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Peoria tourney thoughts

Posted By: sunny
Date: Wednesday, 15 October 2008, at 3:54 a.m.

In Response To: Peoria tourney thoughts (neilkaz)

First, I want to sincerely thank all the Bgonliners who attended and played in the Illinois State Championships in Peoria. Despite a few glitches, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. I'm truly grateful for your support and the encouragement so many of you took the time to give me in this, my second year as a TD.

I've read and am pondering how to resolve the concerns you've expressed here so that the 2009 Illinois State Championships can be an even smoother-running event. This year, the draws for both the Intermediate and the Championship were completed while the Calcutta team buyers paid for their purchases, but intentionally weren't posted until all buyback activity was completed.

Regretfully, while we started just about right on time, the Calcutta did take longer than expected, at least partially due to adjusting to the new "create your dream team" format, which people did seem to enjoy. We plan to address the lateness issue in 2009 by starting activities a bit earlier on Saturday morning and finding a different way to award door prizes, which many people enjoy winning.

In regards to clocks, I believe in aggressively clocking matches. I had announced "practice" parameters prior to the Calcutta and encouraged clock use in tournament matches. We did have a few players who voluntarily tried using clocks for the first time in tournament play, since they were able to do so without having to fear penalties.

I regret the problem that developed after the dinner break. I didn't keep in close enough contact with my staff who were monitoring the draw sheets, and was not on top of of delays as they were developing. That's why we had a problem. Once I became aware of the problem, I did place clocks on players for two rounds of the Consolation, clocking part or all of 7 matches on Saturday evening. I agree 110% with Neil's comment "TELL THE DIRECTOR". While it IS the responsibility of the staff to monitor the pace of the matches, if a player notices a problem developing that the staff missed, we WANT you to tell us, believe me!

After talking with my husband David, I believe we've come up with a good solution to slow play in our tournament. Before the tournament begins, times will be set for the completion of every round (based on length of the match). A clock will be put on any match which appears to be behind schedule. We need to work out exactly what this means, but the idea is to catch the problem before it starts. This proposal falls short of putting clocks on all matches, but it does set the precedent of putting clocks on all matches that are causing a problem.

Thanks for the opportunity to discuss these issues. It helps the entire backgammon community when we communicate and try to problem-solve, rather than just vent. I welcome your comments, either on this site or via email at bgqueenus@yahoo.com, and I promise to at least consider every suggestion I read. It's great that we all want the same thing: well-run tournaments and exciting games!

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