a
7
point
backgammon tournament

Rules 
I'm inviting you to play a 7 point match backgammon tournament on Richard's PBeM server.

Signup
Submit your userid before July 1st via e-mail or to 'christian' on the server.

Start
I will start the tournament around July 1st [certainly no later than July 4th], and not concern myself with how many players signup - no one will be turned away (I'm betting we'll be less than 64 players). 
We'll play a knock-out/pyramid tournament, so if we're not exactly 8, 16, 32, or 64, some of us will be lucky enough to have a bye in the first round and go straight to the second round.
I will submit the first game/challenge in every match of a given round.

7 points
Since we're playing for 7 points, one game may not do the trick. So, I'm asking the winner of every game to immediately start the next game, till one of the players has reached a minimum of 7 points. - I would also like the winner of every game to send me the result, so that I can update the webpage, and we can all follow the progress of each match.
When I receive the last game of a match, I will start the first game of the next match.
NOTE: Gammons, backgammons, and doubled games now count! [though they still don't reflect on your ratings beyond the individual win]

 NEW: Resigning
Don't do it!  Please don't resign a game without first agreeing with your opponent, whether you're resigning a gammon, backgammon, or just a single point. Unwarranted resigns will be settled by me ...in the dis-favour of the resignee most likely. 

Crawford [explanation]
If you've never played backgammon outside of the server, I know you may never have used the doubling cube...!  =80
This is your chance - turn the board to 'manual', when the time comes to double your opponent.

Seating
Players will be seated randomly from the total list of entrants using my favorite set of precision dice.

Non-smokers
...or would that be going too far...?!  ;)

Time
We will observe the rules concerning time, as applied by Richard on the server. 
Which means that we must accept, that folks sign up and maybe start their games on July 4th ...only to go on vacation, and not return before the end of August ...can't be helped. 
[remember to tell Richard to put you on 'vacation'; and the goody-goody boys & girls will also remember to excuse themselves to their bewildered opponents]
That said, once we get beyond all known holidays [and don't pull no 3 week Dutch Cheese Festival on me, elloco!  ;) ], I - acting as your ruthless tournament director - will personnally boot any player, who consistently only moves once every other week, when he's nagged by the server. Therefore I've adopted elloco's '75% rule'
Since this may become a very loooooong tournament, I obtain the right to enforce the 75% rule:

To make sure the tournament will not have to wait on some notoriously slow movers, a 75% rule is installed: if 75% of a round has a winner, the remaining matches will have one week to come to a finish as well. If at the end of this week still no winner is known, then the winner will be decided by the following rules:

And should anyone forfeit a game, they immediately forfeit the match - if this happens in round 1 or 2, that player is not entered into the consolation.
We're having a tournament for the added fun of it, and so please don't take the lollipop away from your opponent :p

NOTE: Players, who stay in the tournament, must expect it to be a looooong tournament!

special feature for the meek - yay!
Consolation Tournament
Players, who don't make it beyond round 2, will automatically be entered in the Consolation Tournament for a second chance at fame and fortune.

Prizes
Yes there will be prizes for: 

see the prizes



mail the webmaster / tournament director