The FNC European Masters 2015
Who has what it takes to beat the best of the best?
That’s the question FNC will be asking in 2015! Throughout the year, every player will be collecting rankings points, and the top 10 European players will be invited to take part in an end of year final in December 2015.
Instead of a straight knockout, this tournament will be assured of many high-level matchups due to the unique round-robin first round. These matches will hopefully be streamed live online, as well as full matches and highlights videos published after the event.
Every detail and rule has not yet been finalized, but will be over the next few months, and the up-to-date guidelines will be on the FNC European Masters 2015 page on FightNightCombat.com.
Conceptually:
- The FNC European Masters 2015 will be held in early December, on a Saturday, in Berlin, Germany.
- The 2015 Race Rankings will determine qualification, with the top 10 on a specific date (late November) invited to take part.
- Only top 10 players residing in Europe will be invited directly (to reduce travel expense and other costs).
- Only top 10 players with a minimum of three tournament results will be eligible.
- If a top 10 player declines the tournament invitation for any reason, the next highest ranked player who meets the above criteria will be invited.
- The tournament will take place in two stages.
- Group Stage
- The 10 players will be split into two groups of five, with seeds 1 and 2 in opposite groups, then a coin flip deciding the groups of 3 and 4, then 5 and 6, then 7 and 8, and finally 9 and 10.
- Each player will play the other four in their group in a round robin format, for a total of 20 matches.
- Each group match will be decided by the first player to win three sets, with each set played to three points.
- These matches will not be classed as qualification matches, but tournament-level matches, with the results counting in head-to-head and other records.
- For each match win a player will receive a set number of rankings points. For example, 50 points per win, for a total of 200 points for an unbeaten player.
- Knockout Stage
- The top four players from each group (decided by wins then various tie-breaking criteria) will enter an eight player knockout stage.
- Seeding will be based on results from the group stage, not initial seedings.
- Match 1: A1 vs B4
- Match 2: B2 vs A3
- Match 3: A2 vs B3
- Match 4: B1 vs A4
- The winners of match 1 and match 2 will meet in semi-final 1 and the winners of match 3 and 4 will meet in semi-final 2.
- The losing semi-finalists meet in a third place match.
- The winning semi-finalists meet in the final match.
- Winning any knockout match will add to a player’s rankings points. For example, an unbeaten player may receive 50 points per group stage win, 70 more for the R8 match, 90 more for the semi-final, and 140 for the final, a total of 500 points.
- The winner of this tournament would be considered FNC European Champion for 2015.
- The rankings points would count towards the 2015 year-end rankings, to decide the year end number 1 player, but not count towards qualification for the 2016 FNC European Masters or any other year-end event that might take place in 2016.
Who is paying for this?
As a standalone event, the European Masters won’t have the have the typical benefits of taking place at a juggling conventions in terms of volunteers, participants, venue, etc.
However, the expenses of the tournament shouldn’t be particularly extensive. The main cost will be travel expenses for the qualifying participants, and by (initially) only inviting players from Europe will keep them manageable. The host city of Berlin also means that (going on 2014 form), fewer jugglers have to travel long distances. Venue and equipment hire should be minimal, as there are plenty of options in Berlin.
Again, the funding details won’t be confirmed for a few months, but options include:
- Sponsorship of the event name, streaming/videos, etc.
- Voluntary expenditure and donations by participants.
- Ticket sales to live audeince (though I’d prefer it to be a free event).
- Crowdfunding.
If you have any feedback, ideas, suggestions or comments, please email me: luke@juggler.net