2 or 3 Day Swiss

[Vampyr]

I'd forget the swiss format and play a 7 team and 2 6 team all play alls on the first day (seeding if I could sensibly do so) with the top 2 from each group qualifying for the A final, the next 2 for the B final and the rest for the C final.

 

What format would the finals be? Multiple teams? All-play-all again? The latter sounds tedious, but perhaps you could introduce the Swiss format for the second day... you'd really have to seed well though. That is why I like qualifiers to do the seeding; they are reasonably accurate based upon not only past performance but form too. I find your suggested format kind of backwards.

[Phil]

Is there a good place to get table count information? I've heard a couple of different tournaments claim this, but not sure how to look it up in one place at ACBL.

 

I don't know of a central location, but each tournament lists table count under the 'results' portion (roughly half way down the page and before the list of of individual masterpoint winners). This year the totals were:

 

(Revised - top 10)

 

1. Gatlinburg: 9114 tables. (3582 players).

2. Las Vegas 4066 tables (1956 players).

3. Palm Springs: 3963 tables (2222 players).

4. Orlando: 3356 / 1937

5. Palmetto, FL (3284 / 2099)

6. Atlanta (3218 / 1830)

7. Penticton: 3004 tables (1244 players).

8. Raleigh (2891 / 1489)

9. Virginia Beach (2609 / 1203)

10. Santa Clara (2577 / 1629)

 

Last year, Palm Springs and Las Vegas were 2 and 3 with 3,929 and 3,860 respectively.

[pigpenz]

I don't know of a central location, but each tournament lists table count under the 'results' portion (roughly half way down the page and before the list of of individual masterpoint winners). This year the totals were:

 

1. Gatlinburg: 9114 tables. (3582 players).

2. Las Vegas 4066 tables (1956 players).

3. Palm Springs: 3963 tables (2222 players).

4. Penticton: 3004 tables (1244 players).

 

Last year, Palm Springs and Las Vegas were 2 and 3 with 3,929 and 3,860 respectively.

 

There may be others larger than Penticton, but I'm pretty sure these are the top 3.

it seems like the two day swiss championship for western conference draws a pretty big field for their four session event

[TimG]

For 2016 I found:

 

Gatlinburg 8323

Rancho Mirage 3931

Hilton Head 3567

Penticon 3156

Houston 3057

Sarasota 3056

Atlanta 3015

Monterey 2860

Orlando 2760

Raleigh 2602

Charlotte 2570

Santa Clara 2502

Las Vegas 2406

Myrtle Beach 2348

 

I don't know of a central location, but each tournament lists table count under the 'results' portion (roughly half way down the page and before the list of of individual masterpoint winners). This year the totals were:

 

(Revised - top 10)

 

1. Gatlinburg: 9114 tables. (3582 players).

2. Las Vegas 4066 tables (1956 players).

3. Palm Springs: 3963 tables (2222 players).

4. Orlando: 3356 / 1937

5. Palmetto, FL (3284 / 2099)

6. Atlanta (3218 / 1830)

7. Penticton: 3004 tables (1244 players).

8. Raleigh (2891 / 1489)

9. Virginia Beach (2609 / 1203)

10. Santa Clara (2577 / 1629)

 

Last year, Palm Springs and Las Vegas were 2 and 3 with 3,929 and 3,860 respectively.

[nige1]

This year, the calendar included a 2 day "Super Swiss" on the final weekend. While the level of play was very strong, only 19 teams entered and 12 teams made the Sunday final

IMO, the best Swiss format for about 20 teams would have been 5 or 6 BAM matches, each match as long as possible. With a large winning-bonus for each match. The effect is a KO with repêchage,

[Phil]

Thanks for the necro. Acbl obliterated 2 day swisses with a revised masterpoint formula. Last year for this event was either 14 or 15 and winners got 24 or so. Single day sunday Swiss in room next door paid 30+.

[TimG]

Thanks for the necro. Acbl obliterated 2 day swisses with a revised masterpoint formula. Last year for this event was either 14 or 15 and winners got 24 or so. Single day sunday Swiss in room next door paid 30+.

ACBL ought to be using the masterpoint formula to encourage two-day premier events rather than discouraging them.

 

I recently noticed (because of an ad on Bridge Winners) that the Flying Pig regional in Cincinnati includes a two-day pair event. Even though I am not a contender in such an event, it is the sort of event that would increase my interest in a regional. The tournament flyer claimed something like "mid-west's only two-day pair event".

 

I looked around at regional schedules as a result and found them quite disappointing. Most have a bazillion events with no clear "premier" event on any given day. One regional cut through the messiness of scheduling by running the same events every day Tuesday through Saturday: A/B/C Pairs (open stratified); bracketed round robin teams; and Golden Opportunity Pairs (750 MP limit). It is strange to me that such a regional has any appeal.

[barmar]

It is strange to me that such a regional has any appeal.

Why? There's plenty of opportunity to earn gold points, what more do most people expect from a regional?

[mycroft]

I miss open qualifiers and finals, and that's in the two-session format. But you can't hold a stratified qualifier, and that killed them stone dead.

 

The two-day events would be fun (even though I have enough trouble putting two good sessions in a row, so I'd never qualify); but there are logistical issues (have to be available for both, have to have a decent game to play in if/when I don't make it, oh, the strong players will be in that one, why should I pay to get beat up for a day to get proof that I didn't make it - or worse, I did make it to day 2, 30th of 32 qualifiers, and I get to get hammered on *even more* tomorrow with no hope of getting anything!) and the fact that we just can't beat the 4-session bracketed KO juggernaut, between the MP awards and the fact that teams are isolated from the ones they don't want to play (the ones they have to punish to get the VPs or the "great players that we have no hope against").

 

I, and most people commenting here, welcome the challenge (at least occasionally). Some are good enough that "winning the prestige event" is worth something more than "yeah, won another Regional Bracket 1 KO." Some of them think it's obvious that the "dead money" would want to inflate the size of that game to increase the prestige/cash award (showing that not only TDs have a blinkered inability to see the world through other players' eyes).