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BGonline.org Forums
Atlanta Tournament Reviewed
Posted By: Stick
Date: Wednesday, 6 May 2009, at 10:54 a.m.
The directors of the tournament sent out an email requesting feedback about their tourney. Instead of answering the email, I'm going to put it here in case others weren't polled or to give feedback on my feedback. I will then link the TDs to this link.
First thing I noticed upon arriving was the hotel. It was particularly nice for an ABT event especially at the standard room rate of an ABT event. For those who were there you know what I'm talking about, the overall nature feel of the place.
One thing the hotel didn't have is free wireless (or wired). It was free in the main lobby on their computers, but other than that you had to pay for it per day. I only mention this because it's one of my pet peeves at ABT events. I'm so happy when the hotel has free wifi but when it doesn't I can live nowadays being able to access most stuff online with my iphone.
I had no problems personally with the staff but overheard that someone, I honestly don't remember who, was doing less than their fair share of duties. Basically it sounded like an empty chair on the staff that had not expected. Everyone was pleasant though from the kickoff I found out they weren't the most experienced or knowledgeable staff running an ABT event. Amusing side story -
I show up to register, introduce myself, and receive the "Oh, so you're the famous Stick?" I told them I prefer "infamous" but I'd deal with famous. Then, I'm asked if I'm playing in the Advanced division =) This wasn't a joke, they really thought I was, and if I had been forewarned I would have played it off and tottttttttttally entered just to see what people said the next day at the calcutta or whenever I got booted out of that division. We all know the worst that could have happened is they let me play in the advanced and then I get my ass handed to me. Next day I was in a seeded field, someone squeeled on me.
There was enough room in the playing rooms but not overly so. If you have a bigger field next year I'm not sure those rooms will hold. The lighting in room B was poor once the sun went down. I wasn't at the calcutta either but I imagine ppl were a bit squashed.
I didn't attend the Corbett lecture because I didn't sleep for almost 2 days leading into Friday night. I'm sure Mike gave a fine lecture, sorry I wasn't there to give him a hard time.
I decided to play in the Atlanta ABT because the drive didn't seem too bad, two roads and 8 hours, but who would have thought I'd total my car on the way back =) The high return was definitely motivation for me to come too.
I thought how the Georgia Masters ended up completely sucked. I am not one who normally cares about tournament formats or how byes are handled or when the field should be cut off at a certain number but it felt really wrong how the draw came out. I asked Gregg Cattanach at the time about the draw because it felt really wrong but again, I'm basically ignorant on the subject so I was only inquiring (and still am), not accusing (yet!).
Here is what happened. There were two start times, 2pm and 7pm I believe, per normal. There ended up being 20 people in this event, 16 ppl in the early round and 4 ppl in the later round so...there were 8 byes in the early start round and only 4 matches. In the later round everyone got a bye. In Masters events where it is sometimes offered to enter the round of 16 instead of the round of 32 for twice the money this many byes/ppl who were forced to play seems like a huge deal. It still feels wrong to me. I don't know if they should have cut the field off earlier or what to make it right, but to me it didn't sit well.
The ineptitude of the staff hit hard a couple of times on rulings. I wasn't involved in any of these but it was apparent in my opinion things weren't handled in the best way. I realize it's a new staff taking over a tournament and nobody has a lot of experience but there should have been someone on staff to put their foot down, not CJC who had no official part in the tourney being asked to make decisions.
The Ray Glaesar/Malcolm Davis recording debacle was discussed here and I don't honestly care which way you would have ruled but to me it seems ~15 minutes should be sufficient time for almost any ruling. Time to talk to both parties, both separately and together if needed, then time to discuss among the committee and make a ruling. From what I was told, and I did not stay for the entire thing because it started dragging out so correct me if this is wrong, it took around 2 hours to come to a ruling and then you pussed out and said "roll for it".
Next year I'd like the Masters & Main to be clock preference, where if either player requests a clock and one is available their match will be clocked. I honestly don't think I'll be attending tournaments next year where this isn't in place. I'm also sure you'll be making a decision on the recording next year or maybe the ABT will take a stance so that issue will be solved.
I also heard you told ppl Saturday that the finals were at 2pm on Sunday and then Sunday rolls around and decide they could/should play early. Again, this is what I heard, so if I'm wrong feel free to correct me, but I was told you called ppl and asked them to play earlier etc... If you tell me 2pm expect me at 2pm, if you tell me 11am, expect me at 11am. I don't know about others but by Sunday I need my sleep and would hate to be woken up to play early when I was told the night before I didn't have to play til X.
Stick
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