[G_R__E_G]

I'm looking to start a team league in our ACBL sanctioned club and I'm looking for suggestions on how best to run it, specifically in regards to ACBL Score. What I want to do is run a complete round robin followed by a knockout where the number of boards played will be higher in the finals than they are in the earlier rounds. Something to this effect; eight teams play seven 12 board round robin matches, two per night. On the 4th night after one round is complete we then pair off 1st vs 8th etc and play 16 board quarterfinals. On a subsequent night we play semi-finals (probably 24 boards) and then finally another night where 1st/2nd and 3rd/4th are contested (with 1st/2nd possibly playing 28 boards).

Any suggestions how best to handle this in ACBL Score (and of course format suggestions are welcome too).

Thanks.

[ArtK78]

I have no idea how ACBL Score enters into this.

Like many ACBL Units, my Unit (Philadelphia 141) has a team event, the Charles Solomon Teams. It is run as a Round-Robin which qualifies a number of teams for a KO. The event is stratified, and the teams are divided into 2 brackets for the round-robin stage. A complete round-robin is played within each bracket, with teams playing about one "match" per month from October through May. Each "match" is actually two 12-board matches, scored at IMPs converted to VPs.

The brackets are set up by geography. As much as is possible, the teams from Southern New Jersey play in one bracket while the teams in Pennsylvania play in the other bracket. The idea is to limit travel time in the round-robin phase of the event.

At the end of the round-robin, the top 6 teams overall (not 3 from each bracket) advance to the Open KO. The top 4 teams in Flight B advance to the Flight B KO, and, depending on the number of teams, up to 4 teams in Flight C advance to the Flight C KO. Any team in Flight B or C that qualifies for the KO in a higher flight can play in both (or all 3).

While I prefer that the leading qualifier gets to choose its opponent from the bottom half of the qualifiers, in recent years the KO is paired up strictly by order of finish. If there are 6 teams in the KO, the top two get byes, while 3 plays 6 and 4 plays 5. In the semis, 1 plays the winner of the 4/5 match and 2 plays the winner of the 3/6 match. Finally, the winners of the semis play in the finals.

[Gerben42]

Why do you want to use an official scoring program for this? I would suggest using an Excel sheet.

[mike777]

Granted you may need a super computer
Granted you may need Excel

But if only 8 teams playing round robin can a large piece of paper and majic marker work ok?

btw if your goal is to have a fun fun teamgame match...see ACBL bulletin from a few months ago. Many many local clubs are playing something new where super experts are forced to play with nonexperts. No team can have all super experts.

I do not remember all the points but for example 321 points
3-super expert
2=middle expert
1= rest.


no team can have more than 9 points or something.....see ACBL for full explanation.

[ArcLight]

>Many many local clubs are playing something new where super experts are forced to play with nonexperts.

Presumably not as their partners!
Just on the same team.

[y66]

Steve Robinson (robinswr@erols.com) coordinates team events for the Washington Bridge League. He may be able to steer you in the right direction.

You can find Conditions of Contest and other info for WBL team events at http://www.districts...ndRobin/RR.aspx

[Mbodell]

mike777, on Sep 30 2008, 10:40 PM, said:

I do not remember all the points but for example 321 points
3-super expert
2=middle expert
1= rest.

We tried this for a recent team unit game and got pretty decent attendance, and did have a few of the advance pairs approach the beginning pairs about forming teams. But a number of the advanced pairs didn't show up as well. Overall attendance, though, was still pretty good. For us the title was 8 is enough and the 3's were 1500+ MP, the 1's were NLM, and everyone else was a 2. The teams were then also stratified by team total with 8, 7, <6 as A, B, and C respectively.

[pclayton]

A local unit ran a handicapped IMP league a few years ago and it was a disaster.

The ACBL didn't even know how to rate this game. It took around six months to get our masterpoints (not a big deal, but still). The rules were changed midway during the first season on what was the fairest way to pick the 8 teams that advanced.

In spite of some teams (like ours) giving up a handicap of 30-40 IMPs / match against weaker teams, the weaker teams were still getting blown out. My recollection was the director didn't want only the top teams to advance.