[candybar]

Today I signed up for a tournament with a friend who wanted to play it.

It was 16 boards, 60 table limit, 2 non-playing TDs, and no special “rules” posted. Seemed like the kind of tourney that might be tolerable even to me.

It turned into a horror story -- listen while I tell you what happened ….

Neither of the two TDs were online at any time during the entire tournament. By the end of the second board, there were 13 red players in the 56 tables, and none on the Sub list.

At my table, two Japanese players were conversing in Japanese (to me it looked like #*$&@^$(#*#*(&) and refusing to explain bids. I called the TD and got a message “no director available (5)”.

I checked the lobby and there were two Yellows online (I’ll call them Yellow1 and Yellow2), both “away” status. I sent private messages to both, but no response.

By the end of board 3, there were 17 red players including entire tables. Finally Yellow2 responded. I told him the situation and offered to be made TD so I could at least sub the missing players.

He came to the tourney, subbed the red players, then logged off and left us without any TD again. Yellow1 never did respond.

By the time we were playing board 6, there were again about a dozen red players.

Finally, a third Yellow (called him/her Yellow3) who was logged in as invisible came to the tournament and asked for the TD. I told Yellow3 there wasn’t one, and again offered to help. Yellow3 made me the TD, announced to the entire tourney that I would be the Substitute TD to help out, then left to play at a MBC table.

I then subbed what turned out to be another 18 red players. I suspect many of them had just given up and quit. It took about 2 minutes to replace all those players, and by the time I got done with the sub’ing, I had had to ignore 8 TD calls that wanted me to come to the table without giving reasons (remember I was a player in this tournament, not intended to be the TD, and could not go to other tables).

I was actually kinda proud of getting through all that quickly and efficiently, while trying to play a hand besides.

I made public announcements to the tourney explaining the situation and that I could not come to the tables, and we managed to muddle through the rest of the tournament with me doing constant sub’ing from my chair and ignoring all other TD calls. One pair wanted an adjustment, but I could not even see the hand because (I presume) it was from before I became the TD.

Then the tournament finally ended. As the tables were finishing, 3 players contacted me, and THIS is what prompted me to make this long forum post. I will give all 3 conversations, separately although they were actually intermixed.

------------
Player 1: thanks for subbing the TD!
Me: You are welcome, and thanks for caring J)
------------
Player 2: you have to do some learning before directin sir!
Me: try to remember that I was substituted in by a Yellow because the scheduled TDs did not show up
Me: then try to remember that I was playing, so I could not come to any tables
Player 2: take classes with lusobrasil
Player 2: well yesterday they said that td should not play
Me: yes, I am one who said it
Player 2: no calabres said it
Me: then try to remember that I am a certified acbl director with 30 years of experience
[ok I admit I was getting a little miffed at him by now]
Player 2: any way you let us wait more tan 1/2 hour you think that is fair?
Me: no, I did not. I sub’d all the red players within 2 minutes of being made TD by the Yellow
Player 2: well we didn’t see your experience in this tournament
Player 2: if Td is not here you should cancel and thats it
Me: you saw nothing except a PLAYER who agreed to try and help out when the TDs didn’t show up, one that a yellow respected enough to allow it
[ok I’m at Category 3 miffed now]
Player 2: well then you have to announce that i have an option to stay or not
Player 2: i think you had to cancel
Player 2: our time is as valuable as yours
Me: Well, don’t worry, with people like you around, I won’t bother to try and help again
[reached Category 5 miffed]
------------
Player 3: sry but won’t play anymore your tourney….too slow and without TD
Me: I was substituted in by a Yellow because the TDs did not show up
Player 3: ohhhhh… sry
Me: I was simply playing in the tourney and agreed to try and help
Player 3: so then don’t pay any attention to my stupied words
[at least Player 3 understood what had happened after the fact]
------------

SO, I renew my old pleas for

1. Better TD software
2. Better selection of TDs
2. Education for TDs

and point out that such excellent presentations as lusobrasil did yesterday DO have an impact. If I had deliberately run a tourney in the crappy way I had to run this one perforce, I would have deserved the things that were said.

And Player 2 is probably right, I should have kept quiet and let the tourney be cancelled.

[uday]

Please let abuse@ know who the TD was, so we can do something about TDs like this

[inquiry]

The BBO quickly allows essentially anyone (well not really anyone) to be a Free-TD (run free tournament).. the reason is to provide as many free tournaments as possible to the members. They are also quick to remove the TD-rights from TD's who abuse the privelidge to be a director.

They even allow "playing directors". I happen to agree with lusobrasil and a few others who voiced serious concerns about playing directors yesterday. If I was in charge of saying who could and who could not direct, I would say playing directors would be limited to tourney of 8 tables or less.

If I had been online when this thing happened, and you had contacted me, I would not have given you an option to takeover if it was a untimed tournament. (I suspect it was untimed due to the description of number of fully red tables). I would have made an announcement that the tourney was hopelessly fowled and had to be cancelled. But then, I have seen the kind of problems you described. IF it was a clocked torunrmanent, I would have looked to see what round was on. If it was early round, again I would have cancelled. If it was a late round, I would have directed myself or asked for a sub director.

[inquiry]

uday, on Mar 13 2006, 01:04 PM, said:

Please let abuse@ know who the TD was, so we can do something about TDs like this

I am pretty sure this is already reported by yellow3,,,

[rwylee]

candybar, on Mar 13 2006, 12:56 PM, said:

And Player 2 is probably right, I should have kept quiet and let the tourney be cancelled.

I have done the same thing like 5+ times, three were club tournaments (same TD), some were missing TDs and playing TD with over 30 tables.

I usually try to help whenever I am available, and when a yellow is online and able to reply. One time when I asked help, a yellow (not vugraphxx) told me he/she only takes care of vugraph issues and has no power over that. Other yellows were on BRB and kibbing tables.
Hmm... please let us know who has the power and would handle that. I wont bother the rest, or just stay away from it.

Quote

lusobrasil: TDs are not in a tournament to be smarter or idolatrated by players
lusobrasil: They are in a tourney to administer it and be fair and polite to all.
lusobrasil: TDs should ALWAYS give players a chance to be polite too...
lusobrasil: but when a player is not, then the TD can act on an (almost) equivalent plan.

We need both quality players and TDs to run a smooth tourney.

[pigpenz]

rwylee, on Mar 13 2006, 01:24 PM, said:

We need both quality players and TDs to run a smooth tourney.

yes, but you do need to remember that none of those running the free games are doing it for anything.

[sceptic]

the last tourney I ran

I was in a tourney with a playing TD (as it turned out there were 3 TD's 2 playing and 1 missing, it started to go badly as no call were being answered and I could see from the comments to the Tourney thats things were not going well, I sugested to the playing TD that he subsitute me out of the game and I would help him direct.

I ran the tourney on my own (so it seemed)(to a fashion) to try and help out, I do not believe there were many yllows available and I know that they were aware and being actively helpful I may add.

The creator of the tourney had not run many and I can't remeber how many tables there were but it was an obscene amount for playing TD's (maybe Ben can check the amount of tables as he seems to be able to do anything

I would also like to make a comment before someone trys to shoot me down in flames for not being a TD of note (i.e. I am not ok with Bridge Laws, but would like to improve thats why I watched the training session the other day), but I am competant to manage the mechanics of a tourney.

I believe everyone should have the right to run free tourneys and I applaud BBO for allowing us to do this.

I would like to see someone (who suggested this sometime ago) to do beginner director training for directors.

I also think Ben is right that playing TD's should be limited to a small amount of tables ( this enables small groups of friends to play together when a team game is restricted to 8 players, so I think playing TD's are a good thing in the right context.

I also think that all new, possibly just all dierctors should be limited to 30 tables max, maybe work on lusobrasil's suggested limitations.

I have another suggestion for running tourneys, I think I suggested it before so I will do it again.

1/. you have main directors (this is for bridge law etc etc)

2/. Sub directors (those that want to learn under the guidance of a competant director (maybe access privileges to follow the director and see all the chat that occours between the main director and the players) i.e a mentee

3/. Host, helpers or controllers (call them what you will) but people that are specifically called for red dot and connection issues, subbing and the like. (future mentees, I am sure there are a lot of people that would like to learn from a good TD

I am not a programmer so I have no idea how hard this would be, but it would mean changing the call butons for a director or a host (see 3/.) and a limit set of the number of tables one director can run

If none of this seems viable, how about, the TD that sets a Tourney up and fails to show is auto banned for 4 weeks or what ever is considered fair , but has the option to regain privallages after an satisfactory explanation.

[jdulmage]

Well, fact of the matter is that a TD should only become a TD if:

1) They are an ACBL (or some other major organization) certified director.

2) They are given access to a "quick study" guide of how to do adjustments, subs, make games, etc.

3) Given a brief online exam covering "quick study" guide. If they choose to cheat, let them, they will be caught eventually when they don't know what the hell to do in a heated situation.

We should not just allow anyone and everyone to be a TD. This is why I stopped being one.

[jikl]

Whilst I see your point, a person who posts here regularly had virtually no experience and has become one of the better directors through exposure to these forums and through constantly asking advice. However this person is different, they are humble. Many TDs are on an ego trip. Instead of black and white, there is gray. (damn this is hard without naming the person)

Let me put it bluntly, there are people that want to learn, and there are people that think they already know everything. Who would you want to be directed by?

Sean

[sceptic]

Quote

Well, fact of the matter is that a TD should only become a TD if:

1) They are an ACBL (or some other major organization) certified director.

That is not very BBO spirited of you, what about the FUN element of bridge and the fact most people that use bridgebase do so for a bit of social interaction as opposed to Playing bridge to the most rigid rules imaginable.

I think if you had your way JD (with that statement) there would be no free tourneys and I am sure that some of the pay tourneys would have to shut down also.

That would leave tourneys only run by ACBL directors. so we would all end up paying and playing for points that are worthless to anyone but an american point collector

I actually beleive that a lot of people play in the free or pay tourneys as it is a better way to play a stable game than taking a flyer in the main lounge, not as many table hoppers.

[jdulmage]

sceptic, on Mar 15 2006, 03:00 AM, said:

Quote

Well, fact of the matter is that a TD should only become a TD if:

1) They are an ACBL (or some other major organization) certified director.

That is not very BBO spirited of you, what about the FUN element of bridge and the fact most people that use bridgebase do so for a bit of social interaction as opposed to Playing bridge to the most rigid rules imaginable.

I think if you had your way JD (with that statement) there would be no free tourneys and I am sure that some of the pay tourneys would have to shut down also.

That would leave tourneys only run by ACBL directors. so we would all end up paying and playing for points that are worthless to anyone but an american point collector

I actually beleive that a lot of people play in the free or pay tourneys as it is a better way to play a stable game than taking a flyer in the main lounge, not as many table hoppers.

A bridge game that is chaotic and uncontrolled is not my idea of a FUN bridge game as you call it.

If you want FUN bridge, go play in the church league. The discussion here is how the TD vanished, not about FUN. I keep capitalizing it because you think it's more important than the game itself, which it's not.

My idea of fun is a well controlled bridge event that is both social and competitive. I would not play in a field full of yahoos, on the other end, I would not play in a field where nobody was social.

There is nothing wrong with getting these TDs certified. Certification can be as high as ACBL or WBF level or as low as a brief examination ran by BBO themselves to make sure the TD is fit and capable.

Has nothing to do with fun, socializing or competitiveness. So you pulled that out of thin air. All I know is if I paid to be in that tournament and all of those people were disconnecting and there was no TD, I would have demanded my money back. Lastly, in no way, shape, or form would any of the tournaments be shut down with my suggestions. Again, pulled out of thin air.