Issue #5 - Part I, August 2013


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** What the Heck is this On-line Convention All About?? **
      (The International SOM On-line Baseball Convention, September 20-22nd, 2013,
       on behalf of the Strat Alliance.)

 

THE STRAT ALLIANCE On behalf of the three organizations comprising the Strat Alliance including: Pure Strat (western division of Star) The Star Tournament Association Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter We invite you to participate with us in a historic event, a meeting that has not been offered before in the annals of Strat-o-matic: The 1st International On-line Strat-o-matic Baseball Convention September 20th - 22nd, 2013 Where: Your Home, On-line This is a personal invitation to the members of the Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter, to help us co-create this amazing and unparalleled event!! www.stratalliance.info

It has only been recently through the efforts of the Star Tournaments and now being offered through SOM Tours, that the idea to offer a tournament on-line is practical.  In this article, we wish to briefly explain to the members of the Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter what the convention is all about and why it could change the landscape of the SOM Community. We salute the coordinating managers of your newsletter as they are one of the three partners agreeing  to combine their talents and skills to make the 1st SOM On-line Baseball Convention a reality

As has been reported in the newsletter previously via your editor, you have had a chance to read about the first National (U.S.) SOM Conventions which were held between 1972-1980.  These events provided for the first time a special location where SOM gamers could meet and compete in person with prizes being awarded to the winners. After 1980 and continuing forward, there were other individuals who began to offer yearly face-to-face tournaments which are continuing to this day.

Now Star Tournaments, which is another supporting partner for the convention has been offering face-to-face baseball tournaments for a number of years all over the U.S. (with their sister group SOM Tours doing a few tournaments in Canada). But due to the higher costs of traveling these days, attendance at these tournaments has diminished greatly.  So Star Tournaments thought a possible solution might be to begin offering on-line tournaments along with their existing ones.  This has evolved into two style of tournament play, one using the Netplay software that is associated with the SOM computer Baseball Game that various computer based leagues use. And then secondly, they have developed a new approach through Pure Strat, the western division of Star Tournaments, utilizing Skype and an on-line dice roller.

In the June and now the August (Part I) issues of this newsletter, your editor has reported what it was like to participate in one of the Skype tournaments offered by Pure Strat. As long as you have the cards, hitting pitcher's hitting cards, the super advance charts and an internet connection using the free program called Skype, one can duplicate what it is like to play an opponent as if you were playing them in person.

Therefore, the purpose of this article is to go into more indepth look of how the Convention will be organized and how the tournaments will be run. Thus if you are free, the third weekend of September, we would like to humbly request if any of the newsletter members can assist us to bring back a version of the tradition of the Conventions.  From our experience doing on-line tournaments already, we know that this form of a tournament can work, can be a lot of fun and plenty challenge. Additionally by making the tournaments available on-line, via the internet, it allows any gamer anywhere in the world a chance to be a part of this historic event and we can accommodate a lot more players this way, all from the comfort of your home. Plus, WHO will be the 2013 SOM Baseball Convention Champions? Will it be You?

The 3 Partners of the Strat Alliance have agreed to run three different tournaments during the weekend in September (20th-22nd), with the playoffs to crown the tournament champions being played after this weekend. Now, let us explain how each tournament will work precisely and what is needed to participate.

It has been agreed to use the latest set of cards offered by the game company for each tournament which will be based on the 2012 MLB season.  This decision was made because if we go to earlier years, this requires that everyone participating in that specific tourney will have to have those sets and the likelyhood is that more people will have the most recent issued cards.  For two of the tournaments we will offer, they will duplicate the existing on-line tournaments offered by Star Tournaments using Skype (with the actual cards) and Netplay (using the computer rosters).  The Third Tournament will honor the traditions set by the National Convention and will use the idea of switching teams, which was originally suggested by Strat-o-matic creator Hal Richmond himself for the 1973 National Convention which was continued throughout the Illinois based conventions. Here is a higher level description of each tournament.

(Note: We have not had time to get the rule books and supporting document on the Convention website, we hope to have this completely by August 15th or so)

Tournament #1 - Skype Draft Tourney (2012 Cards) - run by Pure Strat

On September 20th, Friday evening, an online draft is conducted using Skype - with each manager picking 25 players and one stadium. Each contestant has one minute to make their next draft pick so the draft can be completed within 2-3 hours depending upon how many people are in your division.  Star Tournament provides a number of tools and documents to help you with this draft. After the draft is completed, you will have the team that you play with for this tournament.  On the Convention website, you will find a rule book that outlines how the players can be used and which super advanced rules are implemented along with the other supporting tools and documents. 

Each series played will be a 3 game series, with the tournament based on double elimination which means when you lose two series (a series lost is losing 2 or more games in the series) then you are finished with the tournament. We may try to see, if the participants wish, that you can still play other opponents even though you have been eliminated.  We anticipate playing 12 games in one day - starting early morning, with a lunch break and finishing by dinner.  You will play against each opponent connecting via skype and using the audio service only. There will be an on-line dice roller (strat-o-matic.net) so you can see with your opponent the same dice rolls and twenty sided roles. Of course both of you will have the cards available for your teams along with the advance fielding and strategy charts.

The teams who have not been eliminated by the end of the day will continue into playoff series after this weekend to determine who is the champion. If we have a large number of people who register to play, we will setup multiple divisions.  There will be a tournament director that will be in touch with all participants giving instructions what to do next, speaking to you via skype.