Too many competitions all at once?

[stockwellpete]

At the moment, in progress we have LOEG season 7, my knock out, the UK League 4 and Lysimachos's Challenger tournament - and then in the immediate pipeline we have the new LOEG season 8, the Companions Cup, Peter Garnett's "Killer" competition and Demetrios's open Roman competition.

I am just wondering whether that is a bit too much for the number of active players that we have and whether there is anything we can do as a "community of players" to regulate things a bit. I think it would be a shame for someone to put a lot of effort into designing an interesting competition only for there to be a poor pick up due to many players having other FOG commitments.

The way that I have sought to time my various competitions (NAFF was an exception) is to launch them in the second half of the current LOEG season. My thinking is that LOEG is the primary competition that we have (and should remain so) and for the first six weeks of its schedule most of the "hardcore" players are concentrating mainly on those matches. However, after about 6 weeks, some of these players have finished most of their games and they are looking around for something else to try. This approach has worked out OK for me so far, for example I managed to get 32 players for the knock-out competition that is currently in progress, and I usually have no trouble in getting 5 other players for my medieval invitation events.

So, is there anything we can do? Of course, we can just say that competitions will live or die by the number of players that wish to enrol in them. Or the alternative might be to convene a small group of us (say three players) who might act as a "competition committee" whose sole remit would be to organise our calendar a bit more evenly so that each competition has a fair chance of recruiting sufficient players.

Any thoughts on this?

[TheGrayMouser]

Death to tyrants!

[stockwellpete]

Death to tyrants!

Is that another new competition, TGM?

[Demetrios]

Hi.

The number of ongoing tournaments represents the enthusiasm of the community.

But I agree, the number of commitments causes problems.

I´ve taken part in Lysimachos tourney and three LoeG ladders. That´s a lot of games to play.

That´s why I´ve announced an open tournament, that allows participants to join in and drop out whenever they like

Cheers, Klaus

[petergarnett]

I feel it's a bit like satelite TV - too many channels but it's left to the viewer / player to select which ones to go for.
For the 'Killer' competition it's envisaged as long term pop in & out competition rather than fixed time limits.

However I think you raise an interesting question Pete & it will be good to follow the comments which come back on this.

[stockwellpete]

Hello Demetrios and Peter. All I am really wondering about is whether we need to make up some sort of "diary" whereby we can space out the various big tournaments so that they stand a fair chance of recruiting enough players for everyone to get full enjoyment out of them. I am not suggesting that a small committee would veto anything at all - the most it might say to a prospective organiser is "can you wait a month?" or "how about starting it on so-and-so date?"

We have a really well-established competition in LOEG and that runs regularly every three months or so. And maybe there is room enough for one other big competition (like the Companions Cup) to be running at the same time, particularly if it starts in the second half of the LOEG season. Whether there is then enough players for what you both are describing as "open" and "pop-in and pop-out" tournaments as well as LOEG and the other one is unclear to me. There might be enough interest for one such tournament but probably not for two. So it might be a good idea to delay one of them for 5/6 weeks until, say, the Companions Cup is finished.

[Demetrios]

I agree with you.
But that should be up to the Moderators.


Cheers, Klaus

[Fedem]

I think something like a calendar could be ok. I also has a tournament on my mind but right now everyone has his hands busy

[stockwellpete]

I agree with you.
But that should be up to the Moderators.


Cheers, Klaus

Well, the moderators just moderate the forum, Klaus. The competitions that we have are (so far) run independently of Slitherine by individual players themselves, so there is a separation of roles here - hence my suggestion for a small "committee" of players to maintain a schedule of competitions in future.

[Demetrios]

You are right, that might be better.

Assume, those players who create torunaments and campaigns should form that group.

Cheers, Klaus

[stockwellpete]

You are right, that might be better.

Assume, those players who create torunaments and campaigns should form that group.

Cheers, Klaus

Yes, that might be a good idea, Klaus. I was thinking that maybe we could have a "sticky" at the top of this forum where competition organisers give a very brief outline of their idea first, before launching their tournament, and also they could give an estimate of how many games/players it would need and how long it might run for (roughly) and then the "committee" could slot it into the calendar. Maybe we could get someone to make a nice graphic for us that could be updated and amended as we go along. Maye the only other function of the "committee" would be, exceptionally, to say to an organiser that a competition has not recruited enough players to be viable at this time. Something along those sort of lines anyway might work OK.

[Demetrios]

Hi.

I agree completely, that´s definetely a good idea.

Klaus

[cromlechi]

I've been deemed 'deserted' in one tournament, but the thing is I gave up checking because of lack of response from my opponents. In future I will only enter one competition at a time so I can keep an eye on things.