I brought 3 computers, 1 printer, 2 projectors, 1 wifi router, cables, paper. To run we only need 2 computers, 1 projector. I used WiFi router as did not know the Internet connection availability.
Joel was the TD. He's used the software before. No training. He did all the data entry, teams, inventory, published when ready.
Tables were A1-F6. C2 was used for the projector so the TD configured the inventory so that C2 was not in use.
Bridgescore+ (BS+) handicaps matched ACBLscore within a 0.01 rounding value.
Pre-sales for Tuesday was done. All teams were given a printed sheet with all of their masterpoint values.
Teams started to report. Losing teams could buy their entry for the Tuesday KO. I didn't care how many teams, the issue was learning how the process worked with the teams/TDs/software/process so we could use in Gatlinburg. 4 teams did. 1 team subsquently withdrew. TD used same bank.
Teams started to report. Losing teams could buy their entry for the Tuesday KO. 2 teams did. TD used same bank.
This is a single bracket compact KO. DIC made it handicapped.
Bridgescore+ matched ACBLscore's handicaps within a 0.01 rounding error. However, there is a bug in ACBLscore with handicap calculations. For example, team 1, had players with 284.38, 284.38, 176.5, 221.99 masterpoints. Team total is 967.25 masterpoints. Team average is 241.8. Rounded is 242. ACBLscore has 241. This error will manifest itself in the handicap calculations. ACBLscore had 7.08, BS+ has 7.10 for the handicap. Probably some other rounding issues in handicap calculations. Would have thought that the value shuould have been the other way round. BS+ can use real numbers for this calculation.
BS+ printed the Go To sheets for round 2. This saved the TD some time. For Gatlinburg with larger brackets this will save some time. For Gatlinburg, need to bring scissors to cut the go to sheets. Currently 2 are displayed on each page.
This needs testing for Gatlinburg for non-16 team brackets.
21 team KO. All assignments up by 13:31. Last minute entry sold at 13:30. TD went with 10 and 11 team brackets.
We had 5 pre entries. Many teams had their pre-registration sheets. With those sheets we knew exactly how many points they had. Entering their TID meant we had all the names. For the new teams, I asked for their player names/numbers before after they paid. At game time, I had 19/21 teams with all their names.
It is 13:31 and I have all the names for bracket 1 except for 1 team and all the names for bracket 2 except for 1 team.
13:45. There are two caddies currently going round picking up the entry forms. ACBLscore has not even been turned on and I already have the handicaps.
14:15. TD having problems with computers and running ACBLscore. He's on the second computer and just started to create the game file. BS+ had the game file with all names/handicaps nearly 45 minutes ago.
There were still problems with the ACBL computer. They used the handicaps that BS+ generated. There were discrepancies, but see earlier for the reason. There was one handicap that was +3.01; this is the only handicap that could have made a difference. I found out later that ACBLscore generated 3.03.
16:30. There were a couple of pre-sales for the Wed KO. We did not make much of an effort to market it. Too many issues with ACBLscore and the computers. Focus needed to be elsewhere. I am more interested in the process than the actual numbers.
Clay was TD. He's run the software before. He set up the event in BS+. I then set up the projector.
Started selling around 7:10. To have some fun we asked for team names. BS+ allows the team to give themselves a name. It's an evening side Swiss, so need to make it fun. All names were g-rated.
They are having problems with the ACBL laptops at the tournament, so Clay asked that I get R1 started and enter names in BS+ while he could fix the issues. No problem. All names entered within 15 minutes.
Clay also having problems with the computer(s) that are being used. So far different TD computers have been used. Not sure the issues.
My goal for the Swiss was simple - see if the players can run the event!
After the teams were set up (16 teams) and the inventory (Clay took time with the inventory to avoid tables with bad lighting etc.) was set up, the event ran itself.
We had teams enter their own scores for each round.
Only TD involvement is changing the round number after all the scores are entered for that round.
The projector displayed the assignments and the leaderboard (Jeffrey's Chart). No need for rack or dot-matrix printed chart.
The projector has a clock showing the time remaining.
Generally on time, but there was free coffee and cookies after round 2. Never separate bridge players from free food.
I believe in full disclosure. I talk about the good stuff, and the bad stuff. We had one error with the entries. A team captain entered team 14 instead of team 4. The player didn't catch it. This would have been caught when team 4 entered their scores.
The process I prefer is that BOTH teams come up and watch the scores being entered. This is a slight change in procedures. This is how I recommend that BS+ is run.
At the start of round 3, a player got sick. Too many oysters at the local oyster bar. I was asked to fill in. The event had gone very smoothly, the players were entering the scores. I filled in the last 4 boards in round 3 and played all of round 4. I would never had done that if I thought that the software would not work.
Everything was fine for R3 and R4.
The TD was busy - he was running the 16 table Swiss, the second round of a KO, the finals of a KO, and was tag-teaming with another TD who was running pairs.
The event finished. Results were displayed on the projector. The MPs calculated by ACBLscore matched those of Bridgescore+.
Two session Swiss, A/B/C and Gold Rush. I thought these would be in separate rooms, so was only planning on running one event. They are in the same room.
Set up at 9am. TD is selling both ABC and Gold Rush so asked me to set up BS+. All assignments for ABC are up.
Last night, we allowed team names. Today the TD is too busy; long line at selling so didn't offer the team name option.
There were 16 teams in the open and 20 in the Gold Rush. One TD. Event sold more than expected. TD is very experienced, so he had no problem handling 36 teams but still a lot of work for him.
I had brought 2 projectors (one as a backup) but no extra computers to drive the projector. There were no spare ACBL computers so BS+ ran (was primary) the ABC, TD ran the Gold Rush.
TD was busy. Last night we had players enter results; this morning, even though a similar number of teams, decided that we would have TD or me enter the results.
There are 4 stationary teams out of 16 total. Almost certainly there will be stationary teams playing against each other. In this case, the stationaries are movable, i.e. not tied to a plug.
The ABC is playing 8 board/match; Gold Rush is 7 boards per match.
Started KO. No issues. 22 teams. 11+11.
Additional issues:
Some issue with checking if player's membership had expired. One player showed expiration of Feb 2018. BS+ flagged him; ACBLscore did not.
Descriptions appear underneath the photograph. Images are shown chronologically.
Shows projector in the corner.
Player entering scores from Swiss on laptop.
No age limit for entering scores.
Explaining how easy it was to the TD (out of camera).
This is what they see.
This is what players see. We have since updated the screen so that we no longer need to put a piece of paper on the screen. This was an early version to get feedback from players. We got the feedback - screen has been improved, made bigger, removed all of the other screen items. On a Mac, we use an external numeric keypad (if available). For PCs, we prefer an external keypad; failing that we can use regular keys.