NIHILIST and NIHolympic enter the World Cup was met by EddieVedd and myself in complete agreement.


He was NOT banned because I don't or didn't like him (this allegation is incredibly stupid). He was banned for his very offending statements and insults to one of the organizers (me)!


The incident in question and thus the reasons for the ban (please read here) occured during the qualification process for the first World Cup season. When we started this event and made up the rules these facts were not yet known obviously. And we never thought it could be necessary to ban anybody for such rude behaviour.


In order to reiterate, the point is NOT simply nagging or annoying behaviour, bold shouts or a personal dislike. There would be quite some people subject to not playing if this was the standard followed. This is ridiculous. Everybody who tried to play the severeness of the insults down is acting incredibly cheap and should question their own sanity. There was even an absurd mention of FIBS politics!


The point is NEITHER that this is a backgammon tournament and should be looked at nothing but that. Anybody who suggests this must be from another world and feel no value at all for one's dignity. And beyond that I thought Backgammon was a sport for gentlemen (and women) and not just only for the few minutes of the course of a match.


The point IS defending myself from the abuse this person has committed. Who in their right mind can request from me to take these insults silently and offer the very same person to take advantage of my (not so small) efforts???


Does really anybody expect from me that I reward that person and organize an event, create a webpage, send numerous of e-mails, compile results and thus invest a big amount of my time and energy (also) for him???


Also, how can someone require that I'll give away my responsibility and do the slave work for your amusement and leave it to some arbitrary people to defend myself or not and be happy with every decsion they'll happen to meet even if I very personally am concerned???

Because it was mentioned: What a horror vision if every TD had to submit to NIHILIST, biggles and the likes!


So I urge every reasonable person to step forward and tell me directly into my face that I don't have every right in the world to deny a person, who insulted me in this way, my efforts. And give very good reasons!


Then I will reconsider what I'm doing all this for.

[tryout]

Ah, forgot something:

The fair and equal treatment of all players was questioned. You can be assured that I would have and also will ban every other person who insults me in this way!

And again: We're not talking about some petty shout or other annoyance.