Grand Prix Championship

Headlining our meta-events is the Grand Prix Championship which seeks to find the best all-round games player across 7 days of high level competition.  We’re back in 2024 with the same format that crowned Maciej Brzeski our 2023 champion! The competition has been designed to compact this championship into just 21 Premier events so that players can compete for this title without having to commit to our full Grand Prix schedule.  Don’t worry though, we’ll still have lots of tournaments going on from 2nd February to 17th March 2024.

Category Championships

In addition to the Grand Prix Championship, we will also be looking for champions in our 7 different categories of games.  The 7 different categories are:

• Chess
• Poker
• Backgammon
• Draughts
• Multiplayer (3+ players) e.g. 7 Wonders, Catan, Wingspan.
• Abstract (2 players, perfect information, no randomness after initial setup) e.g. Go, Othello, Patchwork.
• Imperfect Information (2 players, some element of hidden information or randomness during the game) e.g. 7 Wonders Duel, Azul, Lost Cities.

Unlike the Grand Prix Championship, any tournament can be used towards your Category Championship score providing that it is in the right category.  You can see which category all tournaments will count towards from our Tournament Details page.

Grand Prix Scoring

In 2024 we will be utilising the Pentamind formula to determine the winners of each of our meta-events.  For the all round Grand Prix Championship competition, there are 21 eligible Premier events (see below) with 3 played on each of 7 selected days.  Players may play in as many of these tournaments as they wish, but only your best 5 will be used to calculate your GP score.  Other category meta-events will follow the same Pentamind style scoring system, but players can use any combination of events from within the category regardless of whether those events are counted towards the all rounders competition.

The Grand Prix formula rewards players with points based on their performance at the end of each tournament, as follows:

For events with 100 or less players:

• Event Score =  100 x ((N + 5)/(N + 6)) x ((N – P)/(N – 1))

For events with over 100 players:

• For P <= 10, Event Score = 100 x ((105) / (99 x 106)) x (100 – P)
• For P > 10,   Event Score = 100 x ((105 x 90) / (99 x 106)) x (N – P) / (N – 10)

where N is the number of players and P is the player’s finishing position in the event.  If a player finishes tied for position with another player or players then P is the average of the finishing positions they tied for (eg 6 players finishing tied for positions 10 to 15, P = 12.5)

In the (unlikely) event of a tie for the best Grand Prix score, then the Grand Prix Championship will be shared.

Further Scoring Details

• Players are welcome to participate in multiple tournaments simultaneously providing that they are able to play at the appropriate pace in each event, are ready to play each game as they are required and providing that they intend to complete all of their matches in each tournament that they begin. Entering several tournaments simultaneously with the intention of dropping out of some to focus on the best chance at a high finish is forbidden.  Players who make a habit of starting multiple tournaments that they do not finish will be investigated by the organisers and may have their points reduced or removed for such sessions.

Category Championships

• Your best 5 event scores will be used to form your score for each category.
• Both Premier and non-Premier can be used in your category score. There is no bonus for using Premier events.
• Only a maximum of 2 scores from the same game may be used in a non-game specific category.

Grand Prix Championship

• Only Premier tournaments may be used towards your Grand Prix Championship score.
• A maximum of 3 tournaments from any one category can be used within a Grand Prix score.

The Premier event selected games and schedule is as shown below.  Our intention is to rotate games in and out of the Premier schedule year to year to keep this competition fresh.