Handling Drop outs

[Cods3003]

Hi everyone

 

I am looking for some help.

I am about to run my first tournament and would like to know how to handle drop outs with substitutes.

 

My questions are

Can I select or control which substitutes are used?

Is there any way for a substitute to register for a specific tournament?

If a player drops out can the resume when/if the return?

 

I understand there are peak times where drop outs are more likely. As I have some flexibility about when I schedule a tournament are there particular times I should avoid?

 

Thanks for your help

[j_with_a_B]

Hi everyone

 

I am looking for some help.

I am about to run my first tournament and would like to know how to handle drop outs with substitutes.

 

My questions are

Can I select or control which substitutes are used?

Is there any way for a substitute to register for a specific tournament?

If a player drops out can the resume when/if the return?

 

I understand there are peak times where drop outs are more likely. As I have some flexibility about when I schedule a tournament are there particular times I should avoid?

 

Thanks for your help

 

If you right click on a disconnected player a popup menu appears that will offer (among other things) either "Replace with Substitute - any" and "Replace with Substitute - see list" or words to that effect. You can decide there.

 

If a player can see the tables of the tourney and clicks the Substitute button, then they become listed as a sub for that tourney. If they click on it otherwise then they are available to be called on by any tourney.

 

You can reseat players that have been replaced, but I, as a TD, and most subs, consider that to be bad form unless the sub clearly consents. They may consent, but still consider it tacky. Subs are precious and should never be abused or taken for granted. Without them, many tourneys would never be able to finish at all, or only do so with mostly Averaged scores assigned for many of the boards.

 

As far as the best times to run a tourney, that is debatable. I would say that the total number of players on BBO and the number of players disconnecting and the number of players willing to sub all vary in close proportion to each other, making sub availability a minor practical concern.

 

Scheduling open free tourneys that start at the exact same time with the exact same parameters has always been deemed to be inconsiderate, indeed even predatory, when there are only a few players on the site. Changes like goulash versus normal bridge, or Individual versus Pairs, or restrictions according to country or language, among other things help differentiate them.

 

Most recently, however, with the highly restricted tourney size limits and abundance of new people and groups hosting, this is much less of an issue than it once was. If you schedule a tourney for any particular time and no one comes to play, you should take that as a clear clue another time may be better! :)