2015 Minesweeper World Championship in September?

[Tommy]

Hi all,
I haven't been online here much for a while, and one thing I really fucked up earlier - there's no putting that in nicer words - was the last WCH.

I would really like to remedy that and am planning to organize the next World Championship. It would take place in Vienna, on some weekend in September.

Since not that much has been happening in this community lately, though, I really need to ask one thing:
Who would participate, and under what conditions? Is September even a good idea, or is that perhaps too close (and would new years maybe be a better idea)?

There is one question that is even more important: Would it even be fair for the world championship to take place in Europe? After all, the chinese community is much more active as far as I can tell.

You can answer by posting a reply here, or by writing me an Email at thomaskolar90 {a} gmail dot com.

I also created a poll here, but that doesn't mean that it is definitive - emails/posts count too, and might change the outcome. Basically, the poll is just for people who would like to express their preference quickly.

Also, I might not be able to get a room for all dates anyway. Still, it would be good to know what weekend to try to get.

cheers, and happy sweeping,
Tommy

[thefinerminer]

The Chinese community is the most active, and it would be fantastic to have a World Cup in China or even a country tournament.

As far as I know, there was a single Chinese tournament in 2007, but it is unlikely many non-Chinese could attend the event. (I am looking for a good excuse to visit, and to start playing again though).

If there is a tournament in Vienna, I can make any weekend in September at the moment, and will help however I can Tommy.

[KamilSaper]

I think I can manage to come

[EWQMinesweeper]

If the tournament happens and no one else is planning to host another tournament in 2015, call it the world championship.

[Tjips]

I'm in! Just saying

[gacord]

what about take it on both europe and aisa

[Tommy]

Awesome, all of you!

In that case I'll get organizing shortly.

gacord, I really like that idea! With Scoreganizer, that would be easy, and we could stream both tournaments on twitch.tv or something like that \o/ Perhaps the russian community wants to do the same? And perhaps people on other continents want to do something similar? We could have live streams of all the locations on every location! Provided that we have the bandwidth, of course.

And I guess it's also really time to get Scoreganizer translated into a couple of languages.

[Arsen]

Hope I can do that also, preferably first weekend in September.

[Tjips]

I do have some date constraints it seems though. Both the first and second week in September are impossible for me, and the third one a bit tight. Pretty please make it the last week in September .

[aradesh]

I think I'm free for all of September. I am thinking of hopefully coming along. I miss minesweeper!

[Tommy]

Hi everyone,

A short update: It definitely won't be the third weekend, I won't be in Vienna then, myself.

Since (as far as I can remember and as far as this thread says) nobody but Bertie can't make certain weekends outright and the poll is almost even, I'll try to make it the last weekend. (Also, the later the tournament is, the more time there is to book for you all). But no guarantees yet, I don't know if/when I'll get computer rooms.

Happy sweeping,
Tommy

[Judith Sunrise]

I'll see whether I can stop by, I have a dancing tournament on Saturday Sept. 26th.

[Tommy]

I'll see whether I can stop by, I have a dancing tournament on Saturday Sept. 26th.

Aww damn... Saturday would probably be the best day to have the (main) tournament, too (people can arrive on friday/early saturday and leave on sunday if they're on a tight schedule)...

I can't promise anything (if we have tournaments around the world, timezones will determine when it makes any sense at all to play), but perhaps I can take that into account when I make the schedule. Do you know when your comp will be? (And if anyone else has a problem with that weekend/specific day, NOW would be a great time to know!)

[Tommy]

Come to think of it, though, taking timezones into account is necessary either way if there is an online event (which I do want to have).

This is already something that tries to take care of almost everyone (Sorry, Oceania):

• San Francisco (U.S.A. - California) Saturday, 26 September 2015, 06:00:00 PDT UTC-7 hours
• Boston (U.S.A. - Massachusetts) Saturday, 26 September 2015, 09:00:00 EDT UTC-4 hours
• Tokyo (Japan) Saturday, 26 September 2015, 22:00:00 JST UTC+9 hours
• Sydney (Australia - New South Wales) Saturday, 26 September 2015, 23:00:00 AEST UTC+10 hours

(made with http://www.timeanddate.com/)

IE, even if people on the NA west coast have to get up at 5AM, people in Sydney have to stay up until 2AM if the tournament takes 3 hours.

Both are already really bad for some people (even if they wouldn't mind the other way round ).


Speaking of people around the world, if you want to organize a regional tournament, tell me! I can organize a mailing list for you, if that helps, and I'll make a mailing list to coordinate international efforts.

Having multiple tournaments at once, perhaps having live news or even streams for all of them would be extremely epic!

[EWQMinesweeper]

Just asking, why not have two championships? One in Vienna as the classic world champion and another one online where everyone has the chance to play with their home setup but at a different time, say one week after the one in Vienna.

Also, I took the liberty of marking this topic as global. Maybe you also want to promote it on reddit.

Did you consider holding side events? For example a 8x8 desntiy tournament, mean of 3 for 100 beginner mini marathons, team blind sweeping on beginner, upk challenge on manu's super easy board (practice before tournament then everyone gets 5 attempts and show them live on a beamer)? Maybe even a Nonosweeper tournament?

There's a cubing comp I want to attend on the first weekend of september which means I'll have to wait until mid-september to see whether I can have afford to "waste" another weekend.

[Tommy]

Just asking, why not have two championships? One in Vienna as the classic world champion and another one online where everyone has the chance to play with their home setup but at a different time, say one week after the one in Vienna.

Also, I took the liberty of marking this topic as global. Maybe you also want to promote it on reddit.

Did you consider holding side events? For example a 8x8 desntiy tournament, mean of 3 for 100 beginner mini marathons, team blind sweeping on beginner, upk challenge on manu's super easy board (practice before tournament then everyone gets 5 attempts and show them live on a beamer)? Maybe even a Nonosweeper tournament?

There's a cubing comp I want to attend on the first weekend of september which means I'll have to wait until mid-september to see whether I can have afford to "waste" another weekend.

I kinda like the idea of everyone playing at the same time and really competing with the people who play IRL. Maybe having both would be fun, though?

Thanks for making the topic global! I wanted to promote it more when I had some more definitive info, but that's actually a good idea, I might do that sometime soon.

And yes, I was considering making Sunday side-event day and have a large number of small side events (kinda like speedcubing comps). I like all your ideas, I'd also really like to play some time trials or so... Well, we'll see what makes sense, I guess!

[Judith Sunrise]

Sorry, Tommy. The dance-comp will take the whole day as we are dancing in two different categories (Standard - Latin)

[Tommy]

Update: The last weekend in September (26./27.) is getting more and more likely. (Sorry, Judith, I know that that really sucks :/)

The only way it can be sooner is if for some reason I can't get a computer room then, but another day would work out.

Seeing as this is taking way too long because I had to wait for emails, I'm trying to do it more on the late side because some people might need all the time they can get to get a visa.

[Tommy]

Good news everyone,

I'm getting funding from HTU [1], the student union at my university. This means that I'll be able to partially refund travel costs and accomodation. As it is, it won't be much - a relatively low double-digit number in Euros is likely - but I'm also planning to get more from other sources.

The date still isn't fixed because the IT people at my university aren't responding to my emails and also weren't in their office yesterday :-/ I'll do my best to fix a date on Monday.

[1] http://htu.at