National Crokinole Association Tournament Tips



NCA Tips

For Crokinole Tournament Organizers

Version 6, October 21, 2017

General: The following are suggestions to help you run your tournament smoothly. The following methods have been used to run tournaments in the size range of 20 to 48 players. This is the size range commonly applicable for Ontario tournaments. (Other than the World Championships) The NCA purposely allows tournament organizers to experiment with different forms of organization. If your tournament is small or very large some of the procedures outlined in this document may be useful to you.

Sanctioning: After a tournament organizer (or club) has successfully run a tournament, the organizer may apply to the NCA to have their tournament sanctioned in future years. There is a small annual fee for this (currently $75). If sanctioned, the NCA will promote the tournament and count the results toward overall player standings. The fee helps support the NCA.

For a sanctioned tournament, high quality boards with the diameter of the outside playing circle being 24 inches must be used. High quality discs of roughly equal weight should also be used.

For a sanctioned tournament, the organizer should state on the flyer or other publicity:

1. NCA Rules will be used

2. Sanctioned by the NCA

Book a Room: The room should be able to accommodate sufficient crokinole boards for the number of entries expected. The room should come with sufficient tables for the event or else the use of tables will have to be arranged.

Assign Key Event Roles: Advertising and publicity, registration, financial, announcements, and scoring.

Encourage Pre-Registration: Helps you to know how many tables, chairs, and boards you will need. This will also help you to set up scheduling, rotations, format, and set a time line for your tournament. Depending on the size of the room booked, an upper limit may need to be placed on entries.

Advertising: It is recommended that a flyer should be produced containing the following information (at a minimum):

1. Name of the tournament

2. The exact address (that a GPS can find), as well as the name of the building.

3. Date (Saturdays recommended)

4. Time of registration and start time for the tournament

5. Entry fee.

6. A contact e-mail address and phone number

7. A day of the tournament cell phone number (if possible)

8. Whether the tournament is competitive or recreational or both

9. Sanctioned by the NCA

10. NCA rules will be used

The flyer can then be placed on the NCA website, other appropriate websites, and handed out, etc. Consider placing the tournament information on on-line calendars and social sites.

Entry Fees: NCA recommends fees in the range of $20 for competitive players and $10-$15 for recreational players if there is a recreational division. Consider a reduced rate for those 15 years and under.

Advertise: 3+ months in advance using: local newspapers, crokinole websites, online event calendars and social sites. Include: location, contact information, start time, and registration details.

Quality Boards: Many players, if asked, don’t mind bringing a tournament quality board and disks. Ensure there will be enough quality boards on hand and that they arrive early so they can be waxed if necessary.

Lunch: arranging a lunch (for a small additional fee) will reduce the lunch break time necessary, and keep most of the players onsite.

Rules: - NCA rules should be specified

- tournament structure should be clearly specified before the start of the tournament.

- Print off a copy of the NCA Rules and have them on hand for people to read before the event. Key rules the NCA recommends announcing and clarifying before the tournament start include:

o one cheek rule (rule 7i)

o what happens if time runs out (rule 8b)

o damage rule (rule 8f)

o holding the board or table during a player’s or an opponent’s shot (rule 7a,b)

- consider printing off the “Tournament Planning Document” and the “Additional Tournament Rules” document and posting them at the tournament. (see attached)

Score Tabulation after each Round: Arrange to have one or more people do this. It is helpful if one or more of them is computer literate and has use of a computer and display screen.

Tournament Play Organization: It has been found that a 2 round format followed by playoffs works very well. The following applies to each division (Competitive, recreational etc.)

- Separate players into pools of between 7 – 12 for the first round. The pools should not differ in size by more than one player. A pool of size 10 is ideal. Note that a pool of 9 takes the same time to play a complete round robin as a pool of 10, but a pool of eleven will take about 20 minutes (2 rounds) longer.

- Seed the top players to keep them spread out in different pools. You do not need to use a formal seeding process. Usually a tournament organizer can seed the players well enough using his/her knowledge to place their names in order. It is important to spread both the top players and the very weakest players among the various pools.

Timing: It is possible to time the matches with a watch or other timer and to use a whistle or other noisemaker to indicate the start and the end. (It is inadvisable to use voice as the noisemaker) Peter Tarle of the Quinte Crokinole Club has written a very good timer that runs on computers with a Microsoft operating system. He has kindly made it available for general use and it can be downloaded from the Quinte Crokinole Club’s website. We highly recommend its use since it performs a lot of the work of running the games and leaves the tournament director free for other things.

The time for a game (4 rounds) should be:

- Singles: 8 min for each game with 2 min to change tables and prepare for the next round

- Doubles: 13 min for each game with 2 minutes to move.

- If there are several players that have never played in a tournament before, consider not timing the first round so that experienced players can guide the new players.

Who Plays Which Colour and Who Plays First:

- One simple method is to decide that players on a certain side of the room will play the white discs and will go first.

- The tournament director is free to choose another method if desired.

Round-robin Rotations:

1. If there are an odd number of players in the pool. e.g. 7, 9, 11,

Place the tables and boards in a row with a chair at the end of the row closest to the control desk. When moving between games, players rotate clockwise around the row which includes the chair, following the player ahead of them. The person sitting in the chair has a bye. This method enables every player to play every other player with no players meeting twice.

2. If there are an even number of players in the pool. e.g. 8, 10, 12

Choose a. or b.

a. The “Anchor” Method. (Recommended)

One player (called the “Anchor”) remains at one board (the end board closest the control desk). The other players then rotate clockwise around the playing positions skipping over the “Anchor.” This can be made slightly fairer by asking the Anchor to switch sides of the board after each game. In the first round, the Anchor should be one of the lower seeded players in the group as chosen by the tournament director. In the second round the Anchor should be the player who qualified last in the group. This method enables every player to play every other player with no players meeting twice.

b. Use a written rotation schedule.

For this method, the tables have to be numbered, and schedules have to be on hand for each possible number of competitors in that pool. This method is sometimes used for doubles but seldom for singles.

Scoring:

- Players play a game consisting of 4 rounds. For each round, a player can get 0 points (loss), 1 point (tie), or 2 points (win). Max points per match is 8.

- 20’s should be counted and recorded.

- Have players fill out their own scorecard and have their opponent initial the scorecard after each game. Printing clearly the first name of the opponent above their initials will help the tournament director if any scoring issues arise or if tiebreaking procedures are necessary.

- When ranking players scores before the second round or the play-offs make an announcement, or display the scores, to give players a chance to confirm their scores/ranking.

How to Normalize the Scores from Groups of Different Sizes:

If groups have different sizes and you are choosing competitors for the next round from these groups based on overall score, then it is necessary to normalize the results. For example suppose group A had 10 competitors and group B had 9 competitors. A competitor in group A would have played 9 games and a competitor from group B would have played 8 games, Suppose a competitor from group B had 41 points. His score should be multiplied by 9/8 before being compared to other groups, so his normalized score would be 46.125 or 46.1.

The Second Round

- For the second round put the top scoring players in Pool A and the other players in Pool B, C etc. based on their results in the first round. This can be done in 2 ways.

1. taking the top 2 or 3 players from each first round group and any extra players based on the highest normalized scores.

2. using the overall normalized scores

Note; For Pool A either method can be used. For pools B, C, etc it is much easier to use method 2.

- The method to be used should be announced before the start of play in the first round.

Note for Small Tournaments:

If your tournament consists of 12 or fewer players it is recommended that 2 complete round robins be played to determine the finalists. (If time is short one complete round robin can be used.)

The Finals

The number of players from each group in the second round that will be going to the finals should be determined and announced in advance of the start of the second round. It is recommended that the top 4 players from group “A” and either the top 4 or the top 2 players from the other groups advance to the finals.

Group “A”

In one semi-final, player 1 (highest score in the second round) should play player 4 (4th highest score in the second round) in a head–to–head elimination match. (See head-to-head description in Item 5 of “Additional Tournament Rules”)

In the other semi-final, player 2 should play player 3.

The 2 winners of these semi-finals then meet in the final.

If time permits it is better to not time these matches. If practical, assign a neutral referee to each match.

Please note: other structures are also permitted but the one described above has proven itself in numerous tournaments.

Third Place: It is recommended that third place be awarded to the losing semi-finalist who placed higher in the second round. If a tournament director wishes he can have the third-fourth place match played.

Group “B”, “C”, etc.

The playoff procedure in these groups may be the same as that described for group “A”. An alternative structure is to only have the top 2 players in each group play a final head-to-head elimination match. This has the advantage that everyone else will be finished playing when the “A” final is played and therefore everyone will be free to watch.

Things You Will Need

- score cards (can be printed by most printers on standard 4x6 file cards. The format can be downloaded from the NCA website)

- movement schedule or rotation plan

- pencils, pens, masking tape

- board wax, polishing cloths and shuffleboard wax

- Timing device with noise maker (e.g.: bell) A countdown timer with the time remaining being clearly visible to the contestants is desirable (but will not always be possible.)

- 20’s containers

- A level and cardboard shims for leveling the boards

- Numbers for the tables. (If using a scheduled rotation)

- If posting results by computer, a large monitor or projection screen

- Large white poster to use as score card for the final game

Other Tips:

- Plan a 5 min bathroom break.

- Set up the facility the night before if possible

- Do use a noise maker e.g. bell, whistle, buzzer (not a human voice) to signal the start and end of each game.

- Organize door prizes, 50/50 draw and other event fundraisers (see the 20’s contest below)

- Have a plan for play-offs and announce these at the start of the second round

- If giving prize money ensure these amounts are based on registrations and not specified in advance.

- Certificates are much cheaper than trophies (But trophies are more appreciated)

- If there is a final playoff game(s) sometimes it works well to schedule this game to start after all other games have finished – in order to allow a crowd to form and watch.

- Doubles tournaments or 4 player singles (team) tournaments are a fun alternative

- Keep play-offs and the overall day moving quickly to keep people around until the end

- NCA playing terminology

o Playing 8 discs = round

o Playing 4 rounds = game

o Playing best of X games = match

The 20’s Contest (Optional)

- Consider having a 20’s contest as part of your tournament (as a fun fund raiser)

- Each contestant makes 8 attempts at a 20 and the top score wins a prize

- Specify and limit the number of warm-up shots (0, 1, or 2)

- Charge a fee for each entry but limit the number of times a player can enter (e.g. 4)

- Try to get someone to run the 20’s contest who is not involved in the main tournament.

- Specify and limit the time period that the contest will run.

- Consider awarding 50% of the money collected, as the prize.

- Consider a screen to hide the attempts. (If players know someone has already scored 8 20’s they will be reluctant to enter.)

- Be prepared to have a shoot-out if there is a tie for first

NCA Tour Events:

- “The goal of the National Crokinole Association (NCA) is to foster the development of crokinole. The NCA supports existing local clubs, formation of new clubs and organizing a series of NCA tournaments called the NCA Tour.”

- When the NCA was created in 2008 there were only a couple of annual crokinole tournaments and the NCA has been the driving force in the creation or resurrection of the current tournament schedule.

Contact an NCA Representative if you have any questions or require further information. If you have never organized a tournament before consider asking the NCA for a volunteer to assist you.

Tournament Planning Document

To assist a tournament director in planning a tournament

May be posted at the tournament

___________________________________ ___________________________

Name of Tournament Date of Tournament

1. This tournament shall use the NCA rules of crokinole.

2. The initial round shall take the form of: (Circle a or b)

a. Players will be divided into _______ groups, each of which will play a complete round-robin. (see notes on round-robin rotations)

The players are seeded into the groups yes/no

b. A movement of (x) ______ games against random opponents (like the WCC)

This normally should only be used if there are greater than 2x participants.

Great care must be taken that the initial seating positions are random. The advantage of this method is that it accommodates last minute entries well. However it requires a large group and an even number of participants. It may not be as fair as method a.

3. Selection to second round group. (circle a, b, or c)

a. __________ players will be selected from each group for second round group “A” based upon their scores within that group.

An additional __________ players will be selected based on the highest normalized score.

Players will be selected to second round groups “B”, “C”, etc based on the highest normalized score.

b. Players will be selected to second round groups “A”, “B”, “C”, etc based on the highest normalized score..

c. other:

4. Finals

The top four players will be selected from a second round group. (In groups “B’, “C”, etc a tournament director may decide to select only 2 players for the finals.)

Circle a or b.

a. (Recommended)

Players placing 1st and 4th play a head-to head semi-final match.

Players placing 2nd and 3rd play in the other semi-final.

A final match will be played between the 2 semi-final winners

Select One (See item 5 in Additional Tournament Rules)

i. The WCC head-to-head method will be used

The Wimbledon Rule will be in effect: Yes/No

ii. The Quinte Convention head-to-head method will be used

iii. The first to ______ points method will be used.

b. The four players will play a round-robin playing one game against each opponent. The top 2 will play-off in a head-to-head match for the championship. The next 2 will play-off for 3rd and 4th.

(Note: this method is currently used at the World Crokinole Championships)

Additional Tournament Rules

May be posted at the tournament

1) Timing of Matches

a) Unless otherwise stated all matches will be timed. A horn will be used to begin and end play. If some discs have not been shot when the ending horn sounds they will remain not played. However one last shot may be taken immediately after the horn, if necessary, to equalize the number of shots. The round will be scored by the discs on the board and the 20’s made at that time. The opposing player and the referees will monitor players deliberately delaying a game. If a round of a game is not started before the horn sounds each player shall receive 1 point for each round not started.

b) Time allowed:

i) Singles: 8 minutes per game (4 rounds)

ii) Doubles: 13 Minutes per game (4 rounds)

c) There will be 2 minutes between games to verify scores, move to the next table and take practice shots.

2) Tie Breaking Procedure

a) In a round that is a complete round-robin:

i) The head-to-head tie breaking procedure will be used. See rule 3.

ii) If still tied, the player with the higher number of 20’s overall in that round will place higher.

iii) If there still is a tie, a shoot-out will be conducted. See rule 4. (repeat until tie is broken)

b) In a round that is not a complete round-robin (if any):

i) The player with the higher number of 20’s in that round will place higher.

ii) If there still is a tie, a shoot-out will be conducted. See rule 4. (repeat until tie is broken)

3) Head-to-Head Tie Breaking Procedure

a) If two players are tied in total points. Head-to-head means that only the scores between those two players during the round robin will be considered. The player who won the game between the tied players will receive the higher position. If they are still tied then the number of head-to-head 20’s shall determine the winner.

b) If more than two players are tied in total points. Players add their total points from the games when they played the other players they are tied with. The person with the highest total points among all of the tied players will be placed highest. If all players remain tied then the head-to-head 20’s will determine the positions. If any tie remains it will be broken by repeating the head-to-head tie breaking procedure among the remaining tied players.

4) Shoot-out Procedure

a) Singles

i) All tied contestants will in alternative order shoot 12 discs each for the “20” at the same board.

ii) Each disc will be removed from the board after each shot and recorded as a “20” if successful.

iii) Top scorer(s) after all shots are taken will advance.

b) Doubles,

i) Shoot-outs will be conducted the same as in 4a except partners will shoot 6 discs each clockwise around the board.

5) Methods of Conducting a Head-to Head Match:

Various methods have been tried in Ontario tournaments and tournament directors are free to use any of the methods set out below or to devise a new method.

Method 1 The WCC Method (As used at the World Crokinole Championships)

The contestants play successive games. If a game is tied. A fifth round is played. The first player to win two games is the winner.

Note: Some Ontario tournaments add the Wimbledon Rule to Method 1. The purpose is to eliminate the advantage of playing last in the 5th game. This states that if in the final game of a multi-game match between 2 players the players are tied 4-4, then the winner is the first player who has a lead after an even number of rounds. (6, 8, 10 etc.)

Method 2 ; The Quinte Convention Method (As used at tournaments organized by the Quinte Crokinole Club.)

The contestants play up to 3 successive games. Ties are allowed. The winner is the first contestant to either: a. win 2 games or b. tie 2 games and win one. If the players are tied after 3 games (i.e. each has three ties or each has one win one loss and one tie) then additional rounds are played. The winner is the first player to be ahead after an even number of additional rounds.

Method 3: The First to a Set Number of Points Method

Players play successive rounds. The winner is the first player to reach a set number of points. (Usually 9 or 11)

6) Choice of Start or Sides.

Before each multi-game head-to-head match the referee shall hold a coin toss. The winner shall have either i. the choice of starting order or ii, the choice of sides (and colour unless colour is determined by the side in that tournament.) The loser shall have the other choice.

7) As soon as the scores are posted, it is each player’s responsibility to verify that their score is correct. Once the next playoff round has started, a player loses the right to correct his/her finishing order, and the opportunity to win prize money in that category, even if an error has been made.

8) If any unusual situation not covered in these rules occurs, the tournament director or head referee will make a ruling after reviewing it with players involved. In all cases the decision will be final.

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