Backgammon Online

13-Nov-2013
01:15 PST

Heya all ya backgammers out there! I have the results, and they are quite interesting.

As per my email, if I heard about games where one party was up by 2 or more games, and there was a wait to finish, I gave the match to the player who was ahead. Exec decision, not in the rules, but I think fair. It did not affect ratings significantly. Specifically, wins were awarded to:

lilwarrior: up 4-1 over Simonfox, and winning handedly the next game.
servechilled: match with Aphilo given a win – was 2 games up – Aphilo on vacation.
oldman 69: Match with Peter Hill given a W. Up 4-0. Peter did not respond to challenge for Crawford.
I was also up 2-0 on Peter HIll, but I will not give my self that win, as it would place me first or second, and that seemed unreasonable.

Top 4 spots go to:

Cailleach 22-9
blohkin 2 21-9
naturedoctor 21-8
lilwarrior 21-9

These players receive byes to the next round.

The next 8 spots go to:

servechilled 20-11
kumarakid 19-13
Steelerhead 19-13
uahskr 19-13
abriscoe 18-14
Bonne chance 17-14
TawnyaH 17-13
Wallaby66 17-15
jwc1515 17-13

Wait a minute, that's 9 players. So it's the tiebreaker, to kick one player out. Not nice for me, but that's the duty.

FIrst tie breaker is head to head matches between Bonne, jwc, Tawnya, Wallaby

Bonne Chance 2-1
jwc 1-2
Tawnya 2-1
Wallaby 1-2

That leaves jwc1515 and Wallaby. Wallaby won their match, so according to rule 2 in the tiebreaker, Wallaby is through, and jwc1515 is left wondering about that double 6 ____ received in that one lousy game......  

Considering events of this tournament, I was thinking that another tiebreaker would be greatest # of games played, and here, Wallaby came ahead as well.

And on that note, since we didn't have a rule for this, I'm going to place the last standings based on matches played, rather than on winning percentage.

servechilled 20-11
kumarakid 19-13
Steelerhead 19-13
uahskr 19-13
abriscoe 18-14
Wallaby66 17-15
Bonne chance 17-14
TawnyaH 17-13

These players will now enter a first to 7 Round 1 playoff!!! The matches are:

servechilled vs. Tawnya
kumarakid vs. Bonne Chance
Steelerhead vs. Wallaby
uahskr vs. abriscoe

_______________

There are serious rule changes needed for players who, once they realize they won't make the medal round, stop playing. I don't need to list the reasons, but it is affecting play, and something I find perturbing. I hope we can clean this up.

13-Nov-2013
01:23 PST

Just finished evening kayak race so too tired to update tonight. Will be more energized tomorrow after work.

13-Nov-2013
01:29 PST

How did the race go? Great to hear how people are saying active.

13-Nov-2013
01:44 PST

Or maybe age is catching up on me

13-Nov-2013
02:01 PST

Appreciate your hard work along with KK. It has been nice to be able to play without having to deal with any major issues since CT2. Kudos to you and Abriscoe for clearly spelling out how childish behavior would be handled in CT3 and CT4. I also give ZE a lot of credit for stepping in to resolve the CT2 issue caused by a single player.

Couldn't agree more with you about players who give up after realizing they won't make it to the medal rounds. Thankfully the vast majority (>80%) of the players in T5 are currently favoring banning players from the next CT if they don't finish a certain percentage of their matches by the published deadline (see poll on the KK website). For those favoring slower play, there is always the option for them to host their own T with no penalty for slow (or no) play. That would provide players with a choice on the style of play they favor.

Thanks again to you and KK for your efforts in T4! Congrats on making it to the medal round and I hope I have the good fortune of playing both of you there (have to get past Abriscoe first which is never an easy task!). Cheers!

13-Nov-2013
02:08 PST

It's been a breeze really. I've felt a bit sheepish thinking of Chaq and Kumara doing most of the work. A few questions have popped my way, and the tie breaker was tough. Sorry jwc!!

Why do we have rules to enforce? Because people tend to be people for some silly reason.   I imagine we will continue to have to make more.

See you in the final!

13-Nov-2013
02:18 PST

...and many thanks to Chaq as well (who discovered that no good deed goes unpunished   Hang in there Chaq and many thanks for all you did.

13-Nov-2013
03:04 PST

Thanks lilwarrior to be the Host of TC 4
Thanks chwaqasahmed
Thanks KumaraKid, the web site is marvellous !!!

13-Nov-2013
08:16 PST

Thank you lilwarrior, chwaq, and kk (great website).

lilwarrior, you may not have been very busy until the end, but you earned your money at the end with the tie-breaker and the seedings. That was a tough one. As President Clinton used to say, "I feel your pain, jwc!"

Definitely like the idea that people that don't finish a certain % of their games sit out the next one, as that is a definite history, nothing subjective about it.

Lastly, I think the whole key to everyone completing their games in a 2 month or 2.5 month time frame (and I speak from experience as I have finished both of the last 2 Tournaments in about a 1 month time frame) lies in 2 major factors::

1. Everyone, and I mean everyone, needs to start or make sure they have been started, ALL of their matches the very first couple of days. This is the key, we have too many players waiting too long to get going.

2. I have said this before, but the other key is the proper use of the doubling cube. Too many matches are going out to 8 or 9 games.

Cheers, good luck to all of the medalists, and please wish me luck against uahskr!