1. Aim Of The Arthur Bismark Cup

The aim of the Arthur Bismark Cup (Hereafter "Bismark Cup") is to encourage attendance at Diplomacy Tournaments in Australia and New Zealand, and foster ties between the various local Diplomacy communities through this increased interaction. It is awarded by the D.A.A.N.Z. as a way of recognising the outstanding performance of the best player in tournaments over the course of each year.

The Bismark Cup scoring system aims to award consistently good play throughout the calendar year. A player who attends many tournaments and gets good results at them should beat a player who attends only two tournaments and gets very good results at them.

2. Accredited Tournaments for 2009

The following tournaments have been accepted into the calendar of events for the Bismark Cup 2009 and are also eligible for Master Points.

1. Australian Diplomacy Championships
2. New Zealand Diplomacy Championships
3. Queensland Diplomacy Championships
4. Melbourne Diplomacy Open
5. Auckland Diplomacy Championships
6. Sydney Diplomacy Challenge
7. Don Challenge Cup

Any other tournaments seeking DAANZ affiliation and meeting the affiliation criteria will be eligibile for Master Points but not for Bismark Cup points.

3. Rating Of Tournaments

All tournaments are rated for the purposes of scoring the Bismark Cup according to the number of full-time players (or equivalent) who participated in the tournament. A Full-time player is one who plays in at least three games (not "GM Positions"). A Part-Time player is any other player at the tournament, and they are counted as being equal to (Number of games played/3) full-time players for the purposes of calculating how many players attended a tournament. All players, whether part-time or full-time, score points for the Bismark Cup, and part-time players are of course eligible to win the event they participate in. When Calculating tournament numbers, all figures shall be rounded to the nearest whole number (rounding up from .5). The maximum tournament rating for Bismark Cup purposes is 50 players and tournaments with more than 50 players will be rated as having had 50 players.

Example: The NSW Diplomacy Championships attracts 18 players for round one, 20 for round two and 27 for round 3. 17 players played all 3 rounds, 1 player played in two rounds, and 12 played in one round only. The tournament is therefore rated as a 17+(1*2/3)+(12*1/3) tournament, or 21 2/3. Since we always round this figure, this means that the A.C.T. Diplomacy Championships are rated as a 22 player tournament.

4. Awarding Points

Every player who participates in a tournament is awarded points according to two factors.

a) The position they finished in the tournament
b) The rating of the tournament (as given by "3")

The first step is to find the "modifier". The modifier is equal to (50+Tournament rating)/100. Note that the maximum tournament rating is 50 (see section 3). All scores in the table (see below) are then multiplied by this modifier to give the scores that will be awarded for the various placings at this tournament. This modifier may not be higher than 1.10 regardless of the tournament rating.

Using the first table below, scores are calculated for each player who participated in the tournament. It should be noted that whether a player was part-time or full-time is now not considered - the distinction applies only to calculating the tournament rating. In this case, fractional scores are not rounded to the nearest integer (remaining fractional throughout). They may be displayed rounded in print-outs for layout reasons.

Points To Be Awarded

* Note: All scores have in the above table have been rounded for presentation purposes.

T'ment Rating = Tournament Rating (i.e. 50+Full time players)
No. of Players = Number of Players (Full or part time)

5. Scoring For The Bismark Cup

The winner of the Bismark Cup is determined using a modified average system and the points awarded in section 4. Over the course of the year, each player gains points in section 4. The sum of these points will be referred to as their "Total Points" for the year. To determine a player's Bismark Cup score, take the Total Points and divide this by (The number of tournaments they have played in) + 3, with a minimum divisor of 7.

Examples...
1) A player with 40 points from 1 tournaments scores 40/7 = 5.71
2) A player with 40 points from 2 tournaments scores 40/7 = 5.71
3) A players with 198 points from 7 tournaments scores 198/10=19.8

It should be noted that a player is considered to have played in a tournament even if they have only played in one scored game, but they have not played in a tournament if they were the tournament director (even if they played GM positions).

It should also be noted that these final scores are not rounded to the nearest whole number and remain "exact", although they may be shortened for ease of reference in updates. Ie. Two players may be listed as both being "12.27" points but may in fact be "12.273" and "12.271", in which case one player still has the lead.

The winner of the Bismark Cup is the player with the highest score. In the event of a tie, best tournaments will be compared (Best Points wins), then second best, and so forth until a winner is found. In the event of there still being a tie, the Bismark Cup will be declared a tie and both players will be declared joint-winners.

6. Credits

The 2009 Bismark Cup system is the same as the 2002-2008 Bismark Cup system, which was modified by the DAANZ Executive in December 2001 from the 2001 system. The 2001 Bismark Cup system was designed by Andrew Goff, Peter Taylor, and Dugal Ure based on the 2000 system (Designed by Andrew Goff, Dugal Ure, Rob Stephenson, and Craig Sedgwick).

2002-2009 Bismark Scoring: The current scoring system.

2001 Bismark Scoring: The 2001 system was similar to the 2002 system (above), except that: in section 3 the 'tournament rating' was open ended rather than being capped at 50 players; and in section 5 the 2001 system included a minimum divisor of 8 rather than 7.

2000 Bismark Scoring: Points were awarded on a Grand Prix style system based on the size of the tournament and the player's placing. A player's total points throughout the year are divided by the number of tournaments at which they have played plus 2, with a minimum divisor of 6. The player with highest resulting score wins the Bismark Cup.

Pre-2000 Bismark Scoring: Prior to 2000, a player's best four scores were totalled and any further scores ignored -- this feature was removed as there was concern that it provided an incentive for 'negative' play. In addition, certain tournaments attracted "bonus" boards which boosted the points scored at these tournaments: National: +2 board bonus (Australian, NZ); State/Island: +1 board bonus (Waikato, Victorian, NSW, QLD, ACT).

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Last modified: 9 September, 2009
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