After last night's adventures, I felt like I'd share with the rest of you. 
There's a little Friday evening 9-ball tournament I go to fairly often. The field shifts around every week - there's a few regulars, and a few irregulars. Some decent players come in there - I've won it once or twice, but I never go in with any assumptions.
The guy who runs it has always, IMHO, not run it terribly well. Most weeks there's a grumble here and there about it, but it's never been a huge deal.
Last night, however, was too much.
First, the guy shows up about the time we usually get started, i.e. by this time people have already signed up, paid their fees, and the draw is done. It takes him a good while to get things prepped.
Then, once things get started, the real fun begins. They've got an old PC in the joint, and they have a copy of that older pool tournament manager program - I forget the exact name - it's the one with the white background, the one that the guy behind it passed away a year or so ago.
This particular program, like most of its ilk, allows you to enter the number of tables you're running, and will suggest (note - SUGGEST) what matches to play at any given time. The issue here is, our beloved TD considers the computer's suggestions as, well... commands. He regards that match list as sacrosanct and not to be deviated from.
As in a lot of tournaments around the country, I imagine, there's folks who will call in and say "I'm on my way, please put me on the list.". That's fine and dandy - I've done it myself a few times. Last night, this one fellow had called the bar. As it turns out, he's a kid I'd met earlier that week at another tournament. His name's John.
Now, seeing as the TD guy wasn't there to field these calls, someone else was doing it. And apparently there was some miscommunication, and when the TD guy showed up, and told about this, somehow the name "Johnson" ended up on the list instead.
So when the computer put up its match list - "Johnson" was one of the players listed. He hadn't shown up yet (and that's his fault). But the trick is, the TD let one of the three tables *sit empty* for half an hour, at least - because the computer told him to run that match on that table, and one of the players wasn't there. Running a *different* match on that table in the meantime? Impossible!
After while, and after a fair bit of noise from the field, he finally puts up another match on that table. Things start moving along.
Now back to the aforementioned computer program. The logic coded in it to handle what matches to play is *horrific*, I'm learning. Any half-decent TD worth his salt will try and keep all the players playing at as close an interval as he can. This program doesn't accomodate such an idea.
We had, I believe, 17 players last night. On a normal 32-man board, that means everyone but two folks get a bye. And naturally, the first match should be those two folks, to even things up.
So the computer posts these two folks as one of the first matches. No worries! They play their match, they're done. Then it posts the winner of that match to play again, immediately. Our TD follows the computer's wishes and puts him up again - not two minutes has passed since he sank his last 9-ball. More grumblings from the rest of the field, who have yet to play one match.
About this time, John (the kid I mentioned above) rolls in. I say hi, chat him up a little bit - and say "Well you're too late, we've already started." "Oh I called in earlier." Light-bulb time - John = Johnson! The kid's Latino, has a bit of an accent, so I figure, over the phone in a semi-noisy bar, whoever answered the call misheard him and got "Johnson" out of the conversation.
I hop over to the computer, where the TD guy is, and try to tell him that I think John is Johnson, that he's here. This guy doesn't want to hear it - proceeds to tell me about his 20-year career in the technical field, etc. - essentially translated, "I know more about this than you do, so shut the hell up". I give up, go back to where I'm sitting. About a half hour or so later, this guy finally either makes the connection, or someone who he WILL listen to makes it and tells him, and John gets to play his first match. (More on John's fun night later.)
Now, this TD is also one of the players in the tournament. No worries there - if he, like most TD/player combos I've seen, either take a few moments between shots/games to handle the tournament, or has someone else doing it while they're playing.
This guy? Do that? Noooo. While he's shooting his match, the other three tables (there's four tables in the place, the tournament usually runs on three, and finally this guy started assigning matches on the fourth) finish up. They're all waiting for this fellow to come over, record their results, and assign new matches to those tables. This doesn't happen. He keeps playing his match, while everyone else in the place sits.
One poor fellow, his first time playing in this tournament (and he's admittedly a new player in tournaments in general) approaches the TD, during the match while he's not at the table, and inquires why the other tables are empty. The TD proceeds to tear into this guy, mentioning his tech-sector career again, going down the "have *you* ever run a tournament before? Huh?" road, etc. He cannot take suggestions or questions without reacting like they're personal attacks. On top of that, he's been drinking all night and is getting good and lit.
So TD guy lambastes this poor fellow for about five minutes straight - while everyone else is sitting, while his match opponent - in the middle of the match - is standing around. I finally call out the poor fellow's name, get him to come over and sit down, so that the whole conversation will end, TD guy can start shooting again and his match can finish, and he can finally get back to running the tournament.
After his match is done, he goes back to the desk, and starts putzing about with something - I think he thinks he got shorted on the tournament fees. He starts counting the cash he's got. He's also got *every table in the bar* sitting *dead*, and every player in the house sitting on their collective asses.
After about five-ten minutes of him counting money, and talking to people about completely unrelated things, he finally calls out some matches.
Back to John, and back to the horrid computer program. Normally the tournament starts at 8:00 - folks roll in in the hour ahead, sign up, warm up, goof around, get things going at eight. TD guy rolled in just after 8, so we didn't get started 'til about 8:30. John had rolled in about ten till 9.
Now this computer program had put his match up as one of the first ones. Somehow the TD eventually put the kibosh on that, so that match wasn't coming up in the list any longer. But what it did was delay that match until practically the LAST possible match. Many loser side matches were played, and all the winner side matches in that column were played or in progress, before John's match came up on the list and our TD finally called it. This was, if I recall right, around 10pm. By this time some folks were on their third matches.
So John loses his match. Personally, I've played two matches, gotten a third on forfeit (because the fellow I was supposed to play couldn't stick around till all hours of the night for the tournament to finish, and bailed), and played a fourth match (which knocked me out) before John's gotten his second match. It's midnight at this point - nearly four hours and one match play for this guy.
Looking at the screen before I head out, the bottom left side of the bracket - where John currently is - is WAY behind as far as matches played, keeping the columns even, etc. Why? Because the logic in this program is horrid, and the TD won't deviate from its instructions.
A friend of mine, at this point, is in the hotseat. As it's now midnight - about the time the tournament's usually done, and no end in sight - we wander over to a fast food joint so he can get some chow. After he's done, we wander back - it's about 12:30 now - and turns out that bottom-left side of the bracket is so far behind, that my pal is going to have to wait on FOUR matches to be played back-to-back - winner of one plays someone, winner of that one plays someone, etc - before he can play again. The computer/TD combo has caused this monstrous delay.
My pal suggests we retire to the topless bar down the street for a couple of beers. We do. We come back after about 45 min, and my pal wanders in, I head home. It's about 1:30 at this point. Nearly six hours to run a double-elim, race-to-3 9-ball tournament.
I won't be going back to that tournament again.
There's a little Friday evening 9-ball tournament I go to fairly often. The field shifts around every week - there's a few regulars, and a few irregulars. Some decent players come in there - I've won it once or twice, but I never go in with any assumptions.
The guy who runs it has always, IMHO, not run it terribly well. Most weeks there's a grumble here and there about it, but it's never been a huge deal.
Last night, however, was too much.
First, the guy shows up about the time we usually get started, i.e. by this time people have already signed up, paid their fees, and the draw is done. It takes him a good while to get things prepped.
Then, once things get started, the real fun begins. They've got an old PC in the joint, and they have a copy of that older pool tournament manager program - I forget the exact name - it's the one with the white background, the one that the guy behind it passed away a year or so ago.
This particular program, like most of its ilk, allows you to enter the number of tables you're running, and will suggest (note - SUGGEST) what matches to play at any given time. The issue here is, our beloved TD considers the computer's suggestions as, well... commands. He regards that match list as sacrosanct and not to be deviated from.
As in a lot of tournaments around the country, I imagine, there's folks who will call in and say "I'm on my way, please put me on the list.". That's fine and dandy - I've done it myself a few times. Last night, this one fellow had called the bar. As it turns out, he's a kid I'd met earlier that week at another tournament. His name's John.
Now, seeing as the TD guy wasn't there to field these calls, someone else was doing it. And apparently there was some miscommunication, and when the TD guy showed up, and told about this, somehow the name "Johnson" ended up on the list instead.
So when the computer put up its match list - "Johnson" was one of the players listed. He hadn't shown up yet (and that's his fault). But the trick is, the TD let one of the three tables *sit empty* for half an hour, at least - because the computer told him to run that match on that table, and one of the players wasn't there. Running a *different* match on that table in the meantime? Impossible!
After while, and after a fair bit of noise from the field, he finally puts up another match on that table. Things start moving along.
Now back to the aforementioned computer program. The logic coded in it to handle what matches to play is *horrific*, I'm learning. Any half-decent TD worth his salt will try and keep all the players playing at as close an interval as he can. This program doesn't accomodate such an idea.
We had, I believe, 17 players last night. On a normal 32-man board, that means everyone but two folks get a bye. And naturally, the first match should be those two folks, to even things up.
So the computer posts these two folks as one of the first matches. No worries! They play their match, they're done. Then it posts the winner of that match to play again, immediately. Our TD follows the computer's wishes and puts him up again - not two minutes has passed since he sank his last 9-ball. More grumblings from the rest of the field, who have yet to play one match.
About this time, John (the kid I mentioned above) rolls in. I say hi, chat him up a little bit - and say "Well you're too late, we've already started." "Oh I called in earlier." Light-bulb time - John = Johnson! The kid's Latino, has a bit of an accent, so I figure, over the phone in a semi-noisy bar, whoever answered the call misheard him and got "Johnson" out of the conversation.
I hop over to the computer, where the TD guy is, and try to tell him that I think John is Johnson, that he's here. This guy doesn't want to hear it - proceeds to tell me about his 20-year career in the technical field, etc. - essentially translated, "I know more about this than you do, so shut the hell up". I give up, go back to where I'm sitting. About a half hour or so later, this guy finally either makes the connection, or someone who he WILL listen to makes it and tells him, and John gets to play his first match. (More on John's fun night later.)
Now, this TD is also one of the players in the tournament. No worries there - if he, like most TD/player combos I've seen, either take a few moments between shots/games to handle the tournament, or has someone else doing it while they're playing.
This guy? Do that? Noooo. While he's shooting his match, the other three tables (there's four tables in the place, the tournament usually runs on three, and finally this guy started assigning matches on the fourth) finish up. They're all waiting for this fellow to come over, record their results, and assign new matches to those tables. This doesn't happen. He keeps playing his match, while everyone else in the place sits.
One poor fellow, his first time playing in this tournament (and he's admittedly a new player in tournaments in general) approaches the TD, during the match while he's not at the table, and inquires why the other tables are empty. The TD proceeds to tear into this guy, mentioning his tech-sector career again, going down the "have *you* ever run a tournament before? Huh?" road, etc. He cannot take suggestions or questions without reacting like they're personal attacks. On top of that, he's been drinking all night and is getting good and lit.
So TD guy lambastes this poor fellow for about five minutes straight - while everyone else is sitting, while his match opponent - in the middle of the match - is standing around. I finally call out the poor fellow's name, get him to come over and sit down, so that the whole conversation will end, TD guy can start shooting again and his match can finish, and he can finally get back to running the tournament.
After his match is done, he goes back to the desk, and starts putzing about with something - I think he thinks he got shorted on the tournament fees. He starts counting the cash he's got. He's also got *every table in the bar* sitting *dead*, and every player in the house sitting on their collective asses.
After about five-ten minutes of him counting money, and talking to people about completely unrelated things, he finally calls out some matches.
Back to John, and back to the horrid computer program. Normally the tournament starts at 8:00 - folks roll in in the hour ahead, sign up, warm up, goof around, get things going at eight. TD guy rolled in just after 8, so we didn't get started 'til about 8:30. John had rolled in about ten till 9.
Now this computer program had put his match up as one of the first ones. Somehow the TD eventually put the kibosh on that, so that match wasn't coming up in the list any longer. But what it did was delay that match until practically the LAST possible match. Many loser side matches were played, and all the winner side matches in that column were played or in progress, before John's match came up on the list and our TD finally called it. This was, if I recall right, around 10pm. By this time some folks were on their third matches.
So John loses his match. Personally, I've played two matches, gotten a third on forfeit (because the fellow I was supposed to play couldn't stick around till all hours of the night for the tournament to finish, and bailed), and played a fourth match (which knocked me out) before John's gotten his second match. It's midnight at this point - nearly four hours and one match play for this guy.
Looking at the screen before I head out, the bottom left side of the bracket - where John currently is - is WAY behind as far as matches played, keeping the columns even, etc. Why? Because the logic in this program is horrid, and the TD won't deviate from its instructions.
A friend of mine, at this point, is in the hotseat. As it's now midnight - about the time the tournament's usually done, and no end in sight - we wander over to a fast food joint so he can get some chow. After he's done, we wander back - it's about 12:30 now - and turns out that bottom-left side of the bracket is so far behind, that my pal is going to have to wait on FOUR matches to be played back-to-back - winner of one plays someone, winner of that one plays someone, etc - before he can play again. The computer/TD combo has caused this monstrous delay.
My pal suggests we retire to the topless bar down the street for a couple of beers. We do. We come back after about 45 min, and my pal wanders in, I head home. It's about 1:30 at this point. Nearly six hours to run a double-elim, race-to-3 9-ball tournament.
I won't be going back to that tournament again.
