Canadian Nationals

[Will Stranks]

Dear TSAC Executives, TSAC Members, and fellow Foosball players:
Please review my application to host the Canadian National Championships on October 2-4, 2009 at the Gateway Entertainment Center in Edmonton, AB. Executives, please accept this as an application to TSAC for a vote on the merit of Edmonton hosting this event in 2009.
If the vote is passed, we will determine the National Champion of Canada at this tournament. If someone who is not Canadian wins the event, the highest placing Canadian will be crowned as the national champion. If two are tied, they will have a playoff in a best of 5 format.
We would also like to determine 4 spots on the Men’s National Team based on the results in Open Singles in this tournament. If a spot on the team is declined then the spot should be given to the next highest placing Canadian that accepts the invitation to play on the National Team.
There are several reasons that we believe this tournament is fit to be named as the National Championships:
1. We are willing to guarantee payouts of at least $10,000 made up of the following
a. 100% payout of entry fees
b. Sleeman’s is sponsoring the event for $2,000
c. Gateway Entertainment is sponsoring the event for $2,000
d. The Edmonton Foosball Association is sponsoring the event for $1,000
e. We are planning on approaching other local businesses to attain more sponsorship
2. We are working out excellent deals with a hotel next door to the tournament venue.
3. We are planning an extensive awards ceremony dinner. At this dinner we will present the Trophies, Prize Money, and a Championship Ring to the first place finisher in open singles.
4. We have major media already eager to cover Table Soccer in Edmonton. Several news channels and the local sports radio channel will all cover the event leading up to and during the Championships.
5. Table 1 will have streaming Video onto a projected display for spectator viewing. Also the setup of the venue allows for excellent viewing spots for spectators.
6. We have a sound system available to be used for calling matches, hosting ceremonies, and making announcements.
7. We are in close proximity to the International Airport (15 min drive)
8. We are willing to have up to 20 tables depending on the expected amount of entrants
9. Gateway is also willing to pay the ITSF fee for running an ITSF Masters Series Event
We also are requesting the right to name this tournament after a sponsor if a sponsor is willing to pay for the name. We also would like to be able to make all decisions on the format of this tournament without having to follow other people’s guidelines.
As the Tournament Director, I am guaranteeing that this event can be not only biggest tournament in Canada this year, but truly a world class event worthy of naming our National Championships.
Regards,
Will Stranks

[Merv]

I did play in the round robin tournament held in Ottawa and felt the round robin went well for placing people in the play offs.
But I wasn't keen about the single elimination in the play offs.
I would have preferred to have it double elimination so that if you played the best pro master right off the start and lost, or had a bad match, you would have a second chance to place higher in the losers bracket.
This way you are getting all the best players near the top and not someone who just squeezed into the playoffs and didn't have to play a pro or pro master until he played for a 3rd place finish, which would give him a spot on the team!

[Will Stranks]

we will seed the single elimination bracket, so that if you won your group you play against someone else who lost there bracket. PM will not play another PM unless one significantly underachieves in a group.

[Will Stranks]

The format I would like to use is group stages followed by single elimination. There will only be two events for singles, and two events for doubles. We can also do womens singles and doubles, as well as junior singles and doubles, and senior singles and doubles, assuming we have enough people to run those events. If there are less than 8 of any of those categories we will do double elimination standard brackets to determine the national champion for those categories.

The 2 events for singles and doubles will be Open, and Beginner. If you play in beginner then you cannot play in open. Registration will be $10 bucks to play in beginner and will be primarilly for trophies, but maybe a small payout will be awarded. The open event will consist of players with the rankings: Pro Master, Pro, Semi-Pro, and Rookie. The amount of players put into each group will be decided upon once we have all of the entries, so that we can find an appropriate number. If we have 80 people in the tournamnet we will do groups of 8. Estimate of 1 Pro Master, 3 pros, 2 semi pros, 2 rookies in each group. Everyone plays against everyone else in there group. The top 4 people at the end of that group move into the final bracket, a single elimination tournament with deep payouts, trophies, and big prizes hopefully. The other 4 players will move into the B bracket, another single elimination bracket, with trophies and no payouts. To ensure against sandbagging the payouts have to be much better in the A bracket, and less significant for the B side. That said, the highest placing semi pro and highest placing rookie players will get there own payouts. Depending on how many SP and rookie players attend we will pay out the top 3 or something like that. In the end i want to make sure that everyone has a chance to play for something.

There is a significant chance that some players from the states will come to this tournament. Because of that it will make the definitions of players ranks a very sticky subject. I will put together a small group of people to help me with ranking, and we will have our own process to decide on that. If we do have some players from the states, most "canadian pro" players who are ranked semi pro in the states will be ranked semipro for this event.

As for registration, the dollar figures havn't been decided yet, but certainly the registration will be much higher for higher ranks.

We will run the same format for doubles as well. We won't be running a DYP on friday night because of the time constraints that we will have. The tables will be set up before Friday the 2nd, so anyone who comes early on friday will have a ton of warmup time avaliable to them.

[Ottawa Foosball Ass.]

With this format, I would get as many tables as you can. Also I would try to get people in charge of each of the groups to keep track of the matches and to make sure people are playing. That could have help me when I ran the last round robin event and takes the pressure off of the tournament director.

[Ottawa Foosball Ass.]

Hey

Any updates on this tournament? I am thinking of running a qualifier for the event and sending the winners out to Edmonton.

Chris

[Will Stranks]

Ben W. has pretty much finished the flier, I am just waiting to confirm a couple more things before posting it online. The tournament it 100% a go, I would feel comfortable booking a flight right now.