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        Arimaa >> Events >> Lightning Tournament
        
(Message started by: Fritzlein on Mar 31^st, 2005, 3:01pm)

Title: Lightning Tournament
Post by Fritzlein on Mar 31^st, 2005, 3:01pm

	Fr	Ro	99	Om	Ad	PM	KK	Score	Tiebreak
Fritzlein	xxxx	1111	1101	111?	1111	1111	10??	19/21	-752
Robinson	0000	xxxx	0100	11??	1???	1101	1111	11/19	-4
99of9	0010	1011	xxxx	11??	1000	1111	1011	14/22	-182
Omar	000?	00??	00??	xxxx	????	0000	????	0/11	266
Adanac	0000	0???	0111	????	xxxx	01??	0???	4/12	169
PMertens	0000	0010	0000	1111	10??	xxxx	1000	7/22	335
Kamikazeking	01??	0000	0100	????	1???	0111	xxxx	6/15	168

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by Fritzlein on Mar 31^st, 2005, 3:10pm

I am formally calling for a lightning tournament. I propose we organize it ourselves, because Omar is already overloaded with other projects. Here are the rules I propose, which are open for discussion.

1. The format will be quadruple round robin. Each will play each twice with gold and twice with silver. All games will be played at the lightning time control of 15s/1/100/2/0. There will be no entry fee or prize money.

2. The winner will be the player who scores the most points, where a win counts for one point and a draw for half a point. The tiebreak will be (# of moves in losses) minus (# of moves in wins). I'll keep track of the standings in the first post in this thread.

3. Both humans and bots may enter. To enter, just respond in this thread saying that you want to play. I have lifted a few names from the previous thread, but please confirm your entry anyway before the tournament starts.

4. The players are responsible for scheduling their own games, using the "Player Availability" forum. We will try to complete the tournament between May 15 and July 15. If two players can't agree on a time, we will call on Omar to use his scheduling mechanism to find a mutually agreeable time slot, during which all four games must be played back to back.

5. We basically must trust that everyone who enters the tournament will make a good faith effort to schedule games against everyone else. However, if players don't make an effort to schedule their games in the Player Availability forum, and/or they refuse to abide Omar's tool as an impartial way to schedule their games, a neutral judge (TBD) will decide as of the tournament end who was most at fault for each unplayed game, and forfeit the player at fault.

6. To prevent confusion as to which games are official tournament games and which are just for fun, the tournament will recognize the first four valid games between each pair of humans. To be valid a game must be rated, must be at the lightning time control, and must be of a color assignment that hasn't yet been played twice.

7. Since bots have no say in whether or not they play rated games, humans could abuse rule 6 to get extra practice, so for bot-humans pairings both rated and unrated games are valid.

Those are all the rules I can think of off the top of my head. I welcome additions, corrections, suggestions, and comments. I'll edit these rules to incorporate suggestions, but of course will not edit the page further after the tournament starts.

Is anyone interested? :-)

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by robinson on Mar 31^st, 2005, 4:09pm

here my official announment :)
i think it might be hard to find enough dates for so many games in two month. but we can discuss about this when we know how many have joined.

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by Adanac on Mar 31^st, 2005, 5:32pm

I'll join the tournament. I have a big actuarial exam on May 13th so I would have to play all my games between May 14th and June 15th, which shouldn't be any problem.

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by Fritzlein on Mar 31^st, 2005, 7:18pm

on 03/31/05 at 16:09:56, robinson wrote:

i think it might be hard to find enough dates for so many games in two month. but we can discuss about this when we know how many have joined.

Good point. I wasn't expecting a lot of people to join. But maybe there will be a fair number, since in addition to humans perhaps Bomb and Gnobot will play. We could of course change the start and end dates. On the other hand, two months is already a long time, so maybe a better idea would be to play just a double round-robin if more than, say, eight people sign up.

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by PMertens on Apr 4^th, 2005, 2:03pm

as you might have noticed I am a little bit busy at the moment ;-)

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by kamikazeking on Apr 10^th, 2005, 7:57am

I'm in! Now i'm just waiting for people rated under 1600 to play in their championship :P what about announce this tournament in the main page? The forum may not be the better way to reach everybody...

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by Fritzlein on Apr 10^th, 2005, 8:16am

I'm glad you will play, kamikaze! With four of us in, it will be an interesting tourney already. But I didn't consider that Omar got 16 people for the postal tourney partly by advertising on the main page and even e-mail.

Since Adanac can't start until May anyway, and maybe more people will sign up if we recruit a little better, what do you think about delaying the beginning to May 1st? I could start sooner or later myself, and a small tournament or a big one is fine in my eyes.

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by 99of9 on Apr 10^th, 2005, 8:33am

I think I will have to sit this tournament out. This computer does not display the timers during play, which would be quite a disadvantage for 15 second games! I think my connection to the US is a little slow for lighting anyway.

I will certainly watch with interest. Have fun players. I'd encourage anyone who can to join up. This kind of fast game gives you really good practise at avoiding blunders.

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by omar on Apr 13^th, 2005, 5:36pm

Karl if you can post a web page somewhere about the tournament details, I will link it in the Arimaa gameroom and make an announcement.

I will sign up to play even though I am really bad at fast games :-) I know Naveed would have liked to play also, but he is in India right now and won't be back til the middle of May.

One thing for sure; these kind of games are very fun to watch since they are so unpredictable.

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by Fritzlein on Apr 13^th, 2005, 7:00pm

You are a good sport to offer to play Omar, and to offer to link a Web page.

Now since both Adanac and Naveed want to play, and since neither of them can play until mid-May, does it make sense to delay the start of the tournament until May 15? I think we should do that unless some people could play now but not in May. Does anyone have a strong opinion?

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by 99of9 on Apr 14^th, 2005, 5:06am

I think you should delay it. But I'm not playing, so my opinion shouldn't count much!

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by RonWeasley on Apr 14^th, 2005, 8:08am

Browser crashes and high maintenance family prohibit me from playing. George keeps turning my camel into a frog. And I'm not ready to move that fast. However, I hope match times will be posted because I'm an avid spectator.

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by robinson on Apr 14^th, 2005, 8:23am

may is ok (for me)

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by Fritzlein on Apr 14^th, 2005, 8:38am

OK, May 15 it is. I have changed the dates in the rules posting.

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by kamikazeking on Apr 15^th, 2005, 6:47am

I'm sorry i didn't answer earlier... i'll play in the new calendar too.

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by PMertens on May 8^th, 2005, 3:22pm

ok, where do I sign up ?

Robinson is in desperate need of a spanking, and I would love to help out here ;)

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by robinson on May 9^th, 2005, 2:17am

oh sorry paul, what was the name again of your little baby.
i think i will need her/his help ;D

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by PMertens on May 9^th, 2005, 3:23am

Max, but he wont get a cellphone :-P

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by Fritzlein on May 14^th, 2005, 12:32am

There didn't seem to be any objection to May 15 as a starting date, so I'll start recording rated lightning games between tournament participants that finish on May 15 0:01 GMT or later.

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by robinson on May 14^th, 2005, 3:01am

is it right that we play four games?

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by 99of9 on May 14^th, 2005, 8:33am

Can I put in a last minute entry into this comp? I think one of my computers is playable. I have no idea if I'll be able to schedule quite that many games, but I'll give it a go. Hopefully a few of you will be hanging around the gameroom at the same time as me!

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by Fritzlein on May 14^th, 2005, 11:07am

on 05/14/05 at 08:33:53, 99of9 wrote:

Considered yourself entered. With seven of us in, that will make for 24 games we each have to play. On the other hand, they are lightning games, so hopefully one can play more than one per sitting, and we do have two months to get all the games completed.

I hope at least one computer works well for you. I am worried about playing lightning over dialup, but from testing against BombBlitz it appears that it just robs me of a few seconds per move, i.e. it doesn't crash at all, so I have a chance. Which reminds to tell everyone:

NOTE TO ALL PLAYERS: Please make sure your opponent is seated and ready to begin before you hit the Start button. If the chat window isn't working, try to meet in the Bribble chat room. This whole tournament will only work and be fun with the goodwill of all involved. In other words, I expect we will have a fantastic time! :-)

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by PMertens on May 14^th, 2005, 1:19pm

its just the name of the chatbox (start it and you will see ...)

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by PMertens on May 15^th, 2005, 4:25pm

Kamikazeking vs PMertens: 0-1

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by PMertens on May 15^th, 2005, 4:25pm

in 49 moves

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by Fritzlein on May 16^th, 2005, 6:17pm

By now everyone has played at least one tournament game except Adanac, and he hasn't logged on for two weeks. I know he had an exam on Friday, but could you e-mail him in any case, Omar, so that he knows the tournament has started? Thanks in advance!

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by PMertens on May 17^th, 2005, 12:15am

its nice to see that I am as good as toby :-) (or as bad the way it look like at the moment)

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by Fritzlein on May 17^th, 2005, 12:08pm

on 05/17/05 at 00:15:13, PMertens wrote:

its nice to see that I am as good as toby :-) (or as bad the way it look like at the moment)

But he has you by 9 moves in the tiebreak! :-)

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by Fritzlein on May 17^th, 2005, 11:07pm

on 05/16/05 at 18:17:44, Fritzlein wrote:

OK, now I see that Adanac has played KamikazeKing so either the e-mail was effectual, or it was unnecessary. :-)

With a super-fast win, Kamikaze moves into third place on the tiebreak.

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by omar on May 19^th, 2005, 7:33pm

on 05/16/05 at 18:17:44, Fritzlein wrote:

Sure thing. I just fired off an email to Greg.

Actually adding a comment to a game you've played against Greg will also send an email to him. So if I don't see the post and there is something urgent, the message could be sent this way as well.

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by omar on May 19^th, 2005, 7:41pm

on 05/17/05 at 23:07:54, Fritzlein wrote:

OK, now I see that Adanac has played KamikazeKing so either the e-mail was effectual, or it was unnecessary. :-)

I didn't see this before sending that email. Anyway got a chance to say hi to Greg :-)

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by Fritzlein on May 29^th, 2005, 7:55am

I have messed up the tiebreaker calculation somehow because it doesn't sum to zero any more, but hopefully we will all score a different number of points so that tiebreaks won't be necessary. The calculation should still be roughly correct for now, as I perhaps only messed up one player's tiebreak score, but if two folks end up tied in score, I'll recalculate all the tiebreaks just to be sure.

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by omar on Jun 1^st, 2005, 5:48pm

Karl, I decided to help you out a bit by writing a quick program to generate the results table.

You can download it from:
http://arimaa.com/arimaa/tourn/bin/mktab

To run it on your PC type:
perl mktab [games]

where [games] is the name of a file containing the
game numbers; one per line.

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by Fritzlein on Jun 1^st, 2005, 7:44pm

Wow, thanks, Omar! I'll see if I can get it running.

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by Fritzlein on Jun 4^th, 2005, 10:48am

OK, I was able to run the script. It's a great way to catch my tiebreak addition errors, but without the table formatting tags the output doesn't look so hot when directly pasted into the forum. The game list so far is

14683
14688
14695
14697
14698
14725
14781
14804
14877
14961
14966
14968
14995
15070
15134
15138
15169
15170
15242
15281
15297
15298
15303
15321
15322
15331
15333
15401
15402
15426
15458
15522
15523
15524
15545
15568
15582
15588
15589
15590
15593
15641
15656
15657
15671
15698
15858
15891
15964
15977
15998
16143
18223
18666
18689
18793
18813
18824
18869
18871
19348

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by Fritzlein on Jun 4^th, 2005, 10:52am

Before the tournament started, I wondered whether there would be much chance of a tie with everyone playing 24 games, but 99of9 and Robinson have managed to be tied so far with 9 wins in 13 games each. Apparently Robinson is winning faster bzw. losing slower by one move(!) per game, because he leads the tiebreak by twelve moves.

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by Fritzlein on Jun 8^th, 2005, 12:39am

I will be traveling from Wednesday through Saturday. Perhaps I will be able to check on the server periodically, but more likely I won't be around for the next 90 hours or so. Because I won't be able to frequently scan the recent games list for games that qualify for this tournament, I would be much obliged if people would post relevant game numbers here until I am back and can update the standings. Thanks in advance!

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by Fritzlein on Jul 4^th, 2005, 9:22am

My apologies, folks. My life suddenly got very busy. Between starting a new job, moving to a new apartment, and participating in my mother's funeral service, I have barely had time to check whether other people are playing games, never mind playing any games myself.

When I could log on several times per day to check for opponents, having an unscheduled tournament seemed like a good idea. Now that I feel I often don't have the time to log on even once in a day, I can tell I won't be able to complete my games in the scheduled time frame of the tournament.

My intention had been to try (at this point in the tournament) to organize all the unplayed games using the scheduling tool that Omar had created, but as it turns out I am afraid that I don't have the energy to do that. I hope that no one will be too upset if this tournament remains forever incomplete. At least we'll have a record of an interesting experiment that didn't completely work out.

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by 99of9 on Jul 4^th, 2005, 9:18pm

Condolences again, some things are much more important than arimaa.

Don't worry. I think we should just keep the tournament going and play whenever possible. It doesn't really matter when it ends. There aren't that many games left to get through. The postal tourney went for much longer than this one!

(Apart from Adanac who looks like he can't manage so many games. Perhaps he could try to play one against Omar and one against Paul, just to make everyone equal.)

If we do decide to continue, we should all post our games to this thread so that Fritz doesn't have to look through the games.

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by omar on Jul 5^th, 2005, 12:00am

Im really sorry to hear about your mother, Karl. My condolences.

I agree with Toby, don't worry about the schedule of the lightning tournament. We'll eventually get all the games played.

Thanks so much for organizing it and keeping the results updated.

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by Fritzlein on Aug 25^th, 2005, 9:39am

With Adanac back in town, and with my icky job over and gone, we may yet finish this tourney! Although now Robinson and KamikazeKing aren't online as often, so there may still be difficult-to-fill pairings.

Title: Re: Lightning Tournament
Post by kamikazeking on Aug 29^th, 2005, 10:45am

Hi!

I'm sorry i've been away for so long with the tournament running.

I'm connected again and available for playing my games (although i don't play for some months :) ).