Backgammon Online

26-Mar-2025
04:56 PDT

Friends,

I wanted to welcome 35 returning and 1 new players to our BBL-29 tournament!

Based on the snapshot of participants’ ratings as of March 26, the four-group seeding is now set and all games can begin! The top four players from each group will go to the 1/8 finals with the playoff portion of the tournament being conducted on a best-of-three basis. All games must use the BG format only.

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.

IMPORTANT: Please update your challenge criteria to ensure you can be challenged by your group opponents or challenge them yourself first! Check your ignore lists too. Please avoid any delays as all your group games must start by April 1!

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 set up on that page, including a ZE challenge link for each group opponent, which is created for your convenience. Click that link for each group opponent, and your BBL challenge will automatically open on ZE.

On the home page of the BBL website, you will find the result submission form. The winner of each individual game should fill in this form within 24 hours of completion 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 as I get automated notifications on your result submissions. 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 you lost a game. Your assistance here is greatly appreciated.

Here are a few additional suggestions to speed up the games:
a) Communicate with your opponents to see what time of the day is best for both of you to be online.
b) If you happen to be on the losing side and your game is out of reach, consider resigning and updating the website with the result yourself as your opponent might not notice that the game was over.

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

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

01-May-2025
15:45 PDT

Happy May Day to everyone who celebrates it!

As our BBL-29 has been taking a bit (a lot?) longer than expected, I had an opportunity to think of bringing some additional options to our league schedule and wanted to get your feedback.

I would like to introduce a new BBL Cup, conducted twice a year, in addition to our regular tournaments that we run every other month.

Qualification:
Summer Cup - top 16 players from the overall BBL Leaderboard (games begin on June 26)
Winter Cup - top 16 players from the 2025 BBL Leaderboard (games begin on December 26)

* No registration will be needed, but if any of the Top 16 players is unable to play for any reason, they will be replaced with the next top players in the Leaderboard. In case of equal points between top players, the one with the higher rating will be selected.

Format:
Double Elimination - no groups, the playoff-type best-of-three matches only with a caveat that losing one match will still keep you in the running, however your path to the finals will be harder. Losing the second match will get you eliminated.

You can review the bracket (no names yet as they will be determined after BBL-30…) on our BBL website, under Results - see the fourth tab named BBL Summer Cup 2025!

Looking forward to receiving your input. Hope this additional BBL Cup will be a fast and fun addition to our league!

Thanks
Leoton

02-May-2025
07:05 PDT

I am sure that I am not a top 16 player. I would like to compete it this.

02-May-2025
09:12 PDT

I always say "yes" to play in a tournament, although I'm not in the top 16.

02-May-2025
09:37 PDT

...I agree with rio & whisk 🎲🎲👍

02-May-2025
09:44 PDT

Me too... but we can try to qualify for the winter session.
Congraz to Leoton for trying to "break" the monotony.

03-May-2025
03:37 PDT

Great idea, Leoton
It's going to be fun.
I'm looking forward to it

03-May-2025
10:02 PDT

I love the idea of the cups and here are a couple of thoughts.

Strange to have a summer cup in winter and a winter cup in summer. I'm not relocating to the northern hemisphere, so I'll have to live with that.🙃

When we trialled the BG/NG/AD 3-game finals, it was AD that made things unworkably slow. Is there any appetite to try one of the two cups as a Nackgammon tournament? Just for some more variety.

03-May-2025
10:08 PDT

@Gem001 - That was funny! I probably need to come up with different names!

All - would you rather have one-game matches on each level (much faster, less games) or best of three on each level (slower, but more games for everyone)

03-May-2025
10:29 PDT

Leoton- thank you for all your work on this!
I believe best of 3 is the best option.