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From: Chris Hughes <cjhughes@talk21.com>
To: "'Britdisc'" <britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk>
Subject: T2 & T3
Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 21:11:53 +0100
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Ever since Saturday when Catch 22 'Retired' from Tour 2, the Ultim8 Committee has been discussing a number of aspects of the tournament, and what the implications of the event were. There is also a paragraph on Penalties for late entry for the tour - MAKE SURE YOU READ IT
However before that, on behalf of the u8c I would like to thank Nancy and Ian for their efforts. As Wayne said, whilst the tournament did not go to plan, and the pitches were far from ideal, they battled through to provide as much as possible. It is to their credit that they put in the time and effort to at least attempt to provide you with the tournaments to play on. It is noticeable that despite only having four bids to host events last year, since last weekend I've been flooded with 'We have better pitches than that'. I will be holding you all to that in September when we start looking for next year.
Retirement of Catch from Tour 2
People are aware that Catch retired from T2 without even playing a game; they were unhappy with playing on the pitches, and elected not to play on them. They informed me as soon as that decision was made. I respected that decision, and cannot force them to play. They later proposed that their games, plus others were played on a football pitch locally. This however was rejected as firstly, it would give an unfair advantage over the other teams that did not play on those pitches, and secondly, since the pitch was only available on Saturday it did not solve the problem for Sunday. Late that day a meeting of the u8c convened at Catch's behest to determine the consequences of their retirement.
In that meeting it was decided:
1. That the tournament would continue and count towards tour rankings, and Nationals qualification. The U8C decided that since a large number of games had been completed, and teams had traveled long distances, that canceling the tournament was not an option. Perhaps, if the decision had been made earlier, however at that late stage on Saturday the tournament should continue.
2. That Catch 22 were deemed to have retired from the tournament, and had deemed to be 'not there'. Since they were not there they would be seeded at T3 based on their finishing position in T1. This is standard for a team that had skipped an event and was first applied at Southampton last year after Edinburgh. This decision was taken from a number of options open to us, including the option of assuming that Catch lost all their games and finished 12th. This was felt to be unrealistic and unreasonable. It is clear that Catch 22 are a top 4/5 side.
3. That Catch's demand for a refund was not something that was necessary to be decided there and then, and that it was something that the committees could return to.
The implications to this decision are twofold:
1. That Catch have effectively been penalised in the region of 200 points in the tour. The U8C have since decided that this is a consequence of Catch's retirement. This means that Catch may find it difficult to qualify for Nationals, the committee has not yet decided on the implications of this. Discussions are still ongoing.
2. That when Catch are introduced into the seedings for Tour 3 that all the teams below would be dropped down a position. Again this is as per the rules for a teams non-attendance, and was first introduced in T4 last year. This rule is also liable to be invoked if a foreign team were to enter a tour event.
It is fair to say that the consequences of this decision was not clearly disseminated to the rest of the teams who may have been affected. Especially to the teams playing the 7/8 playoff. For this I take responsibility, since I was aware of the implications, nor was I playing at the time. I duly apologise.
Tour Points
The committee has decided that the points will be distributed in order as per a 28 team format with teams below 12 being moved up a slot. Since the scale for the tour is a non-linear progression, this means that the majority of teams would get more points than if we ignored the 12 slot and used 29 teams for the calculations.
Schedule for T3
The scheduling, as mentioned, is based on the T2 finishing positions with non attending teams inserted based on their previous attendance. e.g. Catch should be seeded 2nd based on their position at T1. However since this would displace Doughboy, a comparison between Catch and Dough is made, and since Dough finished higher at the last tour event they both attended (not the game - the event) then Doughboy hold second place Catch are seeded 3rd, and displace the rest downwards. Since 12 slot was left free at the end of T2 all teams below are seeded where they finished. Unless we get any other teams entering who were not at T2.
After discussion the U8C has decided to stick with a standard tour schedule through out the event. We are aware that this appears to penalise Hammerage. An option proposed and considered was the option of resorting T3 to a top 16 format. This, it was decided, penalises almost all the other teams, by removing the quality of game they deserve, or by reducing the chances of the 13-16 teams to improve and climb up. This decision was based upon past performances of Hammerage (and first touch before them), and despite a credible 6th position at T1 this year, we felt it was unlikely that Hammerage had a reasonable chance of making it into the top 4.
Again, I am aware that any argument I put here is unlikely to convince the Hammerage players that the right decision has been made. However, having already given an assurance to Catch that they would be seeded based on their T1 position, the U8C committee feel that this is the fairest decision for as many teams in the top 16, not just the top 8.
It will not surprise me if people wish to complain about this decision. You may of course do so. If you want to complain do it to me - cjhughes@talk21.com Please note that whilst you may be severely upset at this decision, abusive emails will not be entertained. Mails may be forwarded to the BUF, the U8C, and Britdisc if I feel it is appropriate.
Late Entries
This years tour has been extremely poor for teams entering late. The U8C has been discussing this in detail as well, and has made a number of decisions:
1. No retrospective late penalties will be issued. If you were late entering a Tour event then consider that your warning.
2. Teams who are late in submitting the BUF deposits will be deducted 5% of the points accrued from that event for each day the deposit is late - i.e. if the deposit is one day late you lose 5%, 20 days late you lose 100%. We have had to resort to this since some teams have failed to pay their deposits for T2 as yet.
3. Teams who are late in submitting their entry to the TD will lose 5% of the points accrued from that event each day. This is ontop of any points lost from late payment of deposit. This excludes any prior arrangement a team may have made with the TD (e.g. GBJuniors who like to pay in cash on the day, as long as they have arranged this in advance with the TD).
This has had to be introduced because of the large number of top 8 teams who are late in entering. The tour events are supposed to be assisting these teams and yet they are the teams who are repeatedly late in entering. It was believed that points penalties would provide a greater incentive to the top teams.
THESE PENALTIES WILL BE ENFORCED FOR T3 & T4. I will be confirming the dates for entry in the very near future, once I get the information hand.
Chris Hughes
DoC, on behalf of the Ultim8 committee;
Andy Cotgreave, Dora Kemp, Andy 'Norm' Tucker, Wayne Retter