Backgammon Online

29-Apr-2021
08:40 PST

Thank you Leoton, as usual, the tournament was very well organized!

I guess it's time for us to think about banning slow players from the tournaments, this one took more than a month to complete, and that's not blitz no matter how you look at it.
I propose a one-tournament ban for players who would have more than 5 games incomplete after 14 days after the next tournament "unofficial" start date (May 25th I presume)

29-Apr-2021
08:58 PST

This post was deleted by Heathcliff on 27-May-2021, 09:55 PST

29-Apr-2021
09:27 PST

Thanks Blokhin2 for the nice words!

The last tournament has indeed took a bit longer than usual (35 days) and I’d appreciate any ideas on how we can all ensure we are true to the blitz nature of our league. Please feel free to reply on this post with your thoughts on this topic.

I noticed a couple of things in the last tournament that will need to be improved:

a) for some players (not planning to name any names here) it took much longer to complete group games due to either not starting them by the official start date or not managing to make multiple moves a day as it was stated in the Code of Conducts
b) not every player was diligent enough to promptly report their victories on the website so I had to go through ZE history to hunt for results.

Just for the reference, here is the official schedule for each tournament:

Registration open: 12th of the month
Group Seeding: 26th of the month (games can begin)
Official Start: 1st of the month (all group games must be started)

Ideally, I would very much prefer starting playoffs no later than on the 10th of the month, which gives 15-16 days to complete all the group games and form playoff pairs.

Our Tournaments are held every other month, so our next BBL-6 registration will be open on May 12th, Group seeding - on May 26th, and Official start - on June 1.

Looking forward to receiving your constructive feedback and to having yet another great tournament next month!

Best,
Leoton

29-Apr-2021
23:22 PST

Congratulation Steelerhead! CU next final  

I completely agree with Blokhin - again a good job of Leoton and the need for some changes.
My suggestions:
1. Reduction to 32 players - enough.
2. Zeroing the result of a game, the result of which is not announced - this is not a punishment for the irresponsible, it is an encouragement to the correct players  
3. Resetting a game not started according to the rules (2 days)
4. Publish the names of those deliberately delaying the game.

Spring mood to all,
Rossi

04-May-2021
12:10 PST

I like Rossi's idea about zeroing the result of unreported games, both winner and loser get zero points for such a game if the result is not reported within 24 hours after the game is completed.

I propose to change the format as follows:
- 4 groups of 8 or 9 players in each ( so max=36 just like we have today).
- the winners of the groups advance directly to the 1/4 finals
- 2 and 3rd places (8 in total) will form 4 pairs and will play our standard elimination round (3 games: one BG, one NG, one AD); 4 winners will join group winners in the 1/4 finals
- 1/4 finals and finals are played as usual

This format will drastically reduce the number of games played and will make the tournament faster.

I'd love to see the slow players banned from the next tournament, but looks like (almost) no one cares.

05-May-2021
04:25 PST

I am wondering if we change the format to four groups, wouldn't Leoton have to change the whole website ? Wouldn't that be a bit too much to ask ?

Personally, I love the opportunity to play as many games as possible in the beginning, where everybody has a fair chance to move to the quarter finals. The seeding and the lay-out is also so crystal clear, that nobody can claim to be treated unfairly or that his group is more difficult than others. This is so precious.

My suggestion would be to make the signing up procedure a bit more difficult, so that players who want to participate become aware of what they are signing up to. If everybody would behave according to the code of conduct, and not only obeyed the rules, there would be no problem at all and within 7 days, everybody would have finished their first 16, 17 or 18 games.

05-May-2021
12:19 PST

in perfect world - yes, people would comply with the code of conduct; but some clearly don't and it's not enforced in any way. I like the idea of 4 groups, less games to play and less chance of being delayed by really slow players.
Something should be done with slow players, preventing them from playing the next tournament sounds good to me.

10-May-2021
10:20 PST

I guess something should be done to prevent slow and thus little transparent or may be even irresponsible players to spoil the fun for the others. I am not sure whether banning a player works immediately. It works for future BBL tourneys that's for sure, because you get rid of them. But I wonder whether it would scare players off right away ? If you want to play slow for certain reasons, you play slow, as the practice has demonstrated at the last BBL
If you know, you will not be able to play fast, then just not sign up.
Would it help to agree in advance to finish all games within a certain period of time ?
Would it help to start with allgames within one day ?
Would it help to agree in advance to make a certain number of moves on a daily basis ? I think so. There are various possibilities, to make the rules stricter.

It is shortsighted to believe that less games and four groups lessens the chances to be delayed by slow players. Nine years of NT's proved the opposite, as you still have to wait until all players have finished their game before the quarter finals can start. The last BBL has also shown that some slow players won their games and let the others players wait in every round.

I believe players should not only agree to read the rules and may be the code of conduct, they should agree to follow them up and if you want to be that strict, then slow players could risk to disqualify themselves immediately if they play slow without being transparent to the organizer.

And yes, I still believe that the openness of the BBL has contributed so much to the fun of it.  

11-May-2021
15:56 PST

Friends,

BBL-6 registration is now open! Same link as always: https://tinyurl.com/ze-bbl

I truly appreciate all your feedback on improvement opportunities! While I prefer keeping consistency and not making any immediate drastic changes to the format, I did make an attempt to emphasize the importance of keeping our league a truly Blitz League during the player registration process.

Starting this tournament, when you go to our website to sign up, you’ll need to check “I agree” box, confirming that you will follow BBL Rules and Code of Conduct, submit results within 24 hours, and begin all group games by June 1, 2021. You also agree to make every attempt to play fast and not cause any delays for the tournament.

Please do take this pledge to heart and we will have a very smooth journey!

So far, almost all of our tournaments had been completed within a month and I think it is pretty much acceptable target for the 36-player tourneys. The last one took extra five days and I hope we will all be more diligent to ensure there is no delays. Let’s evaluate this again after this upcoming tournament if BBL-5 timing was just an outlier (as I sincerely hope)...

I am so looking forward to playing in yet another fun and competitive tournament with you all!

Best
Leoton

26-May-2021
06:59 PST

Friends,

The group seeding, based on the snapshot of participants’ rating as of May 26, has been completed and the games can now begin! This time we also have 36 players, so each of you will be guaranteed at least 17 games in the group tournament.

I wanted to welcome all returning players and our newcomers to the BBL tournaments!
As always, I would like to reiterate that this is a blitz league and when you signed up, you agreed to play fast, abide by the rules and code of conduct, and timely report individual results on our BBL website!

Based on your suggestions, the Code of Conduct had some changes in time for the beginning of BBL-6:
- Reiterated that all games must be started by the Official Tournament Start Date (June 1)
- Specified that game results must be submitted on the website within 24 hours of completion
- Outlined that not starting all games in time and causing noticeable delays would result in a warning via ZE direct message requiring a response. Failure to respond or continuous delays will result in reconsidering participation in the future tournaments.
- Established a minimum rating of 1700 for participation to avoid uncharacteristic rating drops for players during the tournaments.

In order to see who your group opponents are, please go to the home page of the BBL website (https://tinyurl.com/ze-bbl - bookmark this page!) where you will find the link to the Results page. Everything is now set up on that page, including a ZE challenge link for each of your group opponents, created for your convenience. Simply click that link for each of your group opponent and your BBL-6 challenge will automatically open on ZE.

The home page of the BBL website has also the result submission form where the winner of each individual game should fill in upon completion of the game in the following format:
Player A - Player B 1:0, Gammon (if applicable)

As usual, I intend to update the results multiple times a day. In order to speed the pace up, please review the results page often and, if you are not seeing some of your results, please don’t hesitate to submit them even if lost a game. Your assistance here is greatly appreciated.

Please feel free to connect with me directly if you have any issues, questions or concerns

Best,
Leoton
https://tinyurl.com/ze-bbl