We did it and we survived: 1839 players, new world record!!!
The event in general
This was the last Grand Prix in Europe for 2008 and, as it happens in all shows, the climax comes at the end: Disneyland!
Yes, you read it correctly, it was GP Disney or GP Mickey ^__^
Euro Disney is located just outside Paris and it’s well connected by train, buses and shuttles from the airports; the event took place in one of the very nice hotels in front of the park entrance.
More or less, half of the judges (and a lot of players) arrived to Paris a few days before and visited the park; I arrived on Thursday evening and, while checking in at the hotel, I found out that people who stay at the Disney hotels could enter the park two hours before the official opening (just imagine a park with no queues… ^___^).
A tournament dedicated to… DANNY BROSENS
This GP was the last with “Uncle Danny”, our loved Tournament Manager who took care of all of us for many years; he was always friendly and always available for us, it looked as if he wasn’t sleeping all weekend (the first to enter the room and the last to leave); on behalf of all the European judges, many thanks for all you did for us and good luck for your new job!
Well, he’s not dead, he just changed job, and we will still continue to meet him… just a little less frequently.
A new judge in Red & Black
Nick Sephton, L3 judge since November 2006, Mr. “Communication policy”, had the hardest baptism of fire for a judge: HJ for the first time at a GP… and what a GP… congratulations, Nick!
Was the tournament split in three? In four?
The first Grand Prix that was split in two was the previous GP Paris (in 2004, with 1596 players) and since then, all European GPs with more than 799 players have been split (I bet all GPs in France/Germany/Spain/Benelux, half of the GP in Italy and Eastern Europe).
If you apply the rule to 799*2, you may imagine that a tournament with more than 1600 players would be split in more than two tournaments and that Top256 would qualify for Day2…. It would be a wrong assumption.
The number or rounds is still NINE and the players who qualify for Day2 are still the Top64 of each half; you can see in the final standings after Day1 that 7-2 with good tiebreaker are in Top64 (green tournament: 21 in, 25 out; blue tournament: 19 in, 36 out; the little difference comes from the late players having to be enrolled in only one tournament; the needed tiebreak to make Day2 was 66.5% in the green half and 65.8% in the blue half).
And what if there were 2000 players?
Some of you might have heard that the DCI Reporter is unable to accept more than 2000 players (1998 precisely, corresponding to 999 tables) and might have wondered what would have happened to player number 1999 arriving in Paris.
Very simple: everybody would have played and nothing would have changed!
Well, without entering too deeply in the unknown world of DCI Reporter, it would have changed for two aspects:
- Tiebreakers would have been reset at the beginning of day2 (tiebreakers, not points!)
- The scorekeeper would have risked sleeping very little between Saturday and Sunday, to be sure that the two completely separated tournaments would become one
For your information, counting main event and all public events, the number of unique players (it means “different players who participated in one of the sanctioned tournaments in the weekend”) was…. TWO THOUSANDS AND TWO.
Yes, we went over 2000!!!
Two rooms, two floors
All players registered in a single room and waited for the start in the main room (and wondered why there were chairs for only 1000 ^__^) and then half of them were sent to another room, on another floor.
The link between the two independent tournaments was quite poor; after two rounds, because of results entry problems, the tournaments were no more synchronized and we made sure that players going to see their friends in the other tournament didn’t miss the start of round by announcing the “pairings posted” in both rooms (and outside the building with a megaphone).
Small details are important
We often say that a good job is built on very small details… and I have a wonderful example of a small detail that created a huge confusion.
To split the players in two tournaments, we use colors AND numbers; there are always a blue and a green tournaments; there are always tables “from 1 to 500” and “from 501 to 1000”.
To make the flow of the payers faster, we posted many signs and we announced it as clearly as possible, in English and French… but we forgot one thing!
In the DCI Reporter, we didn’t set table 501 as the starting table for the second tournament!
Some may say it was “just ten minutes delay”, but before realizing the problem I was facing confused players and judges and I discovered how a small detail in a long time prepared event may cause such difficulties; I forgot to check that the papers we were about to post were correct and I’m sure I will never forget it any more ^__^
Appeals and times
This weekend, I’ve been amazed by two things:
- I had many less appeals than usual (Alara limited has a little less questions from players, but the number of appeals was extremely limited)
- The tournament was fast as the other GPs (seatings were posted at 10:00 AM and final standings were posted at 10:35 PM, these 12 hours and a half were the minimum of all my limited GPs as HJ)
These are two consequences of the judges doing a good job; by being prepared and confident when giving a ruling, they are appealed less frequently; by being more efficient in every tasks, the tournament is faster.
I’m really amazed, and I congratulate to all judges!
New members of our family
There are two new judges in our big family: Iain Shepherd from Poole, England and Nuno Ribeiro from Viseu, Portugal.
Welcome ^__^
Seminars
There were two seminars on Sunday:
How to certify L1 judges by Alfonso Bueno, L3 from Spain
Communication by Etienne Brun, L2 from France
GPs are finally over (in Europe)
Mission accomplished, the last European GP, the biggest.
It’s Monday morning, I’m at the airport and my mother-in-law informs us that our female (pregnant) dog had a puppy this morning.
It’s time to take a pause from Grand Prix and to return home to my (now larger) family… and this is my final ruling!
Riccardo Tessitori
