As stated earlier I'm hoping to move things along speedily towards a start to this tourney next week if possible, and running late-January into mid-February.
Friend Requests were sent out today to all participants, and the TIME AVAILABILITY FORM is now live. [please note: this post is repeated on the opening page for easy finding later on!]
Participating players, please fill out your availability via the form at THIS LINK.
Please fill out this form to let us know your Time Zone and your LOCAL time availability, along with preferred days to play. and I'll figure out an availability grid to help make viable pairings for the tourney.
Captains and myself will use this information to pair you with and against players who really can play at those times, so that we can have a tourney that runs smoothly, without suffering endless delays in trying to connect people. We are dealing with 4-player games for the first 2 series of Worst-Ball and Best-Ball, so getting the Availability Data right at the start is crucial to the tourney working successfully.
Please provide times you can definitely play (you'll get a few days notice for each precisely scheduled game) for the weeks Jan 27-Feb2, Feb 3-9, and Feb 10-16.
My hope is that we can get through each series in one week! Matches will get firmly scheduled (there will be no reliance on "seeing someone green"!), and we will expect players to keep to commitments (obviously allowing for real-life interference if that happens). Is this ambitious, oh yes!!! Is it doable, most definitely YES... with your help!!!
Why is it so complicated?
The idea behind filling out the detailed entry form with all the hourly radio buttons to click is that we get an accurate picture of when everyone can play, and then we are paired together with teammates, and against opponents, whose times really do overlap. Yes, it feels like a lot of work to get through the form initially, but trust me, it speeds everything up in the long run, and gives us the best chance of arranging 4-player matches that can actually work.
Once everyone's data is in, we'll be looking for 2-3 hour blocks where people overlap. I'm anticipating matches should last no more than 1.5-2hrs+ for 4 players with 90 second timer for a 9-hole match, and something similar for the singles, 2 players over 18 holes.
Here's an example of how it will work once I've organized your responses: right-click to enlarge to enlarge this sample pic
The time boxes you clicked on in the entry form will be conditionally formatted to show in Green for your YES's, and in Yellow for Possible times you can play. (Red is NO, not available). Based on the time zone you gave, everyone's grid has been adjusted to UTC time, which are the times in the column headings... However, in the Green boxes, I've retained a note of the time, in your local time, to make it easier for you to tell when it actually is!
So, in this example, deedles and I have an availability overlap weekdays from 4-7pm UTC (deedles' 12-3pm on the East Coast of the U.S., and my 9am-noon in California).
-----------------------
If you've been through this exercise for one of our UEL tournaments before, you'll know that it really works... and I can save you clicking through those radio buttons again. Just check what you submitted last time at one of the following links, and put a note in the Availability Form 'exceptions' field to ask that I use your info from that specific tourney.
You can also post to the same effect in the forum thread. And feel free to let me know of minor amendments in that way too, e.g. "Same times as Tough-It-Out III, but now can't play Saturdays".
Prior Availability Charts:
Tough-It-Out III | Shiner's UEL Tourney @ Merion | Tough-It-Out II
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Team Pools:
USA (14): Wesdogg75, natemakesaholein, devonnnnn, KyRock75, Iconian, deedles77, ColumbusStorm, bhoese, Woodoworkery, JimBech, Cygnus3000, SilentOmegaWolf, dougsda, dakotarov
ROW (14): Corwyn, Daskino, GladstoneScrewer, LOLserver, jsweetcr, TallAcePaul, Dazza501, johehejo & Fairwayruepel68 (last 2 via PM), fmagnets, SteveReilly, WigerToods2010
Kurtsbuford is willing to be a US alternate, while dakotarov's signup took the US 'pool' to 14 already. oneeyedjohn also signed up (but as ROW's 13th player...), and Bonalyau becomes an ROW alternate.
----