The US Backgammon Federation, Japanese Backgammon League, & French Backgammon Federation Bring You The Most Exciting Online Backgammon Event of the Year! 16 players from Belgium can participate. Players from Belgium wanting to participate are kindly requested to contact Johan at BGLeuven@gmail.com by Saturday, August 24. If there should be more than 16 players, the Bigelo rating list, with matches played up to and including Friday, August 23th, will decide. Below please find the official invitation.
New Format, Free Entry, & 16-Player Teams!
Greetings backgammon players! The USBGF, JBL, and FFBG are excited to announce a completely new and different format for the 3rd IBC. Our new format has FREE entry, 21 Euros registration fee, allows up to 16 player representatives per country, and a guaranteed prize pool of 4,700 Euros! We expect to have the largest number of countries and players ever to participate in an online backgammon tournament.
Participation
The 3rd IBC will accept up to a total of 16 player representatives per country. Player representative eligibility will be determined by each respective Federation / Organization. Where no Federation or Organization exists in a country, individual players can join provided they designate a captain to be the organizer from their country, approved by the Organizing Committee.
Registration fee submission and other duties required by the rules of the tournament will be the responsibility of each Federation President and/or Organization Director.
Registration Fee Deadline
All registration fees must be paid no later than Sunday, September 15, 2013. Payment is to be made by PayPal or wire transfer. All registration fees paid by either PayPal or wire transfer will be may payable to the French Backgammon Federation, maintained by Scarlett Serrero.
Federation Presidents, Organization Directors, or their representatives, may submit total registration fees due for all their respective tournament participants via our Pay Registration Fee form. Payment by PayPal is highly encouraged. Wire instructions will be forwarded to those who request them. Pre-registration is required to access the form.
Tournament Registration Deadline
Paid tournament participants must complete both the pre-registration and tournament registration forms no later than Wednesday, September 18, 2013.
Tournament Start Date & Online Venue
The tournament start date and announcement of draw will take place on Sunday, September 22nd, 2013. Players in the same country will not be subject to playing each other until unavoidable in late rounds.
All match play will take place online on GridGammon. Current and/or future sponsors reserve the right to require selected matches to be played live. Sponsor(s) will be responsible for associated air fares and hotel expenses incurred by players in this regard. Air fares and hotel expenses must be pre-approved by Sponsor(s) and Organizers.
Guaranteed Prize Pool
We are currently guaranteeing a minimum of 4,700 Euros. We are working diligently to secure additional sponsors to increase that amount. The current prize pool has been graciously underwritten by 3 very special players. They have made a commitment in their desire to see backgammon grow, and additionally to permit our 3rd IBC to be kicked off immediately. Trophies will be awarded to individual winners. Medals will be awarded to the winning Country Prize team members.
Tournament Format
We will run sixteen 16-player preliminary brackets, subject to the number of participants. The winners of each bracket will be automatically registered into a final 16-player Playoff bracket. Players from the same Federation will be evenly distributed throughout the sixteen preliminary brackets. Should the size of the overall field require byes, all players will have equal chance.
All rounds of the preliminary brackets will be a best 2-of-3 series for 11 points. The semi-final of the Playoff will be best 2-of-3 for 13 points, and the Championship Final will be best 2-of-3 for 15 points. Each round will last 14 days. Round deadlines will be strictly adhered to.
Country Prize
Points will be awarded to players’ respective countries for each match win within a series. Medals will be presented to the team amassing the most points.
Prize Pool Distribution
The prize pool will be split between the 2 remaining finalists. 70% of the pool will be awarded to the IBC champion, and 30% will be awarded to the runner-up. Prize distribution may be expanded to award the semi-finalists, subject to the size of the overall prize pool. Organizers reserve the right to modify this payout percentage and will notify all participants of the official payout percentages prior to the tournament start date.
Match Proctors
Proctors will be required during the semi-finals, and final of the Playoff. Proctors will be compensated up to 75 Euro depending on the requirement in in each particular country. Additional rounds of proctors may be added depending on the availability of funds.
Integrity
All matches will be recorded and subject to computer and human analysis for possibility of irregularities. The performance level in proctored matches will be compared to the performance level in non-proctored matches and with the player’s performance in other tournaments. Match logs will be REQUIRED to be submitted when a match win is reported.
Rules
The IBC Tournament rules will be completely revised and simplified to accommodate our new format. We expect to finalize and publish our new ruleset based up on the new format within in the next 2 weeks. It will be available for review on www.bgchampionship.com.
Registration
Federation Presidents, Organization Directors, and prospective tournament participants are asked to please pre-register on our website at Tournament Pre-Registration.
The 3rd IBC tournament registration form will require additional information only from those who are paid participants. We will require players to select their Federation name, enter their GridGammon nickname, select an initial rating for maintaining stats, and verify that they have read and understood the rules of the event. Those players who do not have GridGammon accounts will gain access to a form to submit new account requests. This form will only be provided
to those who are paid participants.
New Website & Tournament System
We are working hard to make major modifications to our site to meet the needs of an extremely large field, including ease of reporting, player scheduling of matches, and match results.
Participation & Questions
Let us you know want to participate! Please confirm your participation by notifying Tara Mendicino at directors@bgchampionship.com by email before Wednesday, August 28, 2013. Let us know how many players you estimate may be representing your Federation, or Organization.
We need your help in providing estimates to potential sponsors of the number of players and countries participating, so please let us know as early as possible.
If you have any questions or need further information, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Sincerely,
Tara Mendicino, Director 3rd IBC
Leonardo Jerkovic, Assistant Director 3rd IBC
directors@bgchampionship.com
3rd IBC Organizing Committee
Perry Gartner (U.S. Backgammon Federation) perry@usbgf.org
Mochy Mochizuki (Japanese Backgammon League) mochy@backgammon.gr.jp
Scarlett Serrero (French Backgammon Federation) scarlett1905@hotmail.com
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