Tournament Details

The table below contains all of the information you’ll need to take part in any of our Grand Prix 2023 tournaments.  The “Go To” link will take you to where you need to go for the tournament.  If it’s a “Signup” link, you’ll need to follow it through and join the tournament at that link in advance of the tournament starting.  If it’s a “Discord” link then it will take you to the Discord channel for the tournament.  Check the channel in advance as it is likely to contain information about how the tournament is going to work and join the channel approximately 15 minutes before the tournament is due to start, your organiser will direct you from Discord.  Some tournaments also have an “Info” link which will contain further information about the tournament not visible from the “Link“.

We are working through the details for each of the 100+ tournaments on our schedule and links will appear below as they are ready, please bear with us!

At the bottom of this page you’ll find a more detailed explanation of how to join tournaments on each of the platforms.  If you get stuck, please come and ask us in our Discord group.

Don’t forget to register for the MSO Grand Prix if you’ve not done so already!

Platform Information

BoardGameArena BGA (Automated)

BoardGameArena (BGA) automated tournaments are easy to register and play in.  Follow the link in the table above to access the tournament homepage where you can see all of the details of the tournament format and the rules that have been selected.  From 24 hours before the tournament is due to start, visit this page and click “Register for this tournament” to sign-up.  At the tournament start time make sure you are logged into BGA and you’ll see an invite at the top of the screen inviting you to join your first match.  Click to join and play your game.  BGA will track all of the results and you can see the results of all tournament games and the overall standings via the tournament homepage.

We have a dedicated page with details about how the BGA tournament system works, rules on when you can timeout an opponent and explanations of how we will resolve any tiebreaks during BGA automated tournaments.

If you don’t have the 100 ELO BGA requires in order to register for a tournament, you can request an invitation by completing this short form (at least 2 hours before the tournament begins).  You’ll receive an email from BGA once we’ve sent your invite and you’ll then be able to register to the tournament.

PokerStars

All of our poker tournaments will be hosted by PokerStars. We will have one open tournament (Texas Holdem on Sunday 29th January), the remaining tournaments will all be conducted within our HomeGroup.

To join the HomeGroup open the PokerStars main lobby and click on the Home Games tab, followed by “Join a Poker Club”.  Enter the club ID number 4839431 and Invitation Code “msopoker“.  Once an administrator has approved your membership you’ll be able to join the tournaments within the group.  Please ensure you request to join the group at least 2 hours before the tournament is scheduled to begin and leave us a message on Discord to notify us, otherwise we cannot guarantee that it will be approved in time for you to play.

There is an entry fee of 20k play money chips (this is the lowest option we can select). If you are short on play money chips you can get more by clicking on the Cashier, go to the play money tab and you can collect 15k chips every 4 hours.

PlayStrategy

PlayStrategy (PS) tournaments are organised using PlayStrategy’s tournament system which will automatically assign pairings.  You’ll need to join the Mind Sports Olympiad team and then you can join the tournament using the link provided in the table above, or by searching for it in the MSO team tournament list on PlayStrategy.

PlayStrategy tournaments fall into two main categories: Swiss tournaments and Arena tournaments.  Many of the Arena tournaments are also Medley tournaments.  Click through to the respective links to find out more about each type.

BackgammonHub

Backgammon tournaments are organised using BackgammonHub’s tournament system from within our MSO club.  Sign up for each tournament you’d like to enter using the links in the table above.  Return to this page on the day of the tournament, check in will open 15 minutes before the published start time.  Do not be late, once the tournament has begun there is no way to join late!

For any questions that come up during the Backgammon tournaments we recommend contacting us via Discord in the Backgammon channel.

You’ll need to join the Mind Sports Olympiad team and then you can join the tournament using the link provided in the table above, or by searching for it in the MSO team tournament list on PlayStrategy.

PlayStrategy tournaments fall into two main categories: Swiss tournaments and Arena tournaments.  Many of the Arena tournaments are also Medley tournaments.  Click through to the respective links to find out more about each type.

Other Platforms

The four platforms already discussed will host the majority of Grand Prix tournaments, however we will be using some other platforms for select games.  These include Vint, Dominion.games, Boardspace.net, online-go.com and abal.online.  There is information about each of these next to the tournaments using them above, however if you find yourself stuck you can come and ask us in our Discord group for help.