asking for mini tournament rules and system

Discussion in 'Rules / Tournament Regulation / Officiating' started by aries jonathan, Jul 30, 2019.

  1. aries jonathan

    aries jonathan New Member

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    hi, im planing to make a mini office tournament. The level in my company is so variative. the top from us maybe in level 5 from 1-6 level.
    so i confused to to pair the member. is it better random all of member or do the leveling?
    and also there is 1 factor, the boss want to divide it with group level. beginner and pro. but the problem with this is for sure all people want to join the beginner level to win the tournament.

    any idea or maybe you guys ever experienced with this?
    thank you in advance.
     
  2. phihag

    phihag Regular Member

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    What is your goal? Do you want a competitive tournament or more focus on having fun? Do you want all courts used all the time or not?

    If you want everybody to get to know each other, might I suggest the German Schleifchenturnier (ribbon tournament):

    You need a roll of small gift ribbon (about 4mm wide, 1mm high). For added appeal, you can get multiple colors. On top of that, bring a couple of scissors, although you can also precut a bunch of 4cm-10cm strips before the tournament to avoid injuries with scissors.

    At the start, you randomly draw doubles pairs. Simply put all rackets into a pile and grab them. The first two rackets play against those picked 3rd and 4th, and so on. Matches are one game to 21, at your choice with extension to 30 or sudden death at 21. If the number of players is not divisible by 4, the other players get to play singles or are counted as winners.

    All winners get a ribbon tucked on their racket shaft (you can sell this as disadvantaging the winners, but the effect is minimal). Then, all winner's rackets go to one pile, and all loser's rackets to another one. Draw teams, but now every doubles pairing consists of one from the loser's pile and one from the winner's pile.

    Again, winners get a ribbon added to their racket shaft. In the third round (and any other odd round), you have three piles: One with the people who won less than 50% (0 ribbons in the third round), one with people who won 50%(1 ribbon in the third round), and one with people who won more than 50%(2 ribbons in the third round). Pick rackets from the sides first; the players with zero ribbons should play with the ones with two, then go to the middle, until there are less than four rackets left. In later rounds, you can make more piles if your player count is really large.

    After any round, you can terminate the tournament. Winners are those with the most ribbons. If you want, you can play short final games (say until 11) among the top 4 to determine an ultimate winner.

    The advantage of this tournament system is that every player will win some games. That's a great feeling. Total beginners will be paired with the best players. You get to play with somebody else every round, so it's a great teambuilding exercise; probably what your boss has in mind!
    The tournament is very easy to run; there's no need for any paper or electronic tracking. While you can separate into beginner/advanced, this system works fine with up to ~40 people. You can safely mix juniors with seniors, women with men, para with non-para players, and total beginners with world-class players. A club nearby does this once a year. You don't need to explain everything upfront, just go round by round.

    The downside is that it's not all that serious; the focus is more on conviviality rather than competition. Also, some matches may be a little one-sided, especially in the first rounds.
    The best players must understand that they will be paired with players far below their level, and must find effective strategies to work together. The danger is that some players may stop playing seriously when their partner is bad. Usually, as soon as they realize that their opponent has the same problem, the competition drive takes over though.

    Good players not experienced in this tournament form may be tempted to simply put their partner in the middle at the front, and play singles. If the opponents are tactically sound, they should ruthlessly abuse this; always serve long to the bad player and short to the good player, and play pushes and smashes to the side until the good player is exhausted, or suddenly smash/quickly drive at the front player. Some opponents may need a hint though. Basically, if the players know even basic mixed strategy, you're golden.
    I could imagine that if there are poisonous good players (for example accusing their partner), you may want to talk to them and tell them that the really good players work out an effective strategy, and that motivating a lower-level partner is part of the skillset of a doubles player.
    (I've only ever played this with mixed skill levels, where the best players were at least in the top 5% of all registered players in my state – sometimes BWF top 100 – and thus knew proper strategy, and the worst in the bottom 25% of all registered players.)
     
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  3. aries jonathan

    aries jonathan New Member

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    wow thanks for your suggestion, but i think its not suit for us. since we also want a competitive tournament. but i realy appreciate your suggestion.
     
  4. phihag

    phihag Regular Member

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    If you want competitive, there are a number of well-established formats. To choose one, you should first ask yourself the following questions:
    1. How many courts do you have?
    2. How long do you want to play / do you have courts? This mainly impacts the scoring system, not the tournament, system.
    3. How many entries (doubles pairs / singles players) do you have?
    4. Which disciplines are you playing?
    5. Do you want Men's/Mixed/Women's Doubles, and Men's/Women's Singles to compete against each other in one category?
    6. How many matches do you want to guarantee every player? How many matches do you want the winner to play at most?
    7. How different is the skill between entries? Are there some entries that would wipe the floor with some others?
    8. Is there some criteria you could use to sort players into divisions, i.e. previous performance, or ever played in a club, or so?
    The last question is aimed at finding a way to separate people into different classes. In every tournament I have organized or played in the organizer decides who plays in which division. People can only opt for a higher, but not for a lower division.

    Note there is a simple fix if you have two or more divisions, but everybody attempts to play in a lower one: Simply make the prize money/trophy/recognition for the top division much higher.
    And don't name the top division Pro, because Pros are really good players we can only aspire to, and certainly I'm not a pro, so I shouldn't play in that division! Name it Open, or Top, Premium, or A, or similar.
     
  5. aries jonathan

    aries jonathan New Member

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    these is noted. thank you for your input. will make a list for that. and will ask here again if ever i canot make it happen. hehe.. tq
     
  6. phihag

    phihag Regular Member

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    If you tell us the answers to these questions, we can suggest a specific tournament format.
     

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