CASTLES OF BURGUNDY 2024 BPA TOURNAMENT FORMAT
GM: Rob Flowers (epworthian1@gmail.com)
Assistant GMs: Jon McSenn and Ray Wolff
Boardgame Players Association:
In order to play, you must have at least a PBEM membership at the time of tournament start. This costs $10 and can be accomplished at their website.
Approximate Calendar Period:
- Signups accepted by email (epworthian1@gmail.com) until 6 PM Eastern Time, Monday, April 15. I need to get your EMAIL ADDRESS and USER NAME.
- Games will start one week later (April 22) pending BPA membership confirmation.
- Round limits will be set at 8 weeks. Last year we easily kept to that schedule.
- First round will be 4 simultaneous games for all players, approximately April 22 to June 17.
- Second round will be 4 simultaneous games, approximately June 17 to August 12.
- Third round will be 4 simultaneous games, approximately August 12 to October 7.
NOTE: A minimum of 25 players are required for this to be run as a BPA sponsored tournament. Should we get less than the 25 required, I may offer to run it as an unofficial tournament.
Website:
We will be using Board Game Arena. (In previous years we’ve used Boite a Jeux, but I’ve been experiencing problems in the last year with the site.)
Players must register on Board Game Area and let the GM know of their usernames. The site is also free of charge (for this particular game).
I recommend that you at least try starting a pickup game to get a feel for the mechanics of how the game interface works.
Players should try and check the site at least once daily, when not on vacation.
We will be using the “Identical (random) board for all players” setup.
All games will be 4-player games.
Reporting Games:
We will use a Google Sheet for reporting game results. URLs will be posted here when the sheet is available.
Rounds:
First round will be 4 simultaneous games for all players. Players will score 10 points for 1st place, 6 points for second place, 3 points for third place, and 1 point for fourth place. All players will get also get a tiebreak factor of:
- Winners: your score divided by the second place player’s score, OR
- Everyone else: your score divided by the winning player’s score
Players will be ranked accordingly and 50% of players (or 50% minus 1) will move on to the second round.
Second round will be 4 more simultaneous games, will 50% of players moving to third round.
The third round should be about 6-8 people (unless we get insane participation) and play four more games. Players will be ranked to award laurels to the top six finishers.
For 2024, due to the large field (57) I will cut a little further each round to 24 and then 10.
Tiebreakers for individual games will be per the game rules (which are also enforced by the site).
Round Length:
Unlike my other tournaments, Castles of Burgundy has a set number of player turns (100 for four players). If we get at least 2-3 turn a day, the round length should be about 8 weeks. I’m hoping they will go faster.
If players will be on vacation without internet access, they must let the GM know and post a message within all their current games. If you plan to take more than one week of vacation, please clear that with the GM before starting. (You can, in addition, set your status on the page to show you are on vacation, if you wish.)
If a player is NOT on vacation and fails to take a move within 48 hours, please alert the GM. If a player has more than two complaints for the game, that player may be penalized points (tournament points) after consultation with the Assistant GMs.
Drop Outs:
Players are expected to complete all games they are invited to.
If a player drops out DURING a game (or doesn’t take a move for at least 1 week with no vacation or other notice), the GM and assistant GMs will consult and decide whether to adjudicate the game or restart the game without the player.
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