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Happy MLK Weekend to everyone! It is that time of year again, and I am pleased to announce that the 22nd annual McCarthy Cup Showdown tournament will begin on Tuesday, 10 March.
The rules for this year’s tournament are mostly unchanged from last year’s (and spelled out in full below). We will have a four-week qualification phase, in which each team's best three scores will be used for qualification for, and seeding in, the single-elimination phase. As with last year, in the single elimination phase, each week the highest remaining seed will play the lowest remaining seed, and so forth (think NFL playoffs) rather than having teams move through a pre-populated bracket. The one change is that, based on some of the discussion surrounding last year’s Sandbagger, I have tweaked “in the event of major Buzztime screw-up” clause to allow for the re-running of individual games or an entire week—as written previously, the options were throw out all the scores, or let all the scores stand.
After the Yahoo group changes, I don’t know if BadBart is even a thing anymore, but if it is, I’d appreciate one of you cross-posting this over there (or sending it to the mailing list, or whatever is appropriate)—and then also to pass along the names of any teams signing up over there. Similarly, feel free to forward this announcement to teams that may not be on any forum or mailing list but may nonetheless be interested in the tournament.
OFFICIAL RULES:
As has become customary for this tournament, it is for wetware teams only. This means no computers and no references of any kind are to be used 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 violates this rule or engages in any form of cheating, 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 (assuming someone is willing to pass that information along to me) or otherwise contacting TIMUR. All teams must register no later than MIDNIGHT (EDT) ON SUNDAY, MARCH 8. We reserve the right to personally invite additional qualified teams after the deadline to round out the field. Play will commence on March 10 and will continue weekly until the end of the tournament. If past years are any guide (and barring unforeseen circumstances), the probable ending date of the tournament will thus be APRIL 28.
There will be two phases to the tournament. First, a four-week qualifying phase will start on March 10 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 after the March 31 game. The top teams thus calculated will advance to the knockout phase of competition. This will 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 single 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 single-elimination will be determined by the cumulative score described above. In each round, the highest remaining seed will face the lowest remaining seed, second highest vs. second lowest, etc.
Should Buzztime have a system-wide repeat game (or other disruptive glitch affecting much or all of the system) during the qualifying phase of the tournament, that week’s scores will be ignored and the tournament will be extended by a week. Should such a glitch occur during the single-elimination phase, those games whose results were affected by the glitch shall be replayed; results of the games that were not affected by the glitch (if any) shall stand. Teams faced with a sudden close or loss of Buzztime at their home location may play at another location as long as they notify TIMUR in advance of the game and continue to follow contest rules in the new location. In general, we take no responsibility for and offer 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.
Typically, in this part of the announcement, I respond participants that is the winner's responsibility is to host the next McCarthy Cup—the 23rd such—next year. Given where the company’s been headed, it may turn out that the winner’s responsibility is to find a permanent home for the Cup—which, I feel obligated to remind you, is perhaps the ugliest awarded in any field of human endeavor.
Normally, the last line of these tournament announcements is the host’s statement that they will be participating. However, at this time, with all of the most convenient sites to our team members having given up Buzztime, we are not sure where, or even if, we will be playing. However, I can nonetheless announce the first entrant: based on communications on Scaratings last month, Tailgator’s of Fargo, ND will participate.
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