[tournament-org] Things a Tournament Director hates

[Gerry Gavigan]

For me it's simple: the (many, one) problem.
 
No matter how much information you supply: stuck on the walls, on the internet, tattooed to their ......g forehead, many are unable to self serve but would rather ask the TD. This reflects a basic failure to understand that TDs are generally busy with your next round while you are pondering if you have got time to nip out to Tesco.

I think this dovetails with my reaction to Geoff's comment. 

While I appreciate a player might not want to play someone from the same club and it is admirable that GoDraw has a facility to prevent it, I suggest they suck it up and get stronger faster than their local opponent so it doesn't happen again. 

In London the problem is amplified by players affiliated to different clubs meeting each other fairly regularly and I do not know if GoDraw (or care, actually) can prevent that.  

TDs are not running a small business, players are not their customers, some Go players volunteer to provide tournaments for other Go players.  Those other Go players should be more appreciative and accepting of the small inconveneiences.  

I for one cannot both organise and play, and spend more time than most organising tournaments. It's my choice but please do not expect me to rush round wiping your brow with a silk handkerchief    



> On 05/04/2023 22:41 BST Geoff Kaniuk via tournament-org <tournament-org at lists.britgo.org> wrote:
> 
>  
> Agreed re title.  Ten things TD would like to see?
> 
> GoDraw tries hard to pair players below the bar from different clubs The 
> player annoyance seems to get more intense the closer you get to the 
> bottom of the draw.
> 
> The only alternative is to offer a handicap game instead of same club. 
> GoDraw has a handicap bar that the DM can set - its default value is 10k.
> 
> It means that for grades below the handicap bar, players will be paired 
> with higher handicaps rather than same club where an even game+other 
> club is not possible.
> 
> Once the draw is done GoDraw provides a comment on each pairing giving 
> the DM a change to try to modify the pairing if a same club game seems 
> to be unreasonable.
> 
> Note that a player who enters as No Club will happily play any other 
> player even another No Club player.
> 
> So although I agree that we prefer to play even, if the same club 
> pairing is an issue then in my experience forcing an even game can lead 
> to great unhappiness.
> 
> Geoff
> 
> 33 Ashbury Close, Cambridge CB1 3RW 01223 710582
> 
> On 05/04/2023 18:30, Matt Marsh via tournament-org wrote:
> > Colin,
> > 
> > On Wed, 5 Apr 2023, at 13:49, Colin Williams via tournament-org wrote:
> >>
> >> For the next BGJ but one I’d like to write a short article about the 
> >> top ten things that a Tournament Director hates, with the intention to 
> >> help educate or remind people in order to make our life easier.
> >>
> > 
> > Education is always good - though I do hope it will be given a different 
> > title than "top ten things that a Tournament Director hates" - I'd 
> > "hate" it to come across as though all TDs are constantly miserable and 
> > disgruntled about all the attendee behaviour...
> > 
> >> Please let me have any pet peeves you have around people entering or 
> >> attending tournaments and I’ll try and pull something together.
> >>
> > 
> > Not so much a "hate", but one thing I've noticed come up numerous times 
> > from players is an annoyance when they are paired against someone from 
> > their own club. Some education on why this happens wouldn't go a miss...
> > 
> > I think the point to try and get across is that when they enter most 
> > normal UK tournaments, which might have 30-40 people, there aren't that 
> > many players around their strength to match them with. Pairing programs 
> > like GoDraw are primarily trying to pair people based on MMS (and making 
> > sure they don't play the same person twice!), and whilst they will try 
> > to avoid same-club matches, it's a lesser objective and often 
> > unavoidable to some extent. The alternative would be more handicap games 
> > - which seems like a worse alternative in general to me.
> > 
> > Hope this helps,
> > Matt
> > 
> > -- 
> > *Matt Marsh*
> > matt at crazedbytes.net <mailto:matt at crazedbytes.net>
> > +44 (0)7795 297779 <tel:+44-7795-297779>
> > 
> > 
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