Tric Trac Tourno 44 Report
A DOWNUNDERERS
TTT
This was the 4th DownUnderers TTT - would this too be won by a player from Australia or New Zealand as the others have ? We had 3 previous TTT winners from DownUnder, TopazJ (TTT13), AbbycazNZ (TTT14) and JensaNZ (TTT40), a new player from NZ, MistyLady, 3 other previous TTT winners from elsewhere, Bedste_far (TTT19 & TTT39), Kissmyring (TTT34) and Peace_Love (TTT31). Because this TTT started on a Saturday at 09.00 British Summer Time Grant101 from England just had time to join us before he went to the British Isles Backgammon Association British Open Weekend Tournament in Coventry, England. Grant holds the undisputed record for coming 2nd in TTTs but has never yet won one and won Associate Membership to B.I.B.A. at Funcom Backgammon Live In London in Nov 2001. Our last player was midniterider- who was playing in his second TTT. Midnite had not proved himself the most popular player in the previous TTT he had played in - various players had said he had not wished good luck to his opponents and had made some unfriendly comments. But I was willing to let him play again in the hope that he would pick up on the friendly vibe that, given the other players in this TTT, would most probably be a very friendly TTT. 3 other players registered for this TTT but did not turn up.
I wasn't very organized in the Scorer and Bar Tender department. Yabblenomore offered to do the Scoring if she could get online on a laptop that was due to be delivered to her at about the time the TTT would start but it was going to be touch and go if she made it in time. 1 hour before we were due to start BurningHeart (another experienced Scorer) Instant Messaged me and asked if I was mad running a TTT at this time of day. I admitted I probably was. He then asked if I needed any help - so I told him that I might be without a Scorer, whereupon he offered to do it. I jumped at the offer and we agreed we must both be mad ! What I love about the way these TTTs run is the help that is given and the friendliness of those who take part. When Yabblenomore joined us she would be Bar Tender. Hez2727 had stayed up late to see us start, but seeing as it was now 03.00 her time she could stay up to play with us.
I moved from the Social Lobby to the 1600+ Lobby 30 minutes before we started. This worked better than moving my usual 15 minutes before start. It gave me more time to see which players were online, welcome players as they arrived and explain things to players. I'll do this in future TTTs.
So off we started - 12 players registered, 9 present. This poses a question. How long should I wait for registered players before I remove them from a TTT ? Because of the difficulty of getting online in Funcom Backgammon and because I've been keen to gather in as many players as possible I've been pretty relaxed about late players in the past. But now clearer lines are needed. So I'm now going to adopt official backgammon (World Backgammon Federation) rules regarding this problem. If a player is not present by the time all other players have completed their first game - then they are taken out of the Tourno. This is fair to players who do turn up on time.
Abby got of to a great start with a gammon in game 1. Congratulation messages galore were posted in the Lobby. I sent a private message to both MistyLady and Midnite asking me to private message me if they had any problems. Both replied with a thanx. Midnite created a private game so I privated him asking him to make all games non-private because I need to see all games and it prevents spectators from watching. I got no reply. MistyLady had problems opening the Reporting Page so other players were asked to do her reports for her. No worries. Midnite's second game was also a private game. I asked and explained to him why again. Again, no reply. This was not looking good. Meanwhile Grant picked up a gammon in game 8 and again a flurry of congrats and bravos were posted up by other players. Now that all players had played at least 1 game I took the 3 missing players out of the TTT.
Before Midnite's next game I asked him a third time. This time I got a reply. "Why?" was his rather blunt response. "Because I need to see all games and it prevents spectators from watching a TTT" I re-explained. I could feel other players reaction. Rather than the focus being of players all enjoying themselves, the focus was now on "Would this player cause problems and change the atmosphere from being friendly to confrontational?"
I've recently re-vamped the Reporting Page. Nowadays all player names are already loaded on the Reporting box and choice of "Straight Loss," "Gammon" or "Backgammon" must be selected or a pop-up window tells you that your report cannot be submitted. It worked perfectly in TTT43. However I was aware that, with certain combinations, error reports could still be a factor. The first error report was Topaz gammoned Topaz ! Scorer (Burningheart) saw it before I did and Instant Messaged me about it. I asked Topaz what this was supposed to be. She told me that she had gammoned Bedste_far. I asked Bedste_far who confirmed this and apologized. There is I think a way to program the Reporting Box to refuse such a report, but I've not sussed out how to do it yet - It seems I need to. Another error report was a double report - the same game reported twice as a straight loss. Upon investigation it turned out that this should have been a gammon report. Reporting two straight losses instead of a gammon does not add up because the losing player should then be given 2 x 1/2 points - not 1/2 point. A third pair of error reports (come on players - you're doing the Scorer's and my brain in here) was a straight win reported both ways round - one said one player won over the other and the other reports said the other player won over the first. Ummm. More programming is needed I think. I'll work on it. Meanwhile I've a suggestion. Please would all players hit the reset button before you start to make each report. In this way you will have to make all three selections before you hit the submit button. Thanx.
Then we had a problem. AbbycazNZ tried to join Midnite for their game. But Midnite refused her. He didn't want to play her. Abby tried again. Midnite refused again. I explained to Midnite that this is an all play all tourno. I got no response. So I explained again and asked him to play Abby. The Lobby filled up and most players were now watching to see what would happen. I'm told that these two players used to play each other quite a bit, but that they have since had a falling out. I'm really not interested. Midnite had joined an all play all tournament and as such was due to play all other players in the tourno. I can't have players choosing to play some players and not playing others. If I let that happen once, I'll have to let it happen time and time again and them TTTs will go down the pan. The vibe was terrible. The casual happy atmosphere was gone. Tension was in the air. After a third request for Midnite to accept Abby he said he would play Abby when he was ready. At long last the game was started, I and various others watched the game, I wished both players good luck (so as to let them know if they had not already noticed that this game was being watched by the T.D.) Abby thanked me, Midnite remained silent. The game was played without any further problems and Midnite won the game. There was now only 1 game left to play - Midnite versus MistyLady. Midnite needed to reboot, so we waiting until he returned and the final game was played.
Because of the Error Reports and the problems caused by Midnite I had got behind on posting up gammon reports of which there were quite a few. Topaz had won 1, Grant had his 1, Peace_Love, Kissmyring and MistyLady had 2 each and Abby had won a total of 4. A very high percentage of gammons from some very good playing. It was obvious that AbbycazNZ was our winner. Bravo.