[softcoder]

In an effort to get more young people into bridge, I am thinking of running a tournament for the local colleges and universities.
I was wondering whether it would be possible to use BBO to run this tournament.
I think I can assume that each player would have access to his/her own computer.
The team from college 'A' would probably be located at site A and the team from college 'B' would be located at site B.

1. Would I need to make arrangements for a 'proctor' to be present at each site to prevent cheating? (The proctor need not be a director I don't think)

2. Does BBO have 'rooms' or features which would facilitate having this kind of match (open room/closed room etc.)

3. Could I act as director from yet another third location? Could I 'direct' more than one match at once?

4. Does BBO have features which would minimize cheating? If so what are they?

5. Has anyone ever done such a thing before ? If so what sort of Conditions of Contest did you find beneficial?

Thanks,
softcoder

[jjbrr]

Hi softcoder,

As a young player, I and other juniors appreciate your effort to get more young players in the game. Please let us all know if this tournament is a success. I'm sure if it is, there will be plenty of other teachers out there looking to replicate it!

The United States Bridge Federation has recently started running its trials for junior teams at least partly as online competitions. For the past few years, it's been matchpoints, but the ACBL also still runs a swiss team format for the collegiate tournament to determine teams to compete in the Summer NABC.

You can see the USBF's COC for the online trials here or visit usbf.org to look around some more. I also assume there is an ACBL COC for the collegiates, but I don't know for sure and I don't know off the top of my head where to look for it (probably somewhere on acbl.org).

[mgoetze]

softcoder, on 2011-May-25, 16:21, said:

1. Would I need to make arrangements for a 'proctor' to be present at each site to prevent cheating? (The proctor need not be a director I don't think)

Up to you...

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2. Does BBO have 'rooms' or features which would facilitate having this kind of match (open room/closed room etc.)

No.

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3. Could I act as director from yet another third location? Could I 'direct' more than one match at once?

3a. Yes.
3b. Yes, if BBO support grants you this ability. Write to support at bridgebase dot com in advance.

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4. Does BBO have features which would minimize cheating? If so what are they?

Not really. In general, if you think cheating is an issue, running the tournament on BBO isn't the thing to do. But maybe you should step back and think about what the aim of the tournament is...

[inquiry]

softcoder, on 2011-May-25, 16:21, said:

In an effort to get more young people into bridge, I am thinking of running a tournament for the local colleges and universities.
I was wondering whether it would be possible to use BBO to run this tournament.

First, there is a discussion on Bridgewinners.com about using BBO for Grand National Teams right now. Go over and read that discussion. In it you will find that, BBO has been used for GNT before successfully, the USBF and run their qualifier for Junior championships the past couple of times with great success, and the Polish use BBO for serious national competion for a number of years. So yes, you can run college events on line. Now to your specific questions.

softcoder, on 2011-May-25, 16:21, said:

I think I can assume that each player would have access to his/her own computer.
The team from college 'A' would probably be located at site A and the team from college 'B' would be located at site B.

This is true, but at a college, perhaps they could all go to a computer lab where there is enough computers for everyone. Being central located for all the players, that will help with otther issues you raise.

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1. Would I need to make arrangements for a 'proctor' to be present at each site to prevent cheating? (The proctor need not be a director I don't think)

Some people say yes, some people say no. If money or something of really good value is at stake, I would go with yes. You can have both proctors at the site where people are playing (works well if they are in fairly large groups) and online "proctors" who watch for evidence of players with UI.

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2. Does BBO have 'rooms' or features which would facilitate having this kind of match (open room/closed room etc.)

You don't need a room for this. You either run it as a free tournament or as free team matches. IF it is a round robin kind of team thing, There is even a beta testing team thing, but I doubt you need that.

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3. Could I act as director from yet another third location? Could I 'direct' more than one match at once?

Not a problem at all. IF it is run as a pair tournament, you need to familiarize yourself with the directing software, and even it is is team matches.

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4. Does BBO have features which would minimize cheating? If so what are they?

Not available to you -- well other than full hand record for careful review after play is over.

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5. Has anyone ever done such a thing before ? If so what sort of Conditions of Contest did you find beneficial?

Yes. See above. Also, the condition of contest for the junior stuff is online at www.usbf.org, look under 2011 junior trials, look up the U26 Condition of contest.