Default Dates and Start times for Season 2

In order to avoid the scheduling conflicts that have arisen in Season 1, we will have default dates and start times set for all games in Season 2.  These dates and times CAN be changed to any other date and time, provided that BOTH team leaders agree.  If an agreement can NOT be reached, the default settings will remain.

It will still be a while before I make up the schedule since some teams are still qualifying for Season 2, and the Season 1 playoffs are dragging out longer than anyone expected.  However, I would like to start hearing other people's thoughts on a couple key issues.

It has been agreed by the overwhelming majority that the best day to play these games is Saturday.  Therefore all default start times will be on a Saturday.  As I said above, everything is subject to change based on the agreement of the two team leaders, so games MAY be played on other days, but most will probably still be played on Saturdays.

Each team will still only need to play a game every other week.  However, since there are many players in multiple groups, and some Team Leaders are running 2 teams, I will schedule games for each Saturday so that the 2 teams led by the same person will be scheduled on alternating weekends (keeping in mind that everything is subject to change).

The first weekend of Season 2 will be pushed back to November 14th (sorry to those who were hoping to play sooner).  If we still have 4 conferences, 2 of them will start their games on November 14th, and the other 2 will start on November 21st (the following weekend).  Whichever two teams compete in the Season 1 Final Game on October 24th will automatically be placed in the conferences starting on the 21st.

Here's my first question:

Season 2 is going to stretch over the Christmas and New Year's holidays.  Both holidays are on a Friday this year.  So should games be scheduled on December 26th and January 2nd?  Or should there be a "break"?  Since there will be many who are on vacation during that time (at least anyone in school (students and teachers)) the games could easily be rescheduled for another day during that time if it is more convenient.  But some may be going away during that time and have limited internet access as well as family commitments that could make playing more difficult.

Now there were actually a number of games in Season 1 that were played several weeks ahead of schedule, and so there's no reason that the games scheduled for those weekends could not be played at some other time if both team leaders agree.  I just need to know what everyone else thinks about "Christmas Break" before I make up the Season 2 schedule.  My first inclination is to schedule games for each Saturday thruout the Regular Season, and allow the teams themselves to reschedule if they need to, but I want your opinions first.

My second question is regarding the start times:

Should the default start time shift slightly each week to give everyone at least one week with their preferred time, or should it remain the same for all games all season?  Keep in mind that ANY start time MAY be changed IF both teams agree.  This is just for the default time IF the two teams cannot agree on a time.

And of course the big question:  What time should be the default time?

Given the time difference between California and Australia, it is nearly impossible to schedule something that isn't really early for one and/or really late for the other.  Players closer to the Atlantic (on either side) are much more likely to be playing a majority of the game during daylight hours.

Here's the Time Zone breakdown (with the daylight savings time adjusted for the months Season 2 will be played):

GMT +10:30 = Chess_Kebabs (Chess Nuts)

GMT +9 = Manchero (The Red Army)

GMT +5 = Komoliddin07 (The Power of Chess)

GMT +2 = Rooperi (Team Antarctica)

GMT +1 = Johanpalmaer (Rapid Chess);
              Kacparov (Chess Empire)

GMT = Rab63 (Wizards of Oz);
          Chessy4000 (The Scotch Fans Team);
          Opening Gambit (Checkmate!);
          DannyDawson (Super Troopers);
          Ironworks (The Blakenators);
          Blackfirestorm666 (We Chat Global)

GMT -5 = Billium248 (The Dark Knights and Animal Lovers);
             Jchurch5566 (The Power of Chess);
             Jrcolonial98 (Chess Maniacs);
             RedSoxPawn (Chess & Cola Club);
             Val08 (The Premier of All);

GMT -6 = Jaller435718 (Chess Unlimited);
              Mthinker (Fast Players Group);
              Legodood (Supreme Pawns);
              Klhn444 (The Learning Group);
              Wilt18 (Burning Pawns)
             ShiViChess (The Ultimate Alliance, The Three Kingdoms)

GMT -8 = GeniusKJ (Kairav's Chess Masters and International Chess Masters);
              Leth (Cheers!);
              h777 (The Winning Team)

There are a few more Team Leaders that I'm not sure about yet, and some of these teams may not be in the final roster (and of course all teams have players in other time zones as well), but it gives us an idea of where everybody is.

Here's a rough idea of how things would break down:

So keeping in mind that ALL DATES AND TIMES ARE FLEXIBLE, what do you think is the most fair system for determining a default start time?  I'm starting to think of dividing the conferences up by time zones so that the teams in California are all together and not in the same conference as the Australians and Asians.  There would still need to be a little fudging here and there, but perhaps this is a better plan - to have separate default start times for each conference.

ALL OF THIS IS TENATIVE!!  I'm VERY interested in all of your opinions.  What do you think?

I think 18 GMT is a great time since for people in the Americas and is decent for the people in Europe

nice organization I'll try to answer all you questions first I think that we SHOULD have christmas break (GREAT IDEA). By the way are you going to help the Burning Pawns in season 2. Question 2 I have NO IDEA as long as you can organize it. Maybe 16:00

18 GMT sounds PERFECT for me

oh yea, we should definitely have chrismas break. 2 votes for 18GMT! :)

18:00 would be great for the Americans alright, but that would force the Europeans to stay up till dawn, which would hardly qualify as "decent."  The Americans would all be wide awake in the day time, and all the Europeans would be drinking gallons of coffee to stay awake, and probably making sleepy blunders because of it.

Yeah, I haven't forgotten about that.  I've gotten promoted in Team Antarctica too, so I'll be spreading myself kinda thin, but I'll figure something out.

How about 12 GMT? Smack dab in the middle. It is impossible to please everyone.

doesnt work for americans as it would be 4 AM here..

So wake up earlier. What's good for you will not be good for the person on the other side of the world. Remember, YOU HAVE TEAMMATES. Also, the time can be changed if both leaders agree. 12 GMT is a fair DEFAULT time in my opinion.

I don't think so... That is only good for Europeans. And there is no way people here can wake up 4 hours early... Perhaps there should be different fortnight leagues seperated by timezone. Like 3 divisions - USA, European, East Asian

It's 7am for Eastern US which is perfectly fine in my opinion.

And unless your team is ONLY made up of US members or ONLY European members, you can't make such a division.

Well it is 4AM Pacific Time which would definitely not work. + The main admin of most groups are either from North America or Europe.

 o ok then

 14 GMT is better for me

20 GMT is best for me but 18GMT works

that is 8pm here how can i be expected to stay awake all night just coz it suits u?? cant u just get up a bit earlier???

even 6pm is too late for us ... i have started SVC games at 16 GMT and iv not gone to bed at all that night and been forced to stay up the whole of the next day due to me having kids 

Well then there can't be a default time as a region of the world will just get disqualified due to it. If the default time is set so it starts at 3AM my time, there is no way KCM or ICM can participate in a single fortnight...

im not asking that it starts at 10 am my time see i am being flexible in that i can go along with 2pm my time which is 6 am your time genius as it stands if i start a game at 2pm my time it wil take til almost 4am maybe later to finish how is that reasonable??

that would be fine for me as well i dont see how 6am rise is too bad for those on eastern America