TD Behaviour

[kaydea]

Could someone enlighten me about tourneys and the T.D's who run them. I am interested to know how one becomes a T.D., what are their qualifications and what is their relationship with BBO.

 

I ask because I was playing in a Goulash tourney yesterday and was removed by the TD for absolutely no reason whatsoever to my knowledge. It was an independent tourney and I had no conversation with any of the players except to say GL or WD.

 

The TD refused to answer 2 of my enquiries about why I was removed from the tourney and finally sent the following message "DOES THIS ANSWER YOUR QUESTION?", obviously it does not! I found this most frustrating and think I am at least entitled to an explanation.

 

I complained to BBO abuse and I received informing me that generally BBO does not interfere in tourneys (except in certain circumstances), especially in free tourneys. Essentially I was told that if I do not like the style of this particular TD, then I should consider playing elsewhere, I will certainly take their advice

 

It might be helpful if BBO informed members what to expect from tourneys, I can certainly see why some players would be removed since I am now able to recognize "idiot" "A/H" and "jerk" in several languages.

[uday]

In order to create a tournament, one needs special privileges within BBO.

 

We hand out these permissions to anyone who asks, provided that they (in our opinion) have sufficiently experience on the site. We usually don't hand out permissions to someone who is known to our abuse group.

 

Do we require training, certification, a competency test? No.

 

TDs are constrained by the same rule we're all constrained by -- "Be Nice" sums it up well enough for me -- but beyond that, we don't tend to interfere much.

 

We will interfere in pay tournaments, of course.

 

But in free tournaments? Being too rigid here would simply force some TDs out of the space, and that's even worse for most players than an occasional bad ruling or an unwarranted ejection.

 

We could do something like collect thumbs up/down at the conclusion of each T, etc, and present the #s on an ongoing basis with a little work. Not sure the problem is big enough.

[inquiry]

I will not be speaking officially for the BBO, but I will tell you my understanding.

 

There are two types of tournaments, "pay ones" and "free ones." For the pay ones, BBO takes a lot of responsibilty. The ACBL tournaments the TDs are hired by and work for the BBO. They are required to be ACBL approved directors (sorry don't remember the language of the approval) that includes passing a directing course. For the other pay tournaments, the "owner" of the tournaments is not the BBO, but some other group. However, they get to run their tournaments through arrangements with the BBO and they have a responsibility to run their events in a professional manner. The BBO will step in if there is a chronic problem with any TD in those other pay events.

 

The "Free tournaments" are a different kettle of fish. Virtually anyone who has a relatively clean history on the BBO can get the power to be a free tournament simply by asking. That is a very low standard, no one ask if they have any directing experience of even if they know how to use the software to direct. The BBO view is that the more free tournaments options available, the better for members who do not or can not spend money on the pay ones. This is to increase everyone's enjoyment of the site (I imagine it would be financially benificial to the BBO not to offer Free tournaments, but that is against their view of bridge for everyone).

 

It takes quite a bit to get a free tournament TD to lose the power to be a TD. Playing TD's who adjust the score of hands in their favor without cause (like changing 6NT - 2 for them to 6Nx making, is one example), or TD's that repeatedly create tournaments and then don't show up to direct them. These events start, but with no one to replace sitouts. And finally the TD's who curse and make repeated sexual comments during play to the the entire event. Things like these will get you removed from the list of directors.

 

However, free TD's can decide who play in their events and either block someone from joining or remove them from playing pretty much at will. It is their event, they decide who plays. Sometimes this can be very frustrating for the player removed, especially in cases like yours. But simply stated, that is not an area the BBO gets involved in, as you learned. There are some really good free TD directors and some very crappy ones. Find the good ones, play in those events. The theory goes that the poor ones will lose followers and eventually not have anyone play in their events. Sadly, some of the worst ones still have large followings so the that theory doesn't work. However, the people playing must be enjoying them as others options exist.

[kaydea]

Thank you for your response. I am not suggesting that the TD concerned should be prevented from running tourneys in future, just that if a player is ejected from a tourney at least they should be given an explanation. If I did something wrong (which I doubt) at least I need to know what it was.

[jillybean]

I agree with all that has been said and would like to add some comments from another perspective, that of the “free TD”.

 

Players routinely fail to read or follow the rules of the tournament, quit after bad boards, refuse to alert and explain bids, abuse partners, opposition and the TD, refuse to answer a question from the TD, send inane TD requests such as ???, bid a slam just as ‘pay back’ and so on. As a free TD I have no recourse against these players, I can boot then and try to prevent them from joining again but it is far from ideal.

 

Sometimes I make mistakes and boot the wrong person, if this happens I try to put them back or if I can’t, I hope they accept my apology.

[kaydea]

I have to agree that the behaviour of some players is unacceptable and T.D's must sometimes feel that they sound like a cracked record repeating the same messages over and over.

 

It is equally as frustrating for the players when their partners up and leave because of a bad bid or partners bad play, or have crabby partners who criticize.

 

In general I have had more good experiences than bad and now have a better understanding of how free tourneys work. I will adjust my participation accordingly and just be more selective in future.