| |
BGonline.org Forums
Why can't we learn from Chiva?
Posted By: Henrik Bukkjaer In Response To: Why can't we learn from Chiva? (Phil Simborg)
Date: Wednesday, 15 May 2013, at 1:42 p.m.
Well Phil, it could be that some federations/tournament directors would look at FT system as being a step back, compared to what they use today.
I don't expect FT system to be adopted by the DBgF, since we have a lot of experience using different swiss-systems over a lot of years, and have optimized and varied a lot on these. To mention just one thing: We have a fully functional and useable rating system, that covers all players and tournaments - even the weeklies at local cafes and clubs. Thus we have the option of using the rating to organize and optimize the use of swiss systems, something that is not possible in Chiva's normal settings and when using FT. We can use rating to seed, we can use it to adjust when tiebreaks arise, and we can use it for pairings.
Another huge difference between FT and the way we use to do things, if I recall correctly, are that FT hand out byes to the top players an a given round - we always try to hand out byes to the players most out of contention.
When using swiss systems (or multiple elimination systems), you can have many different purposes and goals, depending on what kind of tournament you're running: Is it a qualifier? Is it a "recreational" tournament? Is it an official championship where you'd prefer to seed players for expected top clash finals, etc. Depending on the purpose and goals, I think the system should not necessarily be the same!
Typically at DBgF we see swiss systems/ multiple elimination systems used in qualifiers for the big tournaments, we see it used in doubles events (since it can handle ties perfectly, and it is a highly social system), and finally we see it used in some beginner flights, where people attending really prefer to be guaranteed a lot of matches.
Don't get me wrong, I think it is great that Chiva (and Fuert or whatever his name is) has worked out another format, and even more so, that they have created a computerized management program around it, to smoothly run tournaments! Personally I love to attend tournaments where the format is well described, thought through and perfectly executed. Thus I'd love to attend a Chiva organized FT tournament. But I just don't see this particular format as the one-size-fits-all silver bullet of backgammon. As you mentioned yourself, the best format is the next one! Different flavors and different colors keeps us interested :-)
| |
BGonline.org Forums is maintained by Stick with WebBBS 5.12.