Backgammon Online

06-May-2013
22:37 PDT

r4zzm4t4zz and I have been chatting and have come up with an idea of getting some of the top ranked players to have a race from the bottom to the top of the ladder.

We have all been at the top of the ladder at one stage or another so this challenge might be quite interesting.

What do you think???
Are you in for the challenge??
What rules will we put in place?? Can we challenge each other on the way to the top????

I think this forum is the perfect place to discuss this.

06-May-2013
22:47 PDT

My apologies if you didn't get a message from me - alerting you to this post (Race to the Top).

There is a limit on how many text messages one can send out per day.

I didn't leave anybody out intentionally.

Please feel free to advise whomever you want to about this post.

07-May-2013
00:22 PDT

I first read this as from the top to the bottom...which I believe I've done already by going on vacation.  

Fine by me...my ego is not as closely tied to my position on the ladders as some seem to be!

07-May-2013
03:23 PDT

Great idea, sounds like fun. How would we get to the bottom in the first place, wait until we drop there or create another username?

As far as rules, how about we adopt a 'penelope pistop/wacky races' approach, i.e. anything goes?

How can I see who else is in the forum?

07-May-2013
05:04 PDT

I like the idea of having some sort of competition between the players who reached the top. The challenge with climbing the ladder is, IMHO, in that different players have different amount of time to play and that's very important in reaching the top. If you could spend say 4 hours per day to play it would increase your chances of reaching the top faster than someone who plays only 1 hour a day.
Maybe we could organize a tournament for the top players. Having played with all of you I know we play fast so the tournament won't be going on for months like the regular ones.

For example, we can have a knock-out tournament, say 16 players are split into 8 pairs by using their rating (#1 plays #16, #2 plays #15, etc.) and they play 5 games. The winner goes to the next round. We can post results in this thread.
Or we can create groups like they do in regular tournaments and play 3 games with every opponent with say 2 top players moving to the next round.
What do you think?

07-May-2013
10:11 PDT

In order to get to the bottom we would have to quit the ladder and then sign up again. I'm not sure that I want to do that again. Now that summer is here, I find I have less time to play. It takes all the time I have just to try and stay up at the top.

I would be interested in special tournaments for top players. Not sure how that would be organized. I guess the zoo management would have to set that up?

07-May-2013
15:00 PDT

No, I was thinking about us, the top players, organizing it, we don't really need zoo management involvement

07-May-2013
21:44 PDT

Hi Blokhin2
How would we keep track of the scores and have them posted for the top players to see?

08-May-2013
00:05 PDT

I like blokhins idea of setting up a tournament knock out style, best 2 out of 3 against each player. How do we set it up? Where are the top players? I have 40-50 above me and don't recall playing any of them except maybe 3-4.

08-May-2013
03:26 PDT

Hi Whisk and Abriscoe,
We can use this forum to post the results.
For example we have 4 players participating, so we have 2 pairs playing until someone has 2 wins. Once the winner is determined he/she posts the results here for everyone to see.
Once the results from the second pair are known they post the results as well so everyone will know who plays in the final.
We can also have a rotating tournament host who would be responsible for tracking the progress of the tournament, putting all the results together, etc.

As for the top players question - I like Sideshowbob's idea - anyone who've reached the top of the ladder. Original message was sent to such players by Sideshowbob. All we need is 8-16 players to make it fast and manageable.