Announcing the 2024 Sandbagger Showdown Tournament, Starting Sep 24, 2024. As in previous years, the rules are as below, written in the droll prose of the Amazing Anon.
OFFICIAL RULES:
From its inception, this Showdown 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). This also means no using of electronic devices such as iPhones, iPads, Android, etc., devices to look up or receive answers from elsewhere. Just to be clear, if a team engages in these activities or 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, BadBart, Friends Who Like Buzztime, or otherwise contacting me via PM. All teams must register no later than NOON ON TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, the day the tournament starts. We reserve the right to personally invite additional qualified teams after the deadline to round out the field and/or include teams that have previously played in the tournament.
There will be two phases to the tournament. First, a four-game qualifying phase will start on Septemebr 24 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 Octyober 15 game.
The second phase will begin on October 22. It will be a standard bracketed elimination phase. The number of teams in the knockout round will depend on how many teams sign up, there are likely to have a maximum of 8 teams in the playoff round. If only 12 sign up, we may have a 6-team knockout round with a bye for the top two). Seedings for the brackets will be determined by the cumulative score described above, and will remain in place for the rest of the tournament.
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, the right to have a plaque with its team name and date inscribed on it placed on the base, and the solemn responsibility of running the 16th annual tournament next fall, and so continue its noble purpose to make the winter of trivial discontent into glorious summer unto the next generation.
Caveats:
Should Buzztime have a system-wide repeat game during the tournament, that week’s scores will be ignored and I will post rescheduled rounds. We reserve the right to cancel the results of a week and reschedule the remainder of the tournament if a significant percentage or more of teams suffer from outages, as has happened in the past. Teams faced with a sudden close or loss of Buzztime at their home location may play at another location as long as they notify me 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. If the tournament continues through Tuesday Novemebr 5 (US Election Day) the week will be skipped unless all teams still in the tournamentagree to play that night.
Please indicate your team's desire to play in the responses.
_________________ Merkin
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