Here is the planned format for the PCL Qualifier:
We expect somewhere between 24 and 30 teams to be allowed to compete. The field will be split into two groups, loosely based on geography.
STAGE 1: Each group will play a Round Robin, in which your Board 1 will play one game against every other team's Board 1, Board 2 will play against every Board 2 and so on. The time control will either be 3 1 or 3 2 for this stage,, we will clarify shortly. We will add up your team's total game points at the end of this round robin.
After STAGE 1: The top two finishers in each group will AUTOMATICALLY qualify for the 2019 PCL season and do not have to play any more games in our qualifier event. The 3rd, 4th and 5th place finishers in each group will advance to the next stage (Stage 2) along with one other team in each group for one last chance to qualify.
Stage 2 Vote: One of the 6th, 7th and 8th place finishers from each of the two groups will also qualify to Stage 2 of the Qualifier. This will be determined by a twitter poll that will last exactly 5 minutes, and will be heavily advertised during the live stream.
Stage 2: We now have 8 teams remaining, competing for 4 spots in the PRO Chess League. At this point we will pair each team against one other team, and they will play a match using the regular season PRO Chess League Format. The winner of the match will qualify for the PRO Chess League.
The only difference between this match and regular season PCL play, will be that we will use a time control of 7 minutes plus 2 second increment (instead of 15 2), due to time limitations.
There are still some details that we will release later (ie pairings in Stage 2, what happens on an 8-8 tie, tiebreakers in Stage 1), but this is the general gist of how things will function on Saturday, November 3rd.
We will announce each team's lineup sometime over the next week, but keep in mind that all teams will be able to make small changes to their lineup if absolutely needed.
Also every team and player should be asked to download the ZOOM software as soon as possible, as it will be required during the Qualifier.
