FrancescoLR: Sorry I never got a chance to answer before... but will try to jump in here and help a little if I can.

The best thing might be to be around when the tournament is ready to start, and before it starts - kick out any players that are not suppose to be there - since as Vikings said, once it starts, there is really no way to remove anyone. (weather Fencer will not give out a prize to someone would be something you would need to talk to him about.)

One thing you could do is a few hours before a tournament is set to start, look at the list - remove the players, and even change the "start time" to a time that has already past - which would mean that when the tournament start-up script runs within the next hour, the tournament will start... hopefully without anyone who is not suppose to be in there signs in.

Other idea - make it an invite only tournament - and if someone wants to play, have them send you a message where you can invite them

Well there have been 3 new recent games - Camelot, Racing Knights, and the newest Camelot variant - Cam

I've made some newer "fast start - first 5" tournaments (which will start once 5 sign up.)

http://brainking.com/en/Tournaments?trnst=0&u=2560

bobwhoosta: Actually, unless Fencer changed it since he made it so many can join tournaments,

For 1 game per 2 players - it just checks for 5 free game slots (no matter if you only need 3 - or need 10)

For 2 games per 2 players - it just checks for 10 free game slots (no matter if you only need 6 - or need 18)

Again, that is how it use to be.... and I don't remember ever hearing that it changed.

(and of course if you have 10 slots free and 18 games start, you will be 8 games over your limit - which you can play & finish all of them - but can't start anything new until back under the 20 game limit)

Made a few Fast Start - First 5 to sign up Racing Kings tournaments:

http://brainking.com/en/Tournaments?trnst=0&u=2560

Tournaments start as soon as the first 5 sign up! Good Luck

It's been a few months since I had made any of my "Fast Start - First 5 to sign up" tournaments, but I have created a new batch of them.

CHECK THEM OUT HERE

Small tournaments - for 5 players only. Once 5 players sign up, the tournament will start!

Marshmud: And like MadMonkey kind of said, here is how I pick what tournaments to run:

1. Requests - if people request things - then it "moves" up my list. (request in private message the best since I will move it to a "tournament" folder and when i get around to making them, I can easily look at the requests without having to remember which boards/games the requests were made on.

2. How long since last one started/ended. If a game hasn't had one for a long time - it is higher on my list. (with of course popular games also get moved up in the list since people like to play the game) - try to make it a good balance.

3. Balance of type of games. For example, Spider Line4 was a game I might had done with my last batch, but I wanted to get Connect6 in there since it was even longer since we had one of those then the Spider Line4. And when I say Balance, I try to get different types - a gammon, a line, a checkers, a chess, an odd-ball, etc... hopefully a good mix to give everyone something to play.

But again - suggestions are always welcomed. In addition to game type, feel free to suggestion (1) team size and (2) time per move.

I'm very impressed that the "NO DAYS OFF" tournaments started in July for Backgammon & Pente have already completed.... hopefully something that the "fast players" on this site also like.

Marshmud: Shhhh... don't tell anyone, but unless some really cool game comes out soon, Spider Line4 will most likely be the next site team tournament I make.

I don't really mind tournaments being created far in advance... since you might want to have a "BIG" New Year 2009 tournament and is nice to start trying to get people to sign up now. (and easy enough to not go to the "next" tab on the tournament page)

I would like to see the "past due" time that is currently set to 30 days dropped to 7 days. By 7 days past the deadline, the tournament create could always change the start date to something not past-due if they don't want it deleted. To see almost the first whole page of past-due tournaments is a pain in my opinion. 7 days is plenty of time.

As a person who has at times made many tournaments at once, I would be OK with a limit of tournaments one can create as long as that limit was something like 20 or 25 - since I could easily make 20 "fast start" tournaments today, and by tomorrow 75% of them will be running

saeco: There was one that started back in December..... yea, December was a many months ago, but with over 100 games on this site, one of the goals of team tournaments is a good variety. But with backgammon being the most popular game, another cubed backgammon team tournament will be back around soon enough.

Brian1971: I agree - I think the current 30 days is too long (and the hacked 255 days is way too much, and that needs to be deleted now).

5 days extra is long enough. That is at that time, if the tournament creator needs more time, it is simple enough to just change the start date to allow more time.

But until Fencer does something about it, the small fix would be if you are looking for new tournaments - there is a filter above the tournaments to look for tournaments created in the last X days.

(but I and others all think that 30 days is way too much. 5 is perfect - maybe 7 the limit on public tournaments to give an extra week.... with maybe 30 for private fellowship tournaments. That would be my suggestion.)

coan.net presents:BIG KNIGHT FIGHT II
Starts Friday

Plus this time, it will be "a random position with each opponent" - so not so many of the same looking games!

Join now - should be fun!

I really like the game Knight Fight, but could only find "small" tournaments - so I created a BIG tournament - which hopefully we can get many to sign up for it:

coan.net presents: BIG KNIGHT FIGHT

Starts in only a few days!

joshi tm: I personally think 29 days over is WAY too much. 5 is usually plenty (maybe 10) - I mean if you don't get enough by that time, the tournament creator gets a message about it not starting and simple enough to change the date if needed.

I would love to see the option of +29 removed to public tournaments. Maybe a overdue limit of 29 for fellowship tournaments, but only a limit of 7 days (week) for public tournaments would be what I would like to see.

Did you know there is even a newer Checkers game.

I've created a couple "Fast Start - First 5" tournaments for Dameo, along with most of the other new games on this site.

Want to try the new game out - CHECK OUT MY TOURNAMENT LIST HERE!

Most all the new games are here, along with a couple of "favourites" that some had thought I was ignoring, so I included those also.

Have Fun

Oh, quick rules for Dameo: This game (created by Christian Freeling) is one of the most modern Checkers variants. Pawns move forward or diagonally forward, either one space to a vacant square or jumping over a solid line of friendly pawns to a vacant space (linear movement). Promoted pieces (queens) move any number of spaces horizontally, vertically or diagonally. Capture moves are allowed only vertically and horizontally, and the capture rules are the same as in International Checkers.

I have some "Fast Start - First 5" tournaments for many of the new games up on the tournament board:

Fast Start Tournament List

Including:

Knightmate Chess

International Checkers

Russian Checkers

Canadian Checkers

Thai Checkers

Brazilian Checkers

Big Jungle

Knight Fight

And others - go and check them out! The start once 5 players sign up!

WOW - With so many new games and such, it was hard to pick which games to make site team tournaments out of. Sorry I did not get to all the suggestions given to me, but I still have all the suggestions and will try to get them in next time.

Here are the new site team tournaments:

May 2008 Mojo's Triple Dice Poker 6

May 2008 Plopper's Plakoto

May 2008 Pinchy's Cheversi

May 2008 Strangles Frog Legs

May 2008 Snowball's Cheshire Cat Chess

May 2008 Stampy's Knight Fight

5 of the 6 have never had a site team tournament. Cheversi has had a site team tournament before, but did you know there was a recent rule change to make this game more even? So if you have not played Cheversi for awhile - well now is the time to start playing again.

Oh, and a bonus game. Can anyone figure out where I got the 6 names for these tournaments? (Stampy, Pinchy, Strangles, Plopper, Snowball, and Mojo)

Have Fun!

Oh, and don't forget - in less then 2 days, a PRIZE Frog Legs tournaments is to start:

coan.net new game Frog Legs PRIZE

I have been trying to keep up having new "Fast Start - First 5" tournaments for all the new games.

These are small tournaments for 5 players, that will start once 5 players sign up.

Available Tournament List HERE

All the new games:

Cheshire Cat Chess (I'm guessing these rules: http://www.chessvariants.org/boardrules.dir/cheshir.html)

Parachute Lines of Action (LoA) (I'm guessing these rules: http://www.boardspace.net/loa/english/variations.html)

Cheshire Cat Lines of Action (LoA) (rules on page above also)

Fevga

Plakoto

Knight Fight

and even a couple of Big Jungle

Come and try out some new games! Best time to play while most others don't know what they are doing either!

I've created some new "Fast start" tournaments for all the new games.

Go and join some - lets try all these new games out!

Small tournaments - start when 5 players sign up.

http://brainking.com/en/Tournaments?trnst=0&u=2560

I have also created a few of the "fast start - first 5" tournament for Plakoto - which will start once 5 players have joined.

http://brainking.com/en/Tournaments?trnst=0&u=2560

I have 2 prize tournaments starting soon.

coan.net 5 YEARS on BK Frog Finder - STARTS in less then 12 hourse

coan.net new game Frog Legs PRIZE - Starts on Leap Day, Feb 29th

Have Fun!

rod03801: 6D versions (6 Dice Version)

Same game, use 6 dice instead of 5 - and a few different categories:

4 of a kind – have 4 of the same dice, sum of ALL dice
5 of a kind – have 5 of the same dice, sum of ALL dice

Full House (2+3) – have 2 of one, plus 3 of another (2-2-5-5-5-x) = 25 points
Full Car (2+2+2) – have 2 of 3 different values (1-1-3-3-6-6) = 40 Points
Full Hotel (3+3) – have 3 of one, plus 3 of another (1-1-1-4-4-4) = 50 points

Large Strait – have 5 dice in order (1-2-3-4-5 or 2-3-4-5-6) = 45 Points
Full Strait – have 6 dice in order (1-2-3-4-5-6) = 60 points

6 of a kind – have all 6 of the same dice = 75 points

Gone are the 3 of a kind, and small strait

YEA - new games.

Check out some of the "fast start" tournaments that should start really soon:

http://brainking.com/en/Tournaments?trnst=0&u=2560

NEW GAMES - YEA! Way to go Fencer!

I set up 5 fast start Frog Legs tournaments - which should start once 5 players sign up. So if you are interested in trying out the new game, go join one/some now.

Tournament List: http://brainking.com/en/Tournaments?trnst=0&u=2560

Starting in a few days:

ALL games for dummies(under 1500&unrated) #20

This tournament is for players rated 1500 or under --AND-- unrated players.

This is a GREAT way to learn new games - or play games without being killed by the expert players.

In the next couple of days, I will go through and remove players who are WAY over 1500 to keep it fair for everyone... so don't worry if you see someone rated 2000+, they should be removed here soon.

Good luck to all:

ALL games for dummies(under 1500&unrated) #20

To celebrate my 5 years on BrainKing (in a couple of months), I have created a Frog Finder tournament with a prize!

coan.net 5 YEARS on BK Frog Finder

Good luck to all!

TarantinoFan: Yes, once a team tournament starts - all games will continue until the end (all next rounds will start also) - even if the person leave the fellowship team.

I believe they have to stay on the team until it starts - but once it starts, it will let them leave to join any other fellowship team they want.

TarantinoFan: There is no guarantee, but it is a pretty safe bet that many of the "unpopular" games will have between 4-6 players, while the more popular games will most likely have between 7-10 players.

So Backgammon, Ludo, Frog Finger, Triple Dice Poker - mostly likely will always be around 8 (give or take a few)

Plus members can always leave and go back to a team after a tournament starts - for example, for Ludo my Private Den fellowship snatched 3 players from another fellowships team to enter the tournament... but I would guess (and welcome) then going back to their original team if they wanted.

- - - - - - - - -

It had been talked about before - possible letting fellowships enter multiple teams, but that might hurt some of the smaller fellowships - that is for example, my Gammon Cube fellowship easily had 25 players on the Backgammon team before the team tournaments started - if I would have been able to enter all of them in multiple teams, a few others fellowships may not have been able to gather teams.

I haven't been making as many tournaments lately, and it seems like whenever I turn around someone will ask me if I'm still doing them. Well there are some more Fast Start - First 5 to sign start up right now to start over the next 5 days.

List here: http://brainking.com/en/Tournaments?trnst=0&u=2560


Also, I have created 2 other "Special" tournaments:

ALL games for dummies(under 1500&unrated) #20 - This tournament is for anyone who is UNRATED in a game, or has UNDER 1500 BKR rating.

Great way to learn new games!

Great way to play games you might not be very good at without an expert ready to kill you in 3 moves.

Starts in about 1 month. Before the tournament starts, I will go through and try to remove anyone who is WAY over the 1500 limit since ratings can change between now & then.

Sign up here: ALL games for dummies(under 1500&unrated) #20


coan.net 5 YEARS on BK Frog Finder - My 5 year anniversary on BrainKing. This does not start for another 2 months, but it is with my game (Frog Finder), and hopefully we can get a lot of people to join this.

Good Luck to all!

rednaz23: I have thought about that also - but the issue with that is since a fellowship can only have 1 random team, for example if there is an "all game" random tournament, my gammon cube fellowship probable would not get a random team together - but if there is a random gammon site tournament, players may already be another fellowships team. (another example, if there was a random boats tournament & a random gammon tournament - I would have to debate which fellowship team to join - a gammon fellowship or boat fellowship)

Anyway, point being it could be hard for some fellowships to get teams together - that is would be very hard to do more then 1 random tournament in the same "batch" of tournaments.... but spread apart to give time for players to switch fellowship teams - yup, great idea.

Pioneer54: Yea, I remember that as an issue. May I ask what browser you are using? Firefox, IE, etc..? It works for me - Windows XP with Firefox browser

Pioneer54: When creating a tournament, you can set it anywhere between 5 and 20.

Taking a look at an already created tournament, I see the option to change it from anywhere between 5 and 20 (even though some changes may or may not need to be approved before they actually take - I can not remember since I've never tried to change an already created tournament.)

Bullets9mm: People play at different rates. Some only make a move every few days, some are on many times a day.

Best thing to do is to try to join games with short time limits. There are many on this site who like to play shorter time limits - while many like longer time limits. Best to try to find games with time limits which best suit your needs.

Tigger: Can you take me out if you start it early? With 2 days & no vacation, I will be gone for a couple of days before that and would hate to time out because it is started early.... so if you do start it early, just remove me would be more helpful. Thanks!

joshi tm: I will have to find the game suggestion - think I posted it on the battleboat board before, but would love to see a variant where the player gets to choose their game set before the start. That is instead of each player getting (1) 5 boat, (1) 4 boat, (2) 3 boats, and (1) 2 boat - they can choose different things, like a 4 square platform piece, and other possible odd-shaped pieces. Each player will have the same total amount of spaces being used, but each player does not know what type of pieces they are looking for.

Snoopy: Dark Battleboat just started - and Battleboats Plus start in the batch before that. What we need are more Battleboat Variants to rotate between!

Oh, and for everyone - feel free to send me suggestions for team tournaments at any time. Me and Tanein take turns creating them each month, and I try to keep track of the suggestions made to me - and try to mix it up between the more popular games, and some of the not-so popular games.

There are 6 new team tournaments that will be starting at the first of the year.

Backgammon Race - Hasn't been a team tournament since a LONG time ago.

Halma 10x10 - 30th most active game, and never had a TT before

Ludo - One of the more popular games - a bigger 10 player team

Cloning Backgammon - had a few requests for a non-cubed TT

Triple Dice Poker - Another more popular game, and a bigger 10 player team

Atomic Chess - Been a long time since one for this game.

So run to your favourite fellowship and get ready your teams. Set to start at the first of the year, after all the fun holidays.

WellyWales: As MadMonkey said, it should not happen..... but there are probable ways that it might happen. If you see it, you should let Fencer know right away - or at least the Captain of the team they are not suppose to be on to remove them from their team.... since it will hurt them the most if they are removed after the tournament starts and they play all their games down 1 player with an automatic lose and such.

Papa: Actually now that I think about it, I'm 100% sure that it is fixed - since I remember when Fencer introduced the game, the first tournament had all the same boards - and I quickly had Fencer delete that tournament & games - he fixed it so it would not even pay attention to that setting, and every one since that is random for each game - ignoring that setting.

trohat: Even though that setting says that, for certain games (Like Frog Finder), it is NOT the same board - no matter what that setting says.

That setting is mostly for the random-placed chess games, the volcanoes on the espionage games - and black spaces on pah-tuh and such.

The Frog Finder should always be random from board to board.

A set of team tournaments is set to start in about a week.

After they start, I will make a set of new ones (to start around the 1st of the year.)

I have a few in mind, but if you have any ideas or suggestions on what kind of site team tournaments you would like to see - PLEASE send me a private message and let me know - any suggestions - games, time frames, team sizes, even tournament names. If you could send it in a private message, then if I don't use it this time - I can archive the suggestions and hopefully use them at some point.

aNiMaL.: I like Frog Finder

Plus after 12,000+ games, it is very even for player 1 and player 2

Red - won 6118 games (49.93% of games)
Blue - won 6109 games (49.85% of games)

You can't get much closer to an evenly matched game.

srnity: Opps. See what happens when I don't create tournament enough - I get rusty. (forgot to change the frog finder type to Dice Chess.)

I will delete the 2 below - and 2 new ones with Dice Chess have already been created! Thanks for letting me know.

http://brainking.com/en/Tournaments?trnst=0&u=2560

joshi tm: Co-op variant information: http://coan.net/sweeper2.html (Variant #2)

I would love to see that too. It would be the same game, but the strategy on how to play would be completely different - forcing players to take more chances and such.

HEY FENCER - Frog Finder is one of the top 10 games on the site (active games going) - The Co-op variant would make a VERY nice addition to the site.....

OK, after a break of creating my "Fast Start - First 5" tournaments - you can stop asking me if I'm going to make them again - because I am: These are small tournaments - limit of 5 people. Once 5 sign up, they start. Simple enough.

Check out list here: coan.net's Open Tournament List


ALSO, I've created a special Birthday Tournament for myself:

coan.net BIRTHDAY FROG FINDER

Signup for that only only until October 19th - so sign up quick! Should be fun!

Oceans Apart: As a side note if you have not removed the team yet - even if someone is no longer in the fellowship - if they are already signed up for a team tournament - and is OK with playing it for your team - you can keep them signed up even though they are no longer in your fellowship.

A reminder - in about 2 day will start the 19th Tournament for Dummies!

For players rated 1500 or under

For players UNRATED

GREAT way to try out new games or games you are not good at - without being "killed" by experts

Go and sign up - great way to also practice for upcoming team tournaments!

►ALL games for dummies (under 1500 & unrated) #19

Family Man: If if you are unrated, you still have a rating - it is just not shown until you completed 4 games.

Once you complete 4 games, it will show the rating chart with the first 4 games on it so after you get a rating, you will then see you started with a high rating.

New site team tournaments - for Fellowship members

Me & Tanein will try to create 6 new team tournaments to start every month. (Probable take turns - each creating 6 every other month).

I have just created some to start around November 1st (and decided to keep a "movie" theme of names of some of my all-time favorite movies):

Groundhog Day - Nackgammon - 8 players

Back to the Future - Linetris - 5 players

Ghostbusters - Go - 5 players

Beverly Hills Cop - Checkers - 7 players

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back - Dark Chess - 6 players

For this batch - Nackgammon is the main gammon game which has been longest since last team tournament.
Dark Chess, Go, & Linetris never had a team tournament before
Checkers - only 1 team tournament before, very long time ago.

I'm always open to suggestions on what to create - as time goes on, I will try to mix in different times, maybe a "fast" 1 or 2 day game, some cubed gammon, etc... Please feel free to send me a PM with any suggestions.

Have fun!