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Team Match restricted to 2 teams

#1 User is offline   panther786 

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Posted 2021-April-16, 12:19

I am managing team matches for the past year as face to face social bridge playing has not been possible. Resultantly, a lot of senior citizens, who were tech non-savvy, have been forced in play online bridge mostly on BBO. Although, it may not be fair to generalise, but the present restriction of 2 teams is a stumbling block for making such matches even more popular than these have become during the last 12-14 months. In my personal experience, we have managed to get friends together from across many continents, find a mutually suitable time enjoy the present difficult times by playing together. BBO access has indeed played a huge role in bringing many people a lot of happiness and make productive use of their time.

However, the constraint of a maximum of 8 players at such events is a major hurdle in making team marches become even more popular than presently. Also, I am confident many social bridge players who used to get together at homes earlier and play once/twice a week, after the present social distancing restrictions are lifted all over the world, would prefer playing both face to face only and also a few tables face to face and a few with friends across continents on the BBO platform. This would create a new segment of players, who would be dropping the physical decks of cards and use technology to create a cards-less environment in the long term, which will also assist in decreasing the carbon emission generated in the cards manufacturing by decreasing its requirements.

My suggestion for consideration is to allow Team Matches to have a larger number of tables, say up-to 5 and bring a long term change in the bridge playing community all over the world. This is all the more desirable as BBO no longer issues credentials for free hosting of tournaments to independent hosts by granting them a Virtual Club status. I can appreciate that the load on the system for preservation of history may increase substantially but I am sure BBO can reassess and reduce the period for which it maintains archives of hands played - even a 3 months of such history may be sufficient going forwards.

I would strongly urge the concerned persons to assess/reassess this suggestion in the light changes to our lifestyles that COVID has brought as this world will never go back to the lifestyles that we all had pre-COVID and let BBO bring a new segment of users into its active membership.
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#2 User is offline   TylerE 

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Posted 2021-April-16, 15:46

How would a match with more than 2 teams work? It's a head to head.
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#3 User is offline   panther786 

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Posted 2021-April-17, 03:02

I am not at all knowledgeable at this aspect and I am sure there are skilled persons and experts that BBO has to fine tune this.

Conceptually speaking the format of rounds would have to be introduced in the team matches as it would allow all players/pairs to have played against all players of the other team(s). Under the existing 2 teams structure, any even number of boards may be specified and one could also specify number of rounds so that 1 round would stand for the current structure with N1S1 playing opposite E2W2 on T1 and N2S2 playing opposite E1W1 on T2 whereas 2 rounds would allow rotation of players with 1st round as currently and the 2nd round with N1S1 playing opposite N2S2 on T1 and E2W2 playing opposite E1W1 on T2. This change would enhance the current Team Match experience in my opinion and I understand a few of us are managing this effect manually through 2 team matches back to back.

Extending this approach to 3 teams would require 4 rounds to achieve the same result of each pair having played opposite all pairs of the other 2 teams, for 4 teams it would require 6 rounds and for 5 teams it would require 8 rounds.

In terms of IMP scoring, after all tables have played a deal, an average score is computed and score at a table in the deal is compared with the computed average and IMPs are accordingly awarded as presently, the only change being the comparison is not on the actual scores of 2 tables but the actual score at a table compared to the computed average of actual scores at all tables.

I hope this clarifies the modus operandi on how a team match with more than 2 teams will work as queried by TylerE.
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