NBGF - Norway Cup - Rules 2024
Changes December 2023:
The 2024 season will see that the Norway Cup fee for both Masters- and Intermediate is a flat 50,- per player, also for the live Norway Cup tournaments. Of the collected fee from Master players, 15% will be kept by NBGF to cover expenses (the BMAB-status, match transcriptions, rent of playing hall for Master's Finals.). Coverage of travel expenses is adjusted upwards. It is made clear that a player can only play one Finals per season.
§ 1 Introduction
The idea of the Norway Cup in backgammon is to have a national cycle of tournaments giving players all over the country a possibility of fighting for titles in their class. The tournaments may contribute to making it easier for new players to seek out the backgammon scene, as well as giving players with or without a local club a good offering. Not the least do we hope to see that the Norway Cup will lead players to visit other clubs in conjunction with Norway Cup tournaments held in the various clubs.
The Norway Cup has a qualifying stage with 3 classes (Masters, Intermediate and Beginners). The players collect points according to their placing during the Norway Cup tournaments held within the calendar year (the Norway Cup season). For Masters and Intermediate: The 16 in each class with the most points at the end of the year, will be invited to a Final play where the collected tournament fees for the various Norway Cup tournaments will form the basis for the prize money. The winners will be known as «Winner of the Masters´ Final» and «Winner of the Intermediate Final». The Beginners´ class will have the top-8 on their table invited to a Final play with prizes from the federation and the title «Beginner of the Year».
§ 2 Tournament qualifying criteria
In order to give placement points, a Norway Cup tournament must satisfy the following criteria:
§2.1 The tournament must be open to all NBgF members, given that the member satisfies the class criteria. Players may participate in more than one class as long as they satisfy the class criteria. The tournament director may direct a player to a higher class, if the player is judged to possess the higher level.
Class definitions:
- Masters class is open to anyone.
- In order to play in the Intermediate class, the rating of the player must be <1650. However, if a player during a given season has scored placement points in the Intermediate class, the player may continue participating in the Intermediate class for the rest of that season even if the rating indicates otherwise.
- In order to play among beginners, the player must have entered NBgF this or the previous year, OR be registered with less than 350 experience points. However, if a player during a given season has scored placement points in the Beginners´ class, the player may continue participating in the class for the rest of that season even if the registered experience indicates otherwise.
§ 2.2 A Norway Cup tournament shall be announced as such in the NBgF calendar no later than one month in advance of the start of the tournament.
§ 2.3 A tournament must have at least 4 players in order to qualify for Norway Cup placement points.
§ 2.4 The organizer pays a fee per player of Norway Cup tournaments to the NBgF in order to finance the play-off tournaments. This fee is NOK 50,- for Masters and Intermediates. Each organizer is free to collect a higher starting fee for their tournament. Tournaments that are held online by the Federation will also collect NOK 50,- per player to the Norway Cup finals. The Beginners´ class will have zero fees.
§ 2.5 The following tournaments shall have Norway Cup placement points in the applicable class:
- 10 online tournaments (held by NBgF) per year (National online Championship included). Here one will try to avoid calendar conflicts between the various classes. The Beginners´ class will have only 8 online editions, however, with courses or supervision before or after their tournaments.
- The ordinary (live) National Championship of Masters and Intermediate class. Speed tournaments do however not collect Norway Cup placement points.
- Any City Championship. Should a City Championship elect to not be part of the Norway Cup, it will not be awarded City Championship status. It is up to the organiser to decide to offer more than one class as part of such an event, but Masters class is mandatory.
- The clubs within NBgF may offer at most 12 Masters and Intermediate Norway Cup live tournaments during a season (and at most 6 in Beginners´ class), including any City Championship tournament. However, this maximal number is reduced taking into consideration other Norway Cup tournament organizers in the area (neighbouring clubs). Clubs lose 2 tournaments per neighboring Norway Cup organiser within 90 minutes normal travel distance from their own, yet lose no more than 4 tournaments on such grounds (every club may therefore organize at least 8 live Norway Cup tournaments).
§ 3 Norway Cup placement points: Formula and regulations qualifying stage
$ 3.1 Placement points are calculated by the following formula and regulations
§ 3.2 In order to earn placement points for an eligible Norway Cup tournament one must be a member of a club within NBgF, or have a direct Federation membership.
§ 3.3 Points earned are only applicable to the season table pertaining to the class of the Norway Cup tournament where the placement points were awarded.
§ 4 Masters´ Finals.
§ 4.1 The Masters´ Finals will be held in Oslo, unless another venue exists that incurs less total travel expenses for the 16 finalists.
§ 4.2 The Masters´ Finals normally takes place during the fourth weekend of January in the year after the qualifying stage (Norway Cup season). Its duration is two days (Saturday and Sunday).
§ 4.3 The tournament organiser is responsible for inviting the top 16 of the table by January 3rd and to ask for confirmation from the participants no later than 10th of January. Should anyone invited forfeit their place in the finals or otherwise not confirm their participation, the next in line from the table will be invited. It is therefore important to keep your contact info with the Federation up to date, in conjunction with membership renewal.
§ 4.4 The Masters´Finals shall be on record as a BMAB tournament. The Federation shall deduct 15% of the total collected fees towards the BMAB fees, match transcriptions, rent of playing hall.
§ 4.5 The Masters´Finals are played as a four round Monrad setup with match lengths of at least 15 points. Players without any loss after the first three rounds will meet in round four to decide the winner and runner-up of the tournament. Other players that achieve three victories over their four matches will share the third place.
§ 4.6 Up until 1/3 of the prize pool will support travel expenses for the participants. Assuming the Finals are held in Oslo, the maximum lump sums are NOK 3 000,- for any participants traveling from clubs in Stavanger, Sandnes, Haugesund, Bergen, Arendal, Trondheim, Bodø, Tromsø and Alta. For players from the clubs of Notodden or Horten-Tønsberg, the maximum is NOK 1 200,-, whereas players from Oslo, Nesodden or Drammen enjoy no travel expenses support. Should 1/3 of the prize pool not be sufficient to cover these amounts, the support may be reduced accordingly.
The Federation may choose to support tournament staff (for assisting with issues such as streaming or recording etc.) with similar amounts, over NBgF budgets.
§ 4.7 After deductions from the total collected fee for travel support and expenses (see §4.4), the remaining fees collected constitute the prize pool (more than 50% of the total). Players with one or two match wins are awarded up to NOK 500 per win. The rest are distributed according to this key (the amounts should be announced together with the invitation to the 16 participants):
1st prize: 50%
2nd prize: 20%
3rd prize: 10% (x 3)
§ 5 Intermediates´ Finals
§ 5.1 The Intermediates´ Finals are held online as long as the prize pool is insufficient for a satisfactory support of travel expenses.
§ 5.2 The Intermediates´ Finals are normally held during the third weekend of January in the year after the qualifying stage (Norway Cup season).
§ 5.3 The tournament director is responsible for inviting the top 16 of the table by January 3rd, and to ask for confirmation from the participants no later than January 10th. Should anyone invited forfeit their place in the finals or otherwise not confirm their participation, the next in line from the table will be invited.
§ 5.4 The Intermediates´ Finals are played as a four rounds Monrad setup with match lengths of at least 13 points. Players without any loss after round three, will meet in round four to decide the winner and runner-up of the Finals. Other players having three match wins after round four will share third place. Intermediates´ Finals tournament held online will not award players with more than one lost match, so players exit the tournament after two losses.
§ 5.5 The collected fees from Intermediate class Norway Cup tournaments constitute the prize pool (assuming online Finals). Other arrangements may be worked out should a live Intermediates´ Finals be feasible. The online prize distribution key will be:
1st prize: 50%
2nd prize: 20%
3rd prize: 10% (x 3)
§ 6 Beginners´ Finals
§ 6.1 The Beginners´ Finals are held online.
§ 6.2 The Beginners´ Finals normally takes place during the second weekend of January in the year after the qualifying stage (Norway Cup season).
§ 6.3 The tournament director is responsible for inviting the top 8 of the table by January 1th and to ask for confirmation from the participants no later than January 6th. Should anyone invited forfeit their place in the finals or otherwise not confirm their participation, the next in line from the table will be invited.
§ 6.4 The Beginners´ Finals are played as a three rounds Monrad setup with match lengths of 9/9/11 points. Players without any loss after round two will meet in round three to decide the winner and runner-up of the Finals. Other players having two match wins after round three will share third place. Beginners´ Finals tournament will not award players with more than one lost match, so players exit the tournament after two losses.
§ 6.5 The Federation will support prizes for the finalists.
Winner gets a 1st prize and «Beginner of the Year» title awarded. Additionally, a match review together with a top player.
Runner-up gets a 2nd prize. Additionally, a match review together with a top player.
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