Swiss Round Robin versus Regular Round Robin
I don't know what system we went with in the end for the round robin for seeding on the first day, but I was disappointed not to play more tough teams for my first four games.
We had three games that were unevenly matched. We won all three very quickly and frankly I don't think either we or our opposition learned much from the experience.
Our second game against an East Van Team (john, martin and rawbie) was hard fought and better matched but I really wish we'd been pushed at least in one more game on the first day especially since there was so much sitting around waiting to play.
I did ask Martin to try and place us against a stronger team for our last, fourth, game and he said we would be placed against another team that was 3 and 0. We did get placed against a team that was 3 and 0 but the team had lost three games not won three games.
Surely the Swiss Round Robin system would be fairer and more fun system for everyone involved?
My wires got crossed...I meant John Mardlin.
Re our final game. I thought that might have been the case. It's a pity, because I was itching to play some of those teams that placed at the end.
Anyway, if it was the "will of the community" just take my comments as food for thought/discussion for the next tourney.
Btw the game with your team was the highlight game of the two days for me and as I said afterwards would have been great to play a full 15 mins or better to end with someone winning 5 goals rather than the final 2-1 score.
You know that I was in favour of running swiss rr from the get go Bob. We had to make concessions though because not everyone wanted that and we had to go with the will of the community. But, figuring we were only going to have four games on day one because of the sheer number of teams, i told Matt to try and get the most even games he could by placing like record teams against like record teams. I know there are going to be people out there pissed off about that but what's done is done. Not everyone was going to be happy regardless. Matt struggled, I think, with trying to get these matchups done and sometimes shit happened like you guys playing an 0-3 team when you were 3-0. That shouldn't have happened.
For the record Bob, I didn't play with Robbie and Johnny. I just heckled them (and you for that matter). ;)
To clear this up Bob, I was the only one at the meeting not in favour of the swiss roundrobin. We did a vote and all hands went up in favour, except for mine. So, I'm not sure what happened at the tournament as it was OKd that the swiss style would go ahead. The "will of the community" was in support of the swiss style.
I do think, however, with only 4 games to play, and 34 teams playing,no kind of round robin can occur effectively. I think you'd have to pre-set the games so that like skilled players can play one another. Like martin said, with so few games, the only thing that can be done is to try and match like records, which is what he did.
xo
polly
um, i'm pretty sure it wasn't the will of the community to do the brackets this way, but now everyone should realize that swiss round is the way we should be doing it. and if matt was struggling, how about we have a player doing the job next time? not that i don't appreciate his efforts, but i'm certain there would have been people who would have stepped up to do the job...
and let's never have timed games again at our tournaments. at least on the second day, but i'd like to see the players decide the outcome of a game- not the clock. we'll have lights, and if this means limiting the amount of teams that can come, i'm fine with that.
Timed games were the only way to run things efficiently with only two courts and 32(!) teams. We didn't have much of a choice based on the way we decided to run the tournament this year. Also, when I said "will of the community" you have to understand that, when working with a committee, compromises have to be made. I wanted to run with the Swiss Round Robin but we had to appease some people who didn't want that. Unfortunately in the end, we did a pseudo-Swiss round for the last three rounds (of four) because the original plan of playing Swiss after three rounds meant that we would only have had one round of Swiss which would have defeated the purpose of doing Swiss for half the round robin anyway. Like I said, people were pissed and that's their prorogetive (that's why I used the word "unfortunately" in the previous sentence). I, personally, think it ran quite smoothly for most of the weekend.
In terms of getting polo people to step up and do this job: Where were they? We asked at countless meetings for this position to be filled and because of the sheer size of the job it had to go to someone not playing in the tourney. No one wanted to do it. Matt did a great job and was the only one willing to do the job.
i volunteered my efforts a number of times on the list to do this job- either for the ladies' tournament or the crown. it was always met with "martin's friend is doing it", so i didn't press the matter. and i don't think lisa really wanted me to help with her tournament, so whatever, and james did a fine job anyway. you need to realize, martin, that people step up for duties at the last minute, and i'm not (just) talking about myself here. i know it takes some stress off the mind knowing you have someone in place in advance, but this can't always happen, and i volunteered my efforts long before the last minute, but apparently you had your man, and as i've said before, i appreciated his efforts, but i think a player would have done a better job.
if the lights had been on until 11 as we had planned/hoped, there would have been ample time on the second day to play non-timed games. in hindsight that would have made things more fucky what with the conflict and the subsequent turning off of lights, but i'm talking about future events. sitting around for an hour and then getting to play for 10 minutes?