Tournament Schedules

In this edition of tournament schedules, I’d like to bring some attention to the Olympia regional in a couple of weeks. Why? Because on Wednesday of this regional, the main event is a 2 session BAM! It doesn’t even compete with a new KO. It’s not enough to make me want to go to that tournament but during my perusal of schedules, it really caught my eye and I hope someone in the southeast will include this in a mid-Atlantic regional, just not on a Tuesday or Wednesday because I don’t really go to regionals early in the week.

If I ever decide to be in charge of scheduling for a regional, my schedule of the main events would look something like this:

Bracketed BAM KO (top bracket open to anyone) – Monday 7:30, Tuesday 9:30, 1:30, 7:30, Wednesday 9:30 (if necessary)

Stratiflighted/Gold rush pairs (3) – Tues, Wed, Fri 1:30 & 7:30 (0-750 gold rush may be 10 and 3)

Bracketed KO (2) – Tues-Wed, Wed-Thur

Open Swiss – Thur 10 & 2

4 session Open Pairs (cut after 2 sessions) - Thur-Fri 1:30 & 7:30

Open BAM – Fri 1:30 & 7:30

4 session BAM (cut after 2 sessions) – Sat 1:30 & 7:30, Sun 10 & 2

Gold rush Pairs – Sat 10 & 3

Fast Open Pairs – Sun 10 & 1

Stratiflighted Swiss – Sun 10 & 2

My rant on tournament schedules this time is about the major league baseball playoffs. As any good American knows, the format was changed this year by adding a 5^th team to the mix from each league – 3 division winners plus 2 wild cards. The 2 wild cards play 1 game to see who gets into the best of 5 series against the league’s top seed. It’s kind of messed up to have 1 game determine what team advances, except in the case of a tie-breaker. I get it – more teams are still alive in September by adding an extra playoff spot but there ought to be some clause that says there will be no second wild card team if they are, say, at least 3 games behind the first wild card team. Last year, the Cardinals finished 1 game ahead of the Braves for the Wild card spot; a 1 game playoff for both teams wouldn’t be so bad in that situation. This year, the Braves finished 6 games ahead of the Cardinals but the Cardinals get a chance to essentially overcome 6 games in the standings with 1 head to head game. Also, in the 5 game series, the lower seed now hosts the first 2 games and the higher seed hosts the last 3. That’s messed up, especially considering that the top seed has to wait 2 extra days – until after the wild card game – to find out where they are going. Previously, the higher seed hosted the first 2 and the last game.