NEW ALT COMPETITION (NewCo)

 

 

CONDITIONS OF CONTEST

 

 

 

1. New Alt Competition (NewCo) will be hosted by Bridge Base Online and consist of ten independent team tournaments played once a month.

 

Each tournament will be played during one week from Monday through Friday between 10:00 EDT (16:00 CET) and 15:00 EDT (21:00 CET); 32 boards per day.

 

 

2. All participants are bound by the regulations contained within this document.

 

The Alt Organization emphasizes that all their events are by invitation.

 

Teams who are interested in getting such an invitation and believe they meet the standard of Alt’s various events, can apply.

 

Invitations for this event will be issued to teams of four to ten players.

 

Alt reserves the right not to invite any team or player without stating a reason.

 

By applying teams and players – including those who have played in the Alt before – agree on the rights stated above.

 

Should a team be disqualified or withdraw by themselves, before or during the event, no entry fees will be refunded.

 

 

3. Schedule of Play

 

The time schedule will be as follows:

 

All days Monday – Friday

 

10:00 EDT / 16:00 CET – 12:10 EDT / 18:10 CET – Session 1 (16 boards)

12:30 EDT / 18:30 CET – 14:40 EDT / 20:40 CET – Session 2 (16 boards)

 

 

4. Format

 

Each tournament will be played in several groups:

 

The group structure for the first tournament will be:

Group 1A – six teams – double round-robin

Group 1B – six teams – double round-robin

Group 3 – all the rest – Swiss (no Danish)

 

The composition of the groups for the first tournament will be decided by Alt Team.

 

After the first tournament (movement to the second tournament):

 

Group 1A

1 – 3 move to Group A

4 – 5 move to Group B

6 moves to Group C

 

Group 1B

1 – 3 move to Group A

4 – 5 move to Group B

6 moves to Group C

 

Group 3

1 – 2 move to Group B

3 – 6 move to Group C

The rest move to Group D

 

Starting from the second tournament:

 

 

NewCo is always open to new teams

 

 

The results of each match shall be converted into Victory Points in accordance with the appropriate WBF IMP/VP scales (see below).

A team will receive 12 VP for any match that is a BYE.

In order to determine the final ranking, a tie between two teams will be broken by the result of the match between those two teams. If there should still be a tie, then the IMP quotient of all matches will be taken into consideration to break the tie.

 

 

5. Line-Up and Seating Rights

 

All 16-board sessions will be played without change of line-up; unless there is a serious reason otherwise, to be decided by the TD.

 

Teams are expected to submit their line-up as soon as practical, taking into account the provisions regarding seating rights below.

 

 

Seating rights

 

In all groups but the last (double round-robin) the visiting team submits its line-up not later than one hour before the start of the round, and the home team not later than thirty minutes before the start of the round. If the team required to submit its line-up first is late, the other team shall be allowed five minutes from the time of such late submission in which to submit its line-up.

 

In the last group in case of six teams (double round-robin) the same provision will be applied. In case of eight or more teams there will be no seating rights, the line-up will be blind with the deadline not later than thirty minutes before the start of the round.

 

Violations of this regulation will be subject to VP penalties according to this scale:

 

The line-up must be submitted through the line-up web utility. All captains will be provided with the appropriate link and password.

 

Once the line-up is submitted it can only be changed with permission of the TD.

 

 

6. Running the Matches

 

All players must be online and logged in to Bridge Base Online ten minutes before the start of the round at the latest.

 

Players must have their official name on their BBO profile; ‘Private’ is not allowed. Violations of this regulation will be subject to VP penalties according to this scale:

 

The Tournament Director will create the tables and send invitations to the players in accordance with the line-ups submitted. Players are requested to accept the invitation immediately upon receipt.

 

All tables of the same group will play the same boards.

 

The Alt Team allows kibitzers. However, this decision can at any time in any group be revoked. Any communication between players and kibitzers will be forbidden.

 

Barometer scoring will be OFF. For the players the scores are only visible after the last board has been played. Kibitzers (if allowed) can see the scores during the match.

 

Undo and claiming: Alt Team encourages players to accept an opponent’s undo in obvious misclick situations during bidding as well as play. In case such undo is refused a player gets one ’challenge‘ whereby the TD can be called to the table. Play must halt until the TD arrives. The TD will assess the situation, and if he or she believes the undo is justified by an obvious misclick that no reasonable player should refuse, the undo has to be accepted by the opponents.

 

Players alert and explain their own calls. Calls must be alerted before entering them. If you don’t alert before making your call, your opponent may think that it is natural, make his or her call, then see the alert, and legitimately ask for an undo in case the information changes their perspective.

 

If players explain calls via chat they should set the recipients to Opponents, not Table, so that partner will not see the explanation. The best way is to explain calls via the BBO alert mechanism (see above).

 

Players may not consult their own convention card nor use any aids to their memory or calculation or technique between the commencement of the auction and the end of play.

 

The gravest possible offense is for a partnership to exchange information through non-public communication or (individual) players self-kibitzing.

 

If players notice highly suspicious calls or plays, we encourage you to send a report to the organizers at info@netbridge.online. We will not reveal your name as source.

 

Players are expected to finish 16 boards within 2 hours 10 minutes. The Tournament Director may cancel unplayed boards if in his or her opinion a delay in finishing the match in the allotted time would interfere with smooth running of the competition.

 

 

7. Request of the TD ruling

 

This event will of course be played in the most respectful way possible. Fun and good bridge are paramount. Alt team relies on reluctance and restraint to call the Director. Should a team find a serious cause to request a ruling, then this will only be dealt with if the captain of the team announces this via email within 45 minutes after the last board played with an explanation and a request for a specific adjustment of the score. Alt team will inform the other team and give that team the opportunity (through its captain) to respond via an email within 45 minutes after being informed. The protest will be decided by a qualified director or a world-class player; no further appeal will be possible after his or her decision.

 

To submit ruling requests send email to: info@netbridge.online

 

 

8. After each tournament Alt will assign Alt points to the teams. After all ten tournaments the six teams with highest number of total Alt points will be invited to play the Grand Final of the 2021 New Alt Competition.

 

Also there will be individual Alt points (for the ’Triple F Alt Point Race’) assigned to the players who played at least 25% of the boards their team was supposed to play.

 

The points as such will be published in the Alt bulletin.

 

 

9. These Regulations may be amended and augmented at the discretion of the organizing committee if circumstances so warrant in order to ensure the smooth, efficient and enjoyable running of the tournament.

 

Although this event is not sanctioned by any bridge federation we will cooperate and provide them with all the information necessary to detect and prevent cheating.

 

 

10. The WBF Victory Points scale for 16 boards:

 

IMP

VP

 

IMP

VP

0

10.00

10.00

 

31

16.88

3.12

1

10.31

9.69

 

32

17.03

2.97

2

10.61

9.39

 

33

17.17

2.83

3

10.91

9.09

 

34

17.31

2.69

4

11.20

8.80

 

35

17.45

2.55

5

11.48

8.52

 

36

17.59

2.41

6

11.76

8.24

 

37

17.72

2.28

7

12.03

7.97

 

38

17.85

2.15

8

12.29

7.71

 

39

17.97

2.03

9

12.55

7.45

 

40

18.09

1.91

10

12.80

7.20

 

41

18.21

1.79

11

13.04

6.96

 

42

18.33

1.67

12

13.28

6.72

 

43

18.44

1.56

13

13.52

6.48

 

44

18.55

1.45

14

13.75

6.25

 

45

18.66

1.34

15

13.97

6.03

 

46

18.77

1.23

16

14.18

5.82

 

47

18.87

1.13

17

14.39

5.61

 

48

18.97

1.03

18

14.60

5.40

 

49

19.07

0.93

19

14.80

5.20

 

50

19.16

0.84

20

15.00

5.00

 

51

19.25

0.75

21

15.19

4.81

 

52

19.34

0.66

22

15.38

4.62

 

53

19.43

0.57

23

15.56

4.44

 

54

19.52

0.48

24

15.74

4.26

 

55

19.61

0.39

25

15.92

4.08

 

56

19.69

0.31

26

16.09

3.91

 

57

19.77

0.23

27

16.26

3.74

 

58

19.85

0.15

28

16.42

3.58

 

59

19.93

0.07

29

16.58

3.42

 

60

20.00

0.00

30

16.73

3.27

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last update: January 24, 2021