Last year, the WBF ran the inaugural e-Bridge Cup, which was very successful, and turned out to be the largest online bridge event held to date. Lots of Irish players took part, with our highest finisher, Kelan O’Connor, finishing inside the top 100 in a field of more than 10,000.
A second e-Bridge Cup has been announced, with a significant change this time around. This time, while the qualifiers will be online as before, the finals will be held face-to-face, in Katowice, Poland, in August, before the World Bridge Series event there.
For the qualifiers, both BBO and Funbridge will be offering games. The event will run over three months, with qualifiers throughout the month of May. You can play as many qualifier tournaments as you want, and the best 100 qualifiers from each platform will go through to a Semi-Final phase, to be held between June 8 and July 5. The top 50 players overall will then compete in the live Open Final in Katowice, on August 18/19, with the finals streamed live on Twitch, YouTube, and BBO, with expert commentaries. There will also be a repechage event for the near-qualifiers, which will provide two additional qualifiers for the live final, and an online final for the near-qualifiers from the Semi-Final phase. The key attractions are:
- A total prize pool of $30,000, of which €10,000 will go to the live winner, €2,500 to the winner of the online Final, and €2,000 to the winner of the “Plate” competition;
- All qualifiers for the live Final will receive free accommodation for three nights in Katowice, plus an allowance towards their travel costs;
- WBF, platform, and local federation masterpoints – the CBAI will review the appropriate level of masterpoint awards on completion of the event, but as last time we suggest that qualifiers for the Semi-Final phase will earn at least 0.5 National Points, and for the Final at least 1 National Point, and that we intend to be flexible and generous with awards, to encourage participation in this event;
- Several tournaments every day on both the Funbridge and BBO platforms, so you can play at your leisure.
You play each tournament with a robot partner, and against robot opposition. There is no entry fee, but you will be charged the relevant platform fee for each tournament you play. The CBAI will generate a small fee for each Irish-registered player who takes part, so we have a small stake in your participation – Irish players in the last e-Bridge Cup generated almost €1,800 in federation rebates, so thank you to all who took part, and hopefully this second event will generate even more support. The WBF intends to use this competition for promotional activities to generate publicity for the game, and hopefully to stimulate interest amongst non-players, which will be a big bonus. Plus it would of course be very nice to see some Irish players finish on the podium or close to the top of the rankings. We’ll remind members about this competition, and on how to enter, as the deadline gets closer.