New Scaratings

Fall is fast approaching, which means that it is time once again for the Sandbag Showdown Tournament.

Official Rules:

From its inception, this tournament has been by, of, and for those teams dedicated to wetware play. Thus the main qualification for entering this tournament is that teams must be those that have committed themselves to use assembled brainpower only as a general rule. This means no computers and no references of any kind during gameplay, either paper or electronic (or telecommunication from outside the location). Using the Buzztime Playmaker app on electronic devices such as iPhones, iPads, or Droid phones is fine, of course, as long as this is the only purpose for which the device is being used, and it is being used in and for the location of the team. Just to be clear, if a team engages in these activities or any form of cheating (including the using the East/West network split to get answers in advance), it is a disqualifying offense.

All teams that abide by this primary rule are welcome to play, either by signing up on ScaRatings or BadBart or otherwise contacting ANON. All teams must register no later than MIDNIGHT (EST) ON SUNDAY, September 7. We reserve the right to personally invite additional qualified teams after the deadline to round out the field. Play will commence on September 9 and will continue weekly until the end of the tournament, which should be no later than October 28 (should unforeseen circumstances warrant that the tournament extend into November, there will be a one-week break for Election Day).

The Fellowship voted to make the rules a bit different and more simple this year. The tournament will still have two phases, but the first round will NOT be round-robin. Instead, a four-week qualifying phase will start on September 9 in which the total points for each team will be tracked. Each team will be able to drop one low score for the final cumulative total at the end of September. The top teams thus calculated will advance to the knockout phase of competition. The reason for this is not only to make the tournament simpler, but also to give teams the ability to stay in the competition even if a glitch or system crash knocks them out one week (this seems to have happened to at least one team in almost every past tournament). In such cases, the week of the glitch/crash will serve as the dropped score for those teams.

The second phase will be a standard bracketed elimination phase. The number of teams in the knockout round will depend on how many teams sign up (for example, if only 18 teams sign up, we would be more likely to have 8 rather than 16 in the final round). Seedings for the brackets will be determined by the cumulative score described above.

Should Buzztime have a system-wide repeat game during the tournament, that week’s scores will be ignored and the tournament will be extended by a week. Teams faced with a sudden close or loss of Buzztime at their home location may play at another location as long as they notify ANON in advance of the game and continue to follow contest rules in the new location. During the elimination round
The Fellowship takes no responsibility for and offers no solution nor redress for localized problems (i.e. power outages, lack of players due to illness or vacation, etc.) with one possible exception: If a team in the semi-finals or finals suffers a documentable and unavoidable mid-game crash, its victorious opponent may invite that team to a rematch, but is under no obligation to do so.

The winning team will receive not just the glory of being the brainiest bunch out there, but also the custody for one year of the beautiful Sandbag Trophy (a large silver cup sitting on a black marble square fixed to a mahogany base), the right to have a plaque with its team name and date inscribed on it placed on the base, and the responsibility of running the 9th annual tournament next fall.

So them's the rules. Please feel free to sign up and/or ask any questions, and we look forward to having a nice, competitive field for the tournament.

Oh, and Buffalo Wild Wings-Kent is in.

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

Count Adams Mill in.

Ironton BWW

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Homer:No beer and tv make Homer something something.
Marge:Go crazy?
Homer:Don't mind if I do!

8th Street Grill will play.

Scooter's (Las Vegas) is in.

ESB

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Eric (ARROW)
Las Vegas NV (formerly of Sooner Legends, Norman OK)

west park station will play.

Participating team list to date:

BWW-Kent, OH
Adam's Mill, Manchester, CT
BWW-Ironton, OH
8th Street Grill, Minneapolis, MN
Scooter's, Las Vegas, NV
Tilted Kilt (team formerly of The Hangar [formerly Gibby's]), Scottsdale, AZ
Time Out (formerly Laclede St./Sports Zone), St. Louis, MO
Heroes, Wichita, KS
West Park Station, Cleveland, OH
Teaser's, Chicago, IL
Dagwood's, Tampa, FL
Coaches Pub, Houston, TX
BWW-Tallahassee, FL
Brewstirs, Roselle, IL
Schanks North, Calgary, AB
Stadium Cafe, Addison, TX
New Edinburgh Pub, Ottawa, ON
Houlihan's-Westbury, NY
Old Barn, Portland, OR
Henry Hudson's, Oklahoma City, OK
Four Corners, Chapel Hill, NC
Fletcher's, Kalamazoo, MI
BWW-Columbia, MD
BWW-Crystal City, VA
Hokie House, Blacksburg, VA
Mad River, New York, NY
Broadway Bar & Grill, Nepean, ON
Houlihan's, Brick, NJ
Meriden AOH, CT
Old Town Tavern, Goleta, CA
Cedar Cottage, Vancouver, BC
Wallaby's, Lenexa, KS
Blue Goose, Cincinnati, OH
Maeve's Residuals, Studio City, CA

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

Teasers in Chicago would like to play

Thank you for the invitation. Dagwood's accepts the challenge.

Coaches Pub (Houston) would like to be included.

Brooke/AARDVK

Please include Buffalo Wild Wings in Tallahassee, FL.

Thank you.

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KENDO

Brewstirs is in. Looking forward to it.

I'll volunteer Schanks North, provided Canadian points will be accepted at par

http://www.buzztime.com/site/8765

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/°v°\ • Every time Linux boots, a penguin gets its wings
I'm a solipsistic conspiracy theorist. I'm sure I must be up to something, and I won't stop until I find out what
Why not downgrade Plutonium to a dwarf element?

Stadium Cafe will play.

Do we get any sort of prize for competing in the most SD tournaments in history?

Sure, although Stadium was disconcertingly late in entering this time--the last few times you were first in line.

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

When I first saw the thread Adams Mill had already signed up, it took a couple of days of pouting over not being first before being able to login again.

Please include Fletcher's - Kalamazoo. Beware the chef that comes out of retirement!

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"Do just once what others say you can't do, and you will never pay attention to their limitations again.”

OK, at the urging of at least two of my teammates, I confirm that Mad River will once again offer itself as a sacrificial lamb to the powerhouses from Ohio and D.C./Virginia
XTrain

I'm glad to see perennial top-ten Mad River will be playing, and I'm sure no one will look forward to having it in their bracket.

If I were to handicap the competition, though, I think Brewstir's in Chicago would probably have to be the favorite right now based on its performance over the past few months--it has won fully half of all the games played since June 10, including the incredibly rare "four-peat" that started the streak. They have, frankly, kicked everyone's ass pretty soundly in that time.

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

Summertime is vacation time for the college profs at BWW, Kent. and the group at BWW, Arlington, are too busy running the country to play other than during major tournaments. We'll see what Brewstir's does against a full 30-member, box-splitting juggernaut at Kent.
XT

Well, last year they were in the finals for this tournament, and that was before they stepped up their game last spring. It's true we haven't seen a 25+ team at BWW Kent since the McCarthy Cup (which we lost, of course), but neither we nor Grand Slam/BWW-Arlington ever won 4 games in a row. Brewstir's (formerly Diamond Lil's) has legitimately proven itself to be pretty juggernaut-y, and teams should take them lightly at their peril.

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

May I express my regrets? The Tailgate, in Minneapolis, can't reliably field six playmakers. I'll be watching from the bleachers with avid interest.

Sorry to hear this, MICE. Would it be possible to get people to use the Buzztime App on their smartphones so that more than six can play?

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, it looks like the field for this year's Sandbag Tournament is set at 34. Because of this, the elimination bracket will have 16 teams, just like it usually has in the past.

Good skill to everyone, and let the games begin.

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

Are we still a go for this evening?