Esprit Tournament Rules

? Trivia Corner ?
How many people have walked on the moon? 6, 9, 12 or 14?

Format	The Esprit Teams is an open 2-stage event for teams with five to ten members. Up to one third of the team members (including the captain) may be designated as Reserve players. Team captains are responsible for signing up their team members. Team members confirm their signups on MyPage Stage 1: Played over 1 month, commencing once Captains assignments are complete. Each team (regardless of the number of team members) will play sixty 11-point matches. Host Assignments: One player in each match is assigned by the host. Thirty match assignments are made for each team. These assignments are Away matches for the team. Active (non-reserve) players are assigned to opposing teams in rotation so that the number of Away matches are equally distributed to the opposing teams (to within one) and each player receives the same number of host assignments (to within one). Once teams receive the host assignments, the captain is responsible for assigning members of his team to play the thirty assigned opponents. The software will provide initial 'default' assignments based on reverse rotation of the team members. Captains will have one week to complete their match assignments. These are Home matches for the receiving team. Assignments by the captain are at his discretion with one limitation: no member of a team should play more than twice the number of matches of any active (non-reserve) member. (This rule includes forfeited matches as 'played' matches). Stage II: Each round will be conducted over 2 weeks. 8 team elimination series - 13 pt matches. Finals 15pt matches. In each round the top ranked team will choose their opponents, followed by the second ranked team and so on. Each pair of teams will be allocated 21 matches - 10 Home and 10 Away matches. The lower ranked team will be allocated an extra Away match. Assignments of Home matches by the captain have the following limitation: no member of a team should play more than 3 times the number of matches of any active (non-reserve) member. (This rule includes forfeited matches as 'played' matches).
Entry	Teams will be signed up by the captain of the team from the signup link on MyPage. All team members must have existing Warp player names for successful signup. The team captain can edit the playing team until the start of the tournament. Individual players must confirm their entry by using the 'Confirm' link on MyPage.

Reserve Players	Up to one third of team members (including the Captain) may be designated as Reserve players. Players may be marked as Reserves on the Captain's signup page. These players do not receive initial assignments and are assigned to Home matches as the Captain sees fit provided the number of matches does not exceed the number of any active (non-reserve) player. Where a player cannot meet his playing commitments he may also be downgraded to a Reserve. Reserve and Active players may be adjusted after the end of Stage I and before the start of of each round in Stage II. Reserve players cannot be upgraded to Active status during the course of a particular round.
Replacements	If a player, due to extenuating circumstances, is unable to complete his matches, the team captain may nominate players in his team of similar or lesser standard to replace him, subject to the opposing captain's approval and provided the rule regarding the number of matches per player is not contravened. Consideration in replacement of one player with another will be online ratings and live match tournament results. A player who is unable to meet the player rule due to extenuating circumstances may be downgraded to Reserve status provided there are no more than 3 Reserves, or withdrawn from the remainder of the competition. Replacements can only be made if there is a legitimate and unforseen reason, not for strategic reasons. If a player cannot be replaced with a team member of similar or lesser standing then his matches will be forfeited.
Forfeits	Forfeits will be determined based on scheduling emails. If your opponent does not show at the scheduled time you may register this by using the No Show button in the Pending Matches table on MyPage. Scheduling emails sent later than 2 days before the end of the round will not be considered unless a prior email has been sent to that opponent. A played win = 1 point. A played loss = 0.3 points. A forfeit win = 0.6 points. A forfeit loss = 0 points A no result (both players have made a serious attempt to get the match played but it hasn't happened) = 0.3 for each player
Match Play	A match should be played to completion once started unless there is a legitimate reason for adjourning. Interrupting match play for trivial reasons such as bad dice is not permitted.
Team Logos	Captains may email the webmaster and include the team logo as an attachment. Logos may be any size but will be displayed with maximum height 300 pixels
Playing sites	Players may schedule to play on any mutual agreed site. In your profile you can add playing sites that you have logins on and are willing to play on.
Profiles	Players should complete the information in their profiles including their scheduling times and available playing sites. The Warp Gammon scheduling form eliminates the need to cope with differences in time zones and scheduling is very easy once players have their information stored.
Appeals Committee	In the event of any dispute, the host will make a ruling. If the matter is material, either player or team may appeal. The host will convene a committee of an odd number of knowledgeable and impartial persons. The committee will define its own rules of procedure and render a decision, which will be binding on all parties. The committee must present a decision which clearly defines the actions to be taken within the time frame specified by the host, and may impose any additional penalties it deems fair for egregious conduct or abuse of the appeals process. This would allow a one-person committee (if both sides agree), for relatively minor decisions such as replacement of players in a team with another player.
Tie Breakers	In the event of a tie in Stage I, the team which won more matches against their opponent will win prevail; if the Stage I series was tied, a single playoff match will be played with each team naming their player, but it must be played within 48 hours.
General Web-based Tournament Rules	All rules pertaining to conduct of web-based tournaments will be as provided in the Warp Gammon Web-based Tournament rules. Players should pay particular attention to policies regarding scheduling. Please read now this additional information on what is expected of players in scheduling at this link: *scheduling standards*.
Tournament Host	The host for this event is Cindy (cindybel). As this is a new event, the host may deviate from the established rules after consultation with the team captains, if doing so would enhance the event as a fair test of backgammon skill and luck, and would be manifestly more fair to a substantial majority of the participants.�
Warp Gammon points	Match points: 7 points in Stage I. 9 points in Stage II. Gold points: 20 points for each member of the winning team 10 points for each member of the runner up team.