EL2017 Final Results and EL2018 Divisions

The final results for EL2017 are available.

You can view them here below, or in more detail on

https://chess.bounceme.net/chess/ligas.php

(My version below has the same ordering of teams --- except for Bosnia and Herzegovina and Scotland whom I would like to declare tied, because they seem to have set a new record of having extremely similar EL tiebreaks --- , but may have some very slightly different tiebreaks because I had prepared it a bit earlier to have it ready now without delay.)

Congratulations to the winners of the divisions!

Div 1 : Team England

Div 2 : Team Slovakia

Div 3 : Belarus

Div 4 : Team Kazakhstan

Div 5 : Team Denmark

In the table on the right hand side, I have shown the divisions for next season according to the best information I currently have about the teams, and from the teams, about who will be able to and wishing to play up in the higher division. If you think you have information about your team that might not yet have been included here, please be quick to tell me.

For preparing a smooth start into the new season, please update your entry in the European League Teams and Active Admins forum to reflect the currently active admins in charge of your team in the EL.

I am optimistic that we can have finalized new divisions, schedules, and forums for the new year ready quite soon, within not so many days from now.

Why team Croatia goes in C Division?

Last year, your team repeatedly confirmed their decision to not play a match, and spoke about their difficulties of reaching the participation.

Even while being clearly informed that in the EL, it is very much the admins' responsibility to organize the matches, and that in the EL, there is no such thing as an automatic option to "decide" to forfeit a match.

During this, it seems you did not talk much about this with us last year. Maybe your question now is indicating that we misunderstood you in some ways last year, or that you misunderstood us in some way last year?

Wann is 1 round?

meskogn, soon enough.

"I am optimistic that we can have finalized new divisions, schedules, and forums for the new year ready quite soon, within not so many days from now."

I do not fully understand your answer.
Tim Croatia is in 8th place. How can go to a lower division, when on the last two of Team Norway and Team Sweden.
We are not strong enough for 1st Division, but 50 players in the game for 2. Division  is not a problem.
Maybe you think of a match against Poland? This match was agreed with the Polish admin as one game for EL and WL. We did not have 75 registered players, and the match was lost without a fight. I repeat, it was valid for EL and WL.

SegrtHlapic, we have made it very clear that the match you had been talking about would have simply counted for EL only, after it was declared forfeited for the WL.

And we have made it clear afterwards, when you had canceled that match, that we requested you to play a new match, counting only for the EL. But you canceled that new match too, declaring that you had "decided" to not play it.

If you say there has still been this misunderstanding for you until today, then there has been a severe lack of communication --- did you read at all what we wrote to you about it, or did you overlook what we wrote about it, repeatedly?

In the EL, we need the admins to organize their matches, and we need them to communicate, to avoid misunderstandings and resolve problems so that the matches can be played. As long as a team has major difficulties about this, it can be safer to have it play in a division where it is likely to have less such problems arising where match forfeits due to lack of participation will likely be less of an issue.

You now say that playing in Division 2 would not be a problem. When you answered my request to play your match last year, your answer was that you have problems to reach 50 players.

For some years now, your team has been acquiring a habit of not having enough players until very few days before match start, seemingly requiring a push from the admins then in each and every match. For reducing this problem, it can be good to get back into a habit of having more than enough players in the match very soon after the match opens for registration. This will be much more feasible for you in a lower division than in last year's division.

I know that your current team of admins took over about a year ago, and that your task is a huge one after Team Croatia had played up very high in the top divisions despite having a relatively small team. You may have been learning some things fast. But I think you have been working under some false assumptions about how the EL works, and it has been difficult to communicate with you to resolve these misunderstandings in time.

Before you were admins in charge, and before I was director of the EL, there had been a very strict system in place, where a team with two warnings was thrown down into the very last division, which certainly was hard and not so healthy for a team affected by this.

I do think that now we are no longer being as super strict. But given what was observed last year, going down by one division appears not only consistent, but even potentially quite healthy in the case of your team.

Do you think that this maybe has been able to start to remove some misunderstandings, and do you think it has maybe been able to shed some more light on the aspects involved here?

I do recall the same as ilmago, that Team Croatia unfortunatelly stated they are not able to consistently field the needed roster and also recall that they were repeatedly asked to play, after explained that the second match with Poland is a separate one than the already forfeited one. 

Hastyn, using the best communication and information I could get from Vatican City, their estimate was that they did not think they could consistently reach the higher required minimum participation required in the higher division.

I will be happy if communication, admin activity and participation in Vatican City will be good this year so that a promotion to a higher division would no longer end up being a problem for 2019.