2021 BWC info - final stage - open section

https://www.chess.com/news/view/2021-bwc-info-final-stage-open-section

Introduction

The final stage of the Chess.com Bughouse World Championship will start Sunday, January 2nd! Congratulations to the 36 teams that qualified from the group stage into the final stage elimination bracket. This blog post is intended to clarify some details and provide some instructions on how the open section of the tournament will proceed. We encourage you to read through the rules document one more time to refresh yourself on the rules before the tournament begins.

Pairings

Take a look at the challonge bracket (top 32 - 16, top 8, final 4)    for an overview of the pairings for all final stage matches. One round will be played each week; however, the first week is reserved for tiebreak matches to determine the top 32 teams, which means 28 teams have a round 1 bye. An arbiter will reach out to create a group chat on chess.com with all 4 players per match to help facilitate scheduling matches. If you were one of the top teams from your group in the group stage and do not see your name listed in the bracket, contact @scarysnakes immediately.

Scheduling matches

You and your partner are responsible for scheduling your matches with your opponents. Organizers will create chess.com group chats with all 4 players to help coordinate match time, but the onus is on the players to determine match times. As soon as a match time has been determined, you must post the scheduled time either to the scheduling forum or to #scheduling channel in the discord server. Use the format: "Player A + Player B vs. Player C + Player D 00:00 UTC + Date". Players are required to schedule their match at least 6 hours before the match starts and are strongly encouraged to provide 24 hours notice.

Timeline

Your match must be scheduled and played by the end of the day Sunday of each week (your first match must be played by the end of Sun 1/9 unless you have a round 1 bye), but teams are strongly encouraged to schedule and play matches in advance if possible. If a match is not played by the end of the week, organizers will give one or both teams a forfeit loss for the week, determined by effort made to schedule their match.

• Tiebreaker Round: 1/2/22 - 1/9/22
• Top 32: 1/9/22 - 1/16/22
• Top 16: 1/16/22 - 1/23/22
• Top 8 Winners: 1/23/22 - 1/30/22
• Top 4 Winners / Top 8 Losers: 1/30/22 - 2/6/22
• Top 6 Losers (Bye Week for top 2 advancing teams): 2/6/22 - 2/13/22
• Final 4: 2/13/22 - 2/20/22
• Championship/Consolation Match: 2/20/22 - 2/27/22

Match Format

The games will be 2+0 (2 min per side, 0 sec increment). The first team to reach a given number of points (specified as "first to", such as "first to 11") by a margin of 2 or more games wins the round: wins=1 point, draws=0.5 points, losses=0 points. In the case that a team reaches the "first to" points with a margin less than two games (e.g., the match score is 11-10 for "first to 11"), players will continue playing until a margin of at least 2 games has been met. If either team reaches the "best of" score (e.g., the match score is 20-19 for "best of 20"), they win the match regardless of margin of victory.

Match length

• Top 32: best of 20 (first to 11)
• Top 16: best of 20 (first to 11)
• Top 8: best of 30 (first to 16)
• Final Four: best of 50 (first to 26)
• Championship: best of 50 (first to 26)

Final Four / Championship Match Length is tentative and may be subject to change.

Reporting results

You must report results to the reporting results google form. One player per team should report results.

Advancing in the tournament

• Top 32: Single Elimination
• Top 16: Single Elimination
• Top 8: Double Elimination*
• Final Four: Single Elimination

Top 8 will be a double elimination bracket to reduce the number of teams to 4. The final four teams will then be entered into a single elimination championship bracket. We made top 8 double elimination to mitigate the impact of seeding on likelihood of advancing to the final 4. It was possible for group winners to receive a significantly more difficult top 8 opponent as a result of winning their group, relative to if they had finished 2nd. Double elimination in top 8 avoids punishing said teams for winning their groups.

In top 8, teams will be entered directly into this bracket. Seeding will remain constant from earlier rounds. Teams will then play this double elimination bracket until there are 4 teams remaining (2 from winner's and 2 from loser's).

In top 4, we will return to a single elimination bracket. The two teams from the winner's bracket will be paired against the two teams from loser's bracket in such a way that avoids a rematch from earlier in the bracket (so if 2 vs 3 already played, they will not be paired against each other in the round of 4).

Prizes will be distributed based upon final standings.

Important links

Club (chess.com) - The chess.com club for this event. Please join this club, as its forums are used to communicate between organizers and players and for the purposes of scheduling/posting match times and results. 

Discord - The discord server we use for the tournament. You are not required to join the discord, but it can be used as an alternative way to communicate with organizers and players. 

Bracket (top 32 - 16, top 8, final 4) - The challonge bracket that will show pairings and standings.

Calendar - The calendar of matches and streams. You can use this calendar in case there are matches you would like to spectate. If you plan on streaming a match and would like your stream to be on the calendar, please let an organizer know in advance. 

Reporting results - Report match results using this form.

Scheduling forum - Notify others about your match schedule either here or in the discord server #scheduling channel (or both).

Rules - The tournament rules.  Check here before asking questions to organizers.

Other points

I’d like to thank all of the wonderful organizers who made this event possible: @ArchdukeShrimp, @1800_strength, @scarysnakes, @chuckmoulton, @midnightfox, @marvelanddcforlife, @fuzzician, @canonicalmodule, @plextv, @Casper__J & @rebus2k

Thanks again for your participation, and best of luck!