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2017 Arthur Bismark Cup Rules and Scoring System

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. It is awarded as a way of recognising the outstanding performance of the most consistently strong player in tournaments over the course of each year.

Custodian

The custodian of the Bismark Cup is responsible for updating scores throughout the year, promoting the Bismark Cup in line with its aim, determining accredited tournaments, suggesting and implementing changes to the system, and answering any enquiries.

The current Bismark Cup custodian is Andrew Goff.

Bismark Cup Scoring System (2017 to current)

Every player who participates in a tournament is awarded points per two factors: the position they finished in the tournament and the size of the tournament (as measured by full time player equivalents).

The formula for this is: S = (50+(G/3))*(((1/2)^(1/7))^(P-1)), where:

S: The score awarded to the player

G: The number of games played by all players, to a maximum of three per player

P: The position the player finished in the tournament (I.e. 1st = 1, 2nd = 2, etc.)

In practice for first place the score is equal to the first part of the equation (50+(G/3)), then decreasing so that for every 7 places the score awarded halves (E.g. 8th place scores half 1st place; 11th place scores half 4th place).

Table Of Examples:

Games Played

21

28

35

42

63

1st

57

59

62

64

71

2nd

52

54

56

58

64

3rd

47

49

51

53

58

4th

42

44

46

48

53

5th

38

40

41

43

48

6th

35

36

38

39

43

7th

31

33

34

35

39

8th

29

30

31

32

36

9th

26

27

28

29

32

10th

23

24

25

26

29

11th

21

22

23

24

26

12th

19

20

21

22

24

13th

17

18

19

20

22

14th

16

16

17

18

20

21st

8

8

9

9

10

28th

N/A

4

4

4

5

35th

N/A

N/A

2

2

2

Note: Actual results retain fractions.

21 Games Played is equivalent to 1 board played in each of 3 rounds.

The scores accumulated by a player over the course of the year are added together and then divided by the greater of either seven or the number of tournaments they participated plus three. The highest result wins the Bismark Cup.

Historical Notes

The Bismark Cup institutionally acknowledges the work of its many contributors. In alphabetical order, these people are Will Black, Bill Brown, Andrew Goff, Craig Sedgwick, Ken Sproat, Rob Stephenson, Peter Taylor, and Dugal Ure.

The 2017 Bismark Cup system is a revision of the 2002-2016 system. It was revised to simplify the system and better address current tournament sizes.

The 2002-2016 Bismark Cup system capped tournament sizes and reduced the minimum divisor from 8 to 7.

The 2001 Bismark Cup system was a major redesign prompted by several anomalous results caused by the arbitrary elements of the previous system and the issues identified and patched for 2000.

The 2000 Bismark Cup system introduced a measure for dividing by the number of tournaments played plus 2 rather than taking the best four results. This was in response to players being able to game the system once they had four good scores, negatively impacting tournaments.

The 1989-1999 Bismark Cup system was the first system used, and awarded points by an arbitrary scale based on the number of boards at a tournament plus a bonus for state and national championships. Players counted their best four results from the year.

Diplomacy Association of Australia and New Zealand, Incorp. Assoc. (Vic) no. A0029615P.


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