Backgammon Online

05-Apr-2023
19:13 PST

What jart said! 🤣

05-Apr-2023
21:17 PST

You, four finished quarter finalists showed us what a fast and beautiful game is.... Respect.
Maxmator - Lilwarrior 2 - 1 👏

20-Apr-2023
10:19 PST

Congratulations to Maxmator on his first BBL trophy!

A big round of applause to all playoff participants:
Jubilee - Finalist
Lilwarrior and Petertwyman - Semifinalists
Steelerhead, Mariusadi, Tatus-the-Best, and Schenevmerla - Quarterfinalists

As usual, all playoff participants received their bonus points on the overall League Leaderboard. Please check the current standing on our website.

A huge thank you to all players!

This was our first experiment with using 4 groups in the first round. The overall tournament timeline got significantly reduced - we finished on average 8-9 days earlier than previous tournaments! At the same time, I heard (and agree with!) some concerns that playing much less games on the group stage left majority of the people outside of the tournament too quickly and less interested / motivated… I also heard concerns that while the group stage finished really quick, the playoffs took much longer.

I would like to hear your feedback before setting up BBL-18. Here are some of the ideas that I wanted to implement for the next tournament to further improve the experience for all of us:

1st stage:
- Keep 4 groups format, but move to best of three matches (BG only)
- Move top 4 players from each group to the next round (instead of top 2)

2nd stage:
- Begin with 4 groups by 4 winners from the first stage, also best of three matches (BG only)
- Winners of each group on the second stage will move to Stage 3

3rd stage:
- Semifinals and Final - best of three each (BG only)

As you can see, I propose to switch to the BG format only as AD games usually take time and contribute to the longer duration in the playoffs. By introducing the best of three format from the beginning, we mitigate the issue with lesser games guaranteed for the players and by doubling the number of playoff seats, we would get you all much more to play for on the first stage even if the initial games didn’t go too well…  

Hope these changes would be acceptable by you all and make our overall league experience only better. Looking forward to hearing your feedback!

Best,
Leoton

20-Apr-2023
14:14 PST

I like what leoton has put forward but would suggest having one tournament where these changes are made except only 2 from each group rather than 4 go through, with round 2 being 1/4 finals.
Best of 3 BG for all matches is great but may take a while and if 16 players go through to round 2 it may be too much. It could always be implemented in BBL19

20-Apr-2023
14:37 PST

Sounds like a good format worth trying!
We think most of us enjoy and look forward to the challenge of the bbl tournaments and are open to changes to assure a quick moving pace.
This new format will keep the interest high and give us all the opportunity to play more games.
Thanks, Leoton, for your commitment to make this one of the most interesting tournaments out there.
And, after the next one, we can discuss this again!

20-Apr-2023
14:51 PST

After talking to some BBL players, I tend to agree that playing best of 3 on the group stage could be too much since all players would need to start 8*3=24 games which is much more than we had before and very problematic for the players with a 25 game limit.

So the adjusted proposal would keep everything as above with the difference of having ONE game on the first round robin stage. This will still keep the 1st stage very fast and having top 4 moving forward would create more chances for the players to get through.

Looking forward to hearing your additional insights. Really appreciate it!

Best,
Leoton

22-Apr-2023
23:40 PST

Go for it !
PS Maybe finally we'll play every month !!!

23-Apr-2023
12:15 PST

lets try it. i like the top4 moving on, sorry not to have A/D, NG games, but A/D is a longer game but bliz players should be able to handle it?
All tournaments have been great Thanks Leo

11-May-2023
21:00 PST

Friends,

BBL-18 Registration is now open. Please use our usual website link to register for the new tournament (https://tinyurl.com/ze-bbl)

I wanted to thank everyone for your support and improvement proposals either on this forum or in private messages! As you know I prefer to have smaller incremental changes as it's easier to get used to and, as a host, to maintain.

After hearing your feedback, I plan to keep the 4-group format for BBL-18 with now 4 top players moving to the playoffs. The "Sweet 16" group winners will meet in the 1/8 finals, then it's time for "Elite 8" or quarterfinals, "Final 4" or semifinals, and the Championship match for the semifinal winners. All playoff games will be in the best-of-three format with BG games only to speed up the pace.

Hope to see you all returning to the tournament and having a good time! The group seeding and all games will begin on May 26.

Best,
Leoton

12-May-2023
16:48 PST

I think it might just be experiment time. Keep trying new ideas until something sticks. No need to get it right the first time.

Let's roll!