War At Sea
PBeM Tournament
Commenced March 2007
Concluded September 2008
Kevin Shewfelt
Assistant GM's:
Bruce Monnin
Nick Markevich
Tournament Progress:
Current Standings
Swiss Round 1
Swiss Round 2
Swiss Round 3
Swiss Round 4
Swiss Round 5
Round 5 Finishers
Single Elimination Phase
Area Ratings Mar 1, 2007
Avalon Hill
Dice & Disputed Rolls
Rules Clarifications
Tournament History:
2004 WAS BPA
2003-2004 Swiss Rounds
2003-2004 Finals
War at Sea Ladder and
Tournament Index
Victory in the Pacific
PBeM Competitions
Welcome to the 6th Boardgame Player's Association PBeM tournament for Avalon Hill's War at Sea. The tournament format will be similar in many ways to the Swiss elimination format used at the WBC: there will be five Swiss rounds, with the top eight scoring players advancing to the single elimination quarterfinals.
To be eligible to enter the tournament, players must be members of the BPA associate level or higher for 2007. See link for details on joining.
Previous winners of the tournament include:
Vince Meconi Championship I, 2000
Ed Menzel Championship II, 2001
Jonathan Lockwood Championship III, 2003
Don Greenwood Championship IV, 2004
Andy Gardner Championship V, 2006
Darren Kilfara Championship VI, 2008
Tournament Format
The Tournament is similar to that used at the WBC wherein there will be five Swiss rounds followed by a Single Elimination Phase of the top eight scoring players qualifying for a single elimination bracket. 2nd Edition rules are used with the Official Rules Clarifications.
Two key differences from the WBC format are:
1) The Allies win tie games in the Single Elimination Phase.
2) In determining sides and bidding, the higher seeded player announces their preference and the lower-seeded player either accept the opposing side or begin bidding for the mutually preferred side.
A time limit will be set for each round of 10 weeks. If a game is running past the time limit, I will ask the two players to mutually agree on the final outcome of the game. If they cannot agree, I will have the two assistant GM's and myself adjudicate the game. However, after making our decision, I will then deduct 1 VP from each player for slow play. Therefore, please show consideration for your fellow gamers and play at a reasonable speed with a view toward completing your game by the deadline. Of course, if we can all finish a round before the dealine, I will endeavour to pull forward the start date of the next round.
See the Dice & Dice Disputes section for advice on how to deal with PBEM dice rolling procedures.
Swiss Phase
Players will initially be seeded by their AREA rating (as of March 1, 2007). The top seeded players will play the bottom seeded players in the first round. In subsequent rounds, players will be matched against players with similar records and victory point totals. During the 5th and final Swiss round, all players with a mathematical chance of advancing to the final will be placed in one pool. As has been the case at the WBC, this typically means that a player must have 30 points in order to be eligible to be placed in the 5th round pool. However, this does not mean that the players who are excluded from the pool do not play round 5. On the contrary, everyone is encouraged to play all 5 rounds for their enjoyment of the game. This rule was adopted at the WBC to avoid players negotiating draws in the 5th round that would guarantee each a spot in the Single Elimination Phase.
Victory points will be awarded as follows:
A 2 or more POC victory is worth 10 VP to the winner and 0 VP to the loser.
A less than 2 POC victory is worth 8 VP to the winner and 2 VP to the loser.
A tie is worth 5 VP to each player.
A Strength of Schedule record will be maintained for each player during the Swiss Phase which will be used to determine player ranking should more than 8 players qualify to enter the Single Elimination Phase. The Strength of Schedule for a player is calculated by taking the total number of VP’s each players opponents have been awarded and dividing that sum by the total number of games played by all of that player’s opponents. Strength of schedule calculations will be updated at the end of each Swiss round.
Example: You have played three different opponents. Those three players have each played 3 games each. Player A has earned 15 VP. Player B has earned 10 VP. Player C has earned 30 VP.
Thus, the total VP of your opponents is 55VP divided by 9 games played = SoS of 6.1111
In subsequent Swiss Rounds, an effort will be made to not pair players with those they have already played if possible. However, if there are only two players with 40 VP going into Swiss Round 5, for example, then they will have to play each other.
Bidding for Sides
Players should determine sides by having the higher seeded player announce their preference and the lower-seeded player either accept the opposing side or begin bidding for the mutually preferred side. Bids should be in non-negative multiples of 0.5 POC. A beginning bid of 0 is allowed.
Bear in mind when bidding that players are given a number when seeded for the tournament: i.e. 1 is the highest seeded player; 2 is a lower seeded player and would therefore announce side preference/bid after the higher seeded player has declared.
After determining sides, players will let the GM know the final bid and whether they have previously played an AREA-rated game of WAS against their opponent before.
Single Elimination Phase
In the Single Elimination Phase, the Allies will win tie games as per the standard rules. Players advancing to the final phase should consider this carefully when bidding for sides.
8 players with the highest VP’s will advance to the Single Elimination Phase. If more there is a tie among a group of players for qualification, then the Strength of Schedule will be used as a further ranking (highest is best). A hard bracket will be used for the Phase with the pairings organized as follows:
The quarterfinals will pair 1&8, 2&7, 3&6, and 4&5.
The winner of 1&8 will play the winner of 4&5 and the winner of 2&7 will play the winner of 3&6.