To welcome in the New Year, the UKBGF is launching two ambitious new events: the UKBGF Online League and the 2021 UKBGF Online Knockout.
Open to UKBGF members only, each event is a fantastic opportunity to play in a competition with players from all over the UK, and hopefully some of our international members. Make no mistake, we are aiming high, and want these events to have as many members participating as possible. Both the league and the knockout are free to enter and will commence in January 2021. Both events will be run this year by David Potter, Tony Lezard, and Andrew Selby.
The UKBGF Online League will be run over quarterly seasons, with groups of 6 players. All matches will be to 11 points, all online, on the site of your choice. However, Backgammon Studio Heroes will be the default where there will be a dedicated event space and pre-set clock settings. Your current UKBGF live rating will determine your first season’s grouping. All matches will be UKBGF rated in the online ratings site.
The 2021 UKBGF Online Knockout will be a single tournament run through the year in parallel to the league but is otherwise separate. Members may therefore choose to enter either or both of these events. The winner of the knockout will receive a bespoke P-40 board and the runner-up a custom board from Erhan 869-BG. Again, all matches will be to 11 points and be UKBGF rated in the online ratings site.
We realise this is only a taster and some details are subject to change. More details on structure, format and prizes will follow in due course, as much will depend on numbers. So please, register now (registration closes on 31st December) and be a part of something great, and something positive to kickstart 2021.
So a National League is here…….Brilliant ! And thanks to all who are organising it………..
Format : I don’t know what the format should be, but whatever it is you cannot have players who play to a high standard starting in the bottom league and having to work their way up which may take a decade depending on the amount of Divisions ! If Mochy decided to move to the UK are we saying…..”Yeah Mochy you can join our National League….You are in Division 175 ! ”
I’m all for rewarding players who put in the time and effort to better their game…….The League once started should be attractive to join, play and progress for all !…….I personally know a player who probably won’t join just yet because of family commitments. In the future he will but starting at the bottom would put him off ! He would naturally fit into the higher echelons !
Tie Breaks : Simple…..Just have a Play off between the players ! All Tie Breaks should be based on playing Backgammon ! No mathematical formula or drawing straws ! Just Backgammon !
Side Pools : Yeah why not ? If you want in great. If not fine !
I agree with all of that. I’m still not entirely sure how much (if any) discretion is going to be exercised when the initial divisions are created. For those of us with no offline rating, are we automatically going to be assigned 1500 or is there going to be some adjustment to take account of online ratings/performances? Whilst the league is not entirely linear, without points for PR as well as victory it’s still going to be a hard slog due to variance etc.
Hi Kristian. We have now made a final decision that no discretion will be used. If you do not already have a live rating, then your rating is by default 1500 and you will be placed in a division based on this rating. We appreciate this may not recognise recent online success, but we believe that this is the fairer option and simplest to implement.
I understand the logic of having a starting live rating of 1500 when this Covid nonsense finally stops, but really don’t understand why the online divisions are strictly based on the same live ratings that must be at least 8 months out of date by now. But if the decision has been made then that’s that I suppose.
Hi Sean, thanks for your input. We recognise both sides of the argument, but we decided against parachuting in players to higher divisions as you potentially deny someone their hard-won promotion if room has to made for the new entrant. This can also then have knock-on effects in lower divisions. The fairer option for everyone is for the new entrant to start at the bottom. See Peter’s comment below on the 27th, the road to the top is not as long as it might be.
Plans for the new League are taking shape with (currently) 235 players signed up. If you haven’t yet registered you have only four days left to do so!
Each seasonal winner of EVERY division will receive an exclusive prize – to be announced.
Although the format is still under review depending on final numbers, there will be a tiered structure with 6 players per division meaning that there are likely to be just 11 promotion steps from bottom to top. Tie-breaks will be by Game Points Difference initially at least, but this will be kept under review.
The online ratings are not sufficiently mature for initial placings within the league; currently only 37 players in this list have more than 400 Experience Points. Hence the use of the live ratings list for first season joiners, with a default of 1500. After season 1, new players will join at the bottom. Another reason to sign up at the start!
i am not sure why online ratings isnt being considered for it as games are being put towards online ratings at the end of the day. Meaning that some succesful online players will be in lower leagues than they probably should be despite success in 2020.
About time we had a national league and I’m looking forward to playing. Thanks to those that are driving this forward.
I agree with head to head > average points difference.
In Bristol we have a pyramid system. A Premier 1, followed by two Premier 2’s (winners play off for Premier 2 title) and then potentially four Premier 3’s, although we currently only have one. I can’t see that working with this short league format as it would only allow 1 promotion from each of 2nd tier divisions and water down through the leagues. I can’t suggest a better format but do foresee this becoming very unattractive for new players as rise to the top is too daunting a prospect.
Are UKBGF going to facilitate pools? If not, then is it permissible for somebody else to?
Great idea but I’d like to second Peter Snape’s opinion – find a way to limit the number of promotions required from top to bottom to a suitable number (e.g. 8?). Pyramid system below a certain level seems best option.
Neil (and Peter and Al) – the structure of the league has not yet been finalised mainly because the number of players who sign up at the start will be a determining factor. A pyramid structure is certainly under consideration.
“Tie breakers will be by score difference, then by head to head score, then ELO.”
Can we have head to head first?
I don’t like using score difference as it can distort the game (and the rest of the division) if one player only needs say 6 points in the last match to secure promotion. There is also the possibility of collusion along the lines of the infamous Austria v West Germany 1982 World Cup match where a 1-0 German win put both teams through.
And how will the ELO tiebreaker work? Does it mean that the higher current “live” rating prevails? Or the current “online” rating? Or some kind of ELO calculated from league matches only?
I hope the organisers will reconsider the decision to use match scores for tie breaking purposes for the reasons given by Peter. I am aware that several club leagues use this method, but believe it to be a mistake.
Great initiative. Can I ask what the requirement will be in terms of playing matches? One a day, one per week, more than one per day? Etc…
Mark it will be a pleasure to have you join us and , plenty of time. You will have 5 x 11 point matches to play in a 12 week window. (Quarter Period).
If I can,I will suggest the pr to be part of the group ranking,with the new Heroes automatic analysis it wouldn’t be difficult for the tournament director.In this way, we can encourage to a tendency of playing more technical..And if the pr it’s above 10 then no added bonus points.This is the way the Romanian pro league does,and I found it brilliant.(I add that because I don’t want to take credit for that ideea) and definitely will make players to be motivated to play better match if they unlucky..
Tiberius thanks for the promotion, will definitely have some internal discussions to see how PR can be included. For my part players do feel the level of analysis on Heroes is not strong enough to accurately reflect the PR, and prefer to do roll-outs on XG.
I’d rather leave PR out of it. I don’t mind it being publicised to show who’s playing particularly well, just as long as it’s not used to determine promotion/relegation issues. Let’s keep things simple and concentrate on winning matches.
This sounds like a great idea. May I just ask how you are going to determine which league those of us who have never played an offline rated match are going to start in? Thanks.
Kristian – we will use discretion if we feel we can appropriately determine someone’s approximate level – with default being a 1500 rating.
Thanks for confirming a small degree of flexibility for the new lockdown players . Might get to Actually touch a checker with my hand by 2024!
I guess it’s tricky…..but if you’re going to use discretion just now, to perhaps manually adjust peoples starting position….then what about players who join the league at a later date – it currently says that “players joining after Q1 will start in the lowest division”. If you have, I don’t know, 100 divisions and another Oliver Squire comes along and quickly gets to sub 4/5 pr level….starting at the bottom with a promotion every quarter – even with a following wind in terms of luck, it might take you the best part of 2 decades to get to the upper leagues 😉
Wow Alastair, I’d better join now. But if all other current members do too, it looks like I’d be in division 16. So, even winning every single match, it would take me 4 years to win the title. Instead, how about using a pyramid system as in non-league football? Say premier division with 2 down, then 2 divs with 1 up, 2 down for a few levels and finally 3 down, 1 up for the bottom couple of levels? That way, strong players starting at the bottom, or fast improvers already in the lower reaches, have a quicker route to the summit.
yeah i was thinking similar – say if 200 players sign up, i’d rather play in a league lasting a year (or 10 months or something) that had 40 players in it (and 5 divisions). Plus, more of a sense of achievement ‘2021 division 3 champion’ vs 2012 3rd quarter league number 23 winner’ 😉
A lot of the good players have obviously risen to the top of the ratings but there’s a few top players outside the top 100 – climbing from a league that matches those will take a looooong time as you say.
Thank you for this excellent initiative.
I am pleased that you are using Heroes. What is the time setting? I hope it is 2 mins per point (ie 22 mins) with either 10 or 12 seconds per move. If it is 1 min per point, I would not wish to play as, even though I am an experienced player, that it too fast for me to cope with. It will also be too fast for new players who we would like to attract.
Will you have optional side pools?
Agree this is an excellent initiative, but don’t agree with regards to time setting.
The pip count display, instant rolling, greedy bear-off and forced moves saves an awful lot of time, so I think 2 mins per point is far too long. Perhaps l.5 mins per point would be more akin to live play time.
Agree with regards to new players, but as this event is only for members, I can’t imagine there will be many.
Anna – it appears we are like-minded, and currently the default time setting is proposed to be 90 seconds per point, and 10 seconds per move.
Hi Raymond, We will have a league room set up with a default speed but you can choose to play with different time settings if you both agree.
Ray – pleasure to have you join us. Heroes is the default site only, as both players are free to play their respective match on any site and any time setting – even using gridgammon and no clock. In the event two players cannot agree, then the default site will be a dedicated “tournament” room on Heroes. LIkely settings will be 90 seconds per point and 10 seconds per move.
Ray – I sincerely hope you will join us , and please note both players have total freedom to agree on site , time-settings – even no clock and playing on gridgammon, However, only in the event of no agreement is the “default” position of using the dedicated room at Heroes. The likely settings will be 90 seconds per point and 10 seconds per move.
Currently there is no promote for there to be side-pools, as this is a free offering to members and will have some wonderful prizes – not least of all a bespoke P-40 board to the knock-out winner !!
Great idea, I’ve registered. I’ve noticed that you mention 15 point matches :
Each league division has six players and you will play a single 15 point match against each opponent, scoring 3 points for a win, 1 for a loss.
I assume they will be 11 points as stated elsewhere.
Thanks for pointing out the error Graeme – the original idea was for 15 point matches, and this has not yet been corrected on the UKBGF League page of the Backgammon London website. The matches will indeed be 11-pointers in all divisions.
Thanks for your eagle eyes Graeme. The webpage has been corrected to 11 point matches.
Graeme delighted you will be part of this exciting venture. I can confirm all matches will be 11 points.