Fun Tournament in Vancouver

[Traum]

Hello folks. I have just started the process of planning a fun tournament in Vancouver, and I would like to get some input from my fellow BFers.

The burning question in my head is whether the informal tourney should take place in late August or early September. Presumably, August might be a better time for the students among us since school starts in September. However, late August is also a time for family vacation and stuff, so early September might be a better choice after all.

The intended format of the tournament is to have 32 teams of "open" doubles (men, women & mixed all play together) playing in a preliminary round of round robin games, after which an elimination round would take place for the top 16 teams. The target audience is really just anyone who enjoys a game of badminton, but past experience has shown that the tournament does attract at least a few good teams, with some people coming from VRC.

And most importantly, being a fun tournament, there will numerous draw prizes. In the last tournament, there was around $200 worth of badminton supplies as draw prizes. So even if you didn't quite make it to the championship game, there might still be something for you. A registration fee of around $15 will be charged.

So would anyone from BF be interested?

-Rick

[TTT]

I'm guessing chihong will win all the prizes again...hehe

I can't join because I suckkkk

[SmashingBird]

Originally posted by TTT


I suckkkk

how about telling us something we don't already know;) ..LOL..jk

[Traum]

Hey TTT. Don't let your skill level hold you back. This is going to be a fun tournament after all, and there'll be some great draw prizes to be won!

-Rick

[TTT]

Originally posted by Traum
Hey TTT. Don't let your skill level hold you back. This is going to be a fun tournament after all, and there'll be some great draw prizes to be won!

-Rick

haha...I'm pretty sure the ppl watching me play will have fun laughing at me swinging and missing. I know a couple of people who went last time....the level is simply too high for me, and it's gonna be like 15-0. But I think I'll come and watch though....

hm...isn't kinda unfair to have men, women & mixed all played together??

[TTT]

Originally posted by SmashingBird
how about telling us something we don't already know;) ..LOL..jk

I'll kick ur ass one day. :D

[Traum]

Originally posted by TTT
hm...isn't kinda unfair to have men, women & mixed all played together?? [/B]

Yes, it's absolutely unfair for us guys to play against the women and mixed teams! If we win, someone will say we picked on the ladies. And if we lost, we'll become the laughing stock of everyone else! :D

The real reason is, I don't think I can find enough people to fill up 3 different draws, so everything has to be bundled together. And besides, I wouldn't ever underestimate the ladies. They generally have a lot more finesse than us dudes, and some of them can kick my butt without ever smashing once!

-Rick

[SmashingBird]

Originally posted by TTT
I'll kick ur ass one day. :D

now, that is what i call news:D

[chihong]

Originally posted by TTT
I'm guessing chihong will win all the prizes again...hehe

I can't join because I suckkkk


hey, I didn't win all the prizes, but I confess I did win the big draw..hee...

I didn't get the T-shirts though (they were reserved for the championship team)!!! Now this time I will aim for them..oh Rick, can you get the Nike ones, I like those.. :)

Anyway, I think the last tournament was very fun. Afterall, where else can you find a touranment that a man double team would compete head against head with a woman double team :D

[Traum]

Due to a number of technical difficulties (Did you know that lotsa people get married in August/September? Apparently, I didn't.), I regret to inform you that the fun tournament would have to be postponed. I'll try to schedule it for October, and I'll keep everyone up-to-date by posting the latest details here.

-Rick

[Pointfore.Ca]

A badminton tournament being postponed due to weddings? Oh geez, what is the world coming to! :D

[Takamsda]

I wanna play!!!.
Any Singles games?

I just missed the one the late June hosted by Douglas(I was in LA)
I so want to play any tournament now.

[Traum]

Hey Takamsda. Unfortunately, the tournament would only be a doubles event. It is more cost-effective for the participants that way. It is a fun tournament after all, and I don't want cost to become a prohibitive factor for those who just want to enjoy a few competitive games.

But if you are interested, just keep an eye out for updates in this thread. I'll be posting updates as soon as I work out the details.

-Rick

[Winex West Can]

You know, depending on how many people we have in Vancouver, we can probably just pick a quiet evening and invade, say, ClearOne for the tournament. Drop-in is only $6, and it goes from 7:30pm to 10pm on weeknights, and 8:00pm to 11pm on the weekends. Even if we factor in the cost of the shuttles, it shouldn't be that expensive.

If the Vancouver folks are seriously interested, I can volunteer to be the local coordinator/organizer for the tournament. As the West Coast distributor for Pointfore Canada, I can probably provide some prizes at cost as well (Ok, let's hope Pointfore.Ca wouldn't be reading this... ). But of course, having prizes would mean the registration cost would have to be bumped up.

-Rick



Sorry Rick, I thought this might be more suitable here.

I think it is a great idea! and if you do get enough folks (32 max) then basically you got the whole four courts and I am sure Darryl wouldn't mind (might be better if you let him know in advance too).

As for the set up, I would proposed that we break the group up into groups of 4 (so we will have 8 groups over 4 courts) and we can arrange two sets of 4 groups each (A & B). Each group will play 3 games (interchanging partners within the group) and the top player from each group (a total of 8) will move to the next round. The next round will consists of the top players from each of the 4 groups in the two sets A & B (here we can arrange the mix by using A1 B2 A3 B4 and B1 A2 B3 B4, etc) to form the two groups of 4. Again they will play 3 games (interchanging partners) over two courts this time. The other 2 courts can be utilized by the players knocked out of the first round. The two top players from each group in the second round will then go into the final round. Again, a 3 game match to be played (interchanging partners) on one court with the top player declared the winner.

Only problem is that I think we will require 4 hours instead of 3 so we might have to declare 2 winners (one from each group in round 2). Top player in each group is determined by games won followed by total points won followed by points given. For example, you might have 3 players in each group winning the same number of games (1 win 2 losses) so you will have to total the points from the games to declare the top player. If there is a tie, then you look at the points each player has given up. The time used is an average of 20 min/game so we have 3 games/hour which will allow us to use the four courts in the first 2 hours for the first round and then the final (round 2) take place in the last hour of the drop in sessions.

[Absinthe]

I'm in for doubles.
Anyone interested to become my partner? :)

[Traum]

Hey folks. Sorry about the late reply. I've been a little busy this week.

The format suggested by WWC should work (as in, fit in 2.5 to 3 hours) if we are willing to play only up to 11 points for each game. In certain ways, I think 11 points per game might even be good for ourselves. I don't know about you guys, but I am not too sure if I have the stamina to play 3 games of 15 points back to back.

The second thing to consider is when we want to do this. For some reason, mid-August seems like a good time to me. Of course, the final date will have to depend on when we can get some court time, but if we are really gonna invade ClearOne in the evening, I don't think it would be too difficult to get a good date.

So let's hear some feedback before we proceed?

-Rick

[15Love]

You should probably talk to Darryl about booking courts for a tournament at ClearOne. I think there are only 2 courts available during the drop in times in the evenings and he has training groups that run to at least 730 on most evenings. It might be easier to book some courts for a four hour block during the day on a weekend.

[Traum]

Yes, I'll definitely talk to Darryl about booking courts for the tournament. We can't just march in and take over all their courts during their evening drop-in sessions. :D But the important thing is to settle on a small range of dates first. After all, we do want a date when everyone (well... the more the better) can show up, right?

-Rick

[SChan]

so what's happening with this tourney? it's been a while since an update? is the tourney still on?

[Traum]

Sorry I haven't been keeping everyone informed. I've been a little busy myself handling some business issues, so I haven't had the chance to talk to Darryl yet. Also, when I found out that the VRC tournament is happening in mid-August (actually, today through Sunday, I believe), I didn't think it would be a good idea to have two tournaments happening at around the same time. Of course, I understand that our target audience would be somewhat different, but still, the timing is a little too close for my comfort.

I think I should be heading to ClearOne this weekend, so I'll see what kind of dates I can get.

-Rick

[Traum]

Hello folks. Sorry about the delay (yet again), but I have finally talked to Darryl about booking some courts at ClearOne for the Vancouver BC/BF tournament.

I have asked for a 3 to 4 hour time slot on the third or fourth weekend of September, with a preference for Saturday mornings. Once Darryl gets back to me (in 3 to 4 days, he said), I'll post the details of the tournament here.

-Rick

[LoveJoy]

In please!
I may be able to convince my regular group for 3 doubles team...I would say B to high B level players.

[Traum]

Ok, here's what I have in mind about the registration fee for the tournament.

Assuming that we're getting 4 courts for 4 hours, we're gonna need:

$15 x 4 courts x 4 hours = $240

To keep costs down, I think we should be using nylon shuttles (Mavis 300's). Assuming that we'll burn through a tube an hour, we'll need

$12/tube x 4 tubes x 1.145 tax ~= $55

That brings the estimated cost to run the tournament at $295. Assuming that we'll accept 32 participants, a registration fee of $10/person would give us $320, which nicely covers the primary expenses of the tourney.

However, at $10/person, there is no room for prizes. So what I'm thinking is that if you guys wouldn't mind paying $15/person, that'll give us $185 to spend on prizes, some of which would be spent on the championship prize, and the remaining portion spent on draw prizes. From my previous experience in running tournaments, this arrangement generally works quite well. And with about a third to a half of the participants being able to win some badminton-related draw prizes, most participants would enjoy themselves a little more at the tourney because they know they'll still have a chance at the prizes even though they may not win the championship.

As to the format of the tournament, I am leaning towards what WWC has suggested earlier because it would be easier for people to register (i.e. no need to look for a partner) and easier for the organizers to arrange the games. However, I also recognize that the participants would likely enjoy themselves a little more if they're playing with their own partner. I'm still debating with myself as to which aspect is more important. If you guys have any suggestions, they'll be very much appreciated.

Last but not least, because we want this to be a BC/BF event, I think we should give priority for registration to BC/BF members. Having said that, it is also important for us to fill the draw, so we should open the registration to non BC/BF members after an initial BC/BF-exclusive registration period.

As before, if anyone has any suggestions about this, please post them here and we'll discuss it.

-Rick

[badrad]

I just finished running the fun tournament this afternoon at clearone with the Malaysian Association. There was 32 teams, and we had 4 hours. Playing 1 game to 15 each, we were able to play out 4 pools of 4 teams, and from the top two of each pool advance towards a 8 team standard draw. All games were 1 x 15 and we ran over by 40 minutes from our original time slot of 4 hours using 3 courts. Your 4 hours x 4 courts will be a good estimate, based on the type of scoring you will apply.

Just to give you an idea of timing. Although always nice to afford the time to play a good hard match, with 32 teams and limited timeframe, as an organizer you will have to make decisions as to the match lengths. (ie. 1 x15, 1 x 21, 3 x 11, etc...)

An average game (15 pts) will last typical 10 minutes, and an even matched game will typically be around 20 minutes. So that is something you should keep in mind when setting up the time table.

[Traum]

Yes, badrad. Thank you for reminding me about the time requirements of the tournament. I really appreciate it. I am aware of the wide variance in time the games can take, and I am prepared to make some hard decisions/adjustments to the games to accomodate the schedule as the games proceed.

BTW, I was one of the bratty kids at ClearOne today with Edwin, Eric, Raymond, Chi Ho, etc. on court 1 (I was the one that was all bandaged up.). The championship match was certainly an eye-opener.

-Rick

[Traum]

Hello folks. It has been almost 3 weeks since I initially talked to Darryl about getting some court time for a BC/BF tournament at ClearOne. However, Darryl has been unable to find me a contiguous 4-hour block where we could take out 4 courts. To keep the tournament idea alive, I think we'll need to look beyond ClearOne and try to find other places where we can go ahead with this.

For the moment, I've checked that I can book the Bethany Church gym in northeast Richmond (near Annacis Island) on Sat, Oct 25 (actually, a good friend of mine did this for me). This is the gym that I generally go to with my private group, and the facilities there are decent, though not spectacular.

I'm gonna check with Darryl again one more time to see if he can get me some court time. If he still can't confirm the time block with me, then unfortunately I'll have to take the tournament elsewhere.

Please stay tuned for more updates!

-Rick

[15Love]

I don't know if this will make a difference in your plans or not but the Jack Underhill badminton tournament is also scheduled for that weekend in October.

[Traum]

Originally posted by 15Love
I don't know if this will make a difference in your plans or not but the Jack Underhill badminton tournament is also scheduled for that weekend in October.

Hello folks. After careful consultation with the Badminton BC events calender, I've finally settled on a date that shouldn't have too important a conflict. Please refer to this thread (http://www.badmintonforum.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=101841#post101841) for details regarding the tournament.

I hope I'll see all of you at the tourney!

-Rick