17-01-2013, 02:05 PM
I suppose no prize money has its merits. As most people don't receive prizes or expect to, there would probably be enough people interested in such a format. However I would prefer there were more prizes than doing away with them!
Sectional tournamets are always going to be at the mercy of fluctuating numbers. If we had 50+ averages across the sections a dip would not cause much of a problem, but as we are at the 30 odd average these falls lead to the examples given by Hugh.
A possible solution is to reduce the number of sections. My preference would be to have two sections, a top section, which would have a grading floor with discretion for fastly improving players, and a development section. I believe this format could offer prizes for the top 5 in the higher section with several beefed up grading prizes to compensate for the loss of sectional prizes. I would also suggest just having grading prizes in the development section.
More entrants per section and more prizes per congress, assuming everyone doesn't loathe the idea!
Sectional tournamets are always going to be at the mercy of fluctuating numbers. If we had 50+ averages across the sections a dip would not cause much of a problem, but as we are at the 30 odd average these falls lead to the examples given by Hugh.
A possible solution is to reduce the number of sections. My preference would be to have two sections, a top section, which would have a grading floor with discretion for fastly improving players, and a development section. I believe this format could offer prizes for the top 5 in the higher section with several beefed up grading prizes to compensate for the loss of sectional prizes. I would also suggest just having grading prizes in the development section.
More entrants per section and more prizes per congress, assuming everyone doesn't loathe the idea!