Anyone who has made the migration to BBO knows there are more opportunities than ever to earn masterpoints of all colors. The online regional in particular can award a massive amount, up to 50 gold in a day to the top overall pair.
Should We Reduce The Points Awarded?
When ACBL created the General Masterpoint Formula for regionals, they were not imagining an online tournament with 400 entries in the open game, and two concurrent limited games each with their own 400 entries.
Perhaps it doesn’t make sense for these online games to award the full amount?
Anyway, the national ACBL Board of Directors is voting very soon on two motions that heavily impact online points.
Item 20S2-02: Reducing Masterpoint Awards to reflect non Face to Face Play
In all events conducted online in which ACBL gold, silver or red points are awarded, all masterpoint awards shall be 80% of the amount that would be awarded in a face-to-face game of the same structure, as calculated by the applicable formulas.
Basically, online regionals and silver events will see a 20% reduction. As it reads, it’s unclear whether it would impact the ACBL Online Individual tournaments – because it has its own formula and is not based on a face-to-face game of the same structure.
Anyway, if you feel strongly either way, let your District Rep know.
Item 20S2-03: Reducing Masterpoint Awards in Shortened Games
The second important vote would reduce 18-board online games to only 3/4 of the full payment, because 18 is only considered 3/4 of a session. For club games, most clubs try to put in a good faith effort to play 24 boards, except for special cases like 20 Boards for $20 Bucks.
But for many online games, the virtual private clubs have discovered many players prefer 18 boards. It also allows people to squeeze in the extra afternoon session between the noon and evening game (for GNYBA members, the most relevant is the 3:45pm Mid-Flight 0-3500 game at All For One).
Full text of the proposal below:
In all events in which ACBL gold, silver, or red points are awarded and in which LIFE MASTERS are eligible to participate (i.e. all events that are not limited to NON LIFE MASTERS only, whether explicitly or by virtue of a masterpoint limitation), and in which the scheduled movement is to play fewer than 24 deals per session (not including sitouts, byes, and other deals not played for unanticipated reasons), all masterpoint awards shall be multiplied, relative to the otherwise applicable formulas, by a factor of the number of deals scheduled divided by 24.