Dragonmeet

Dragonmeet: London is hosting one of the UK's Ticket to Ride Regional Qualifiers, sponsored by Leisure Games of London.

The event starts at 10.30am with rounds running throughout the day, schedule to finish about 6.30pm.

There is no cost to enter this event, and sign up can be made on the day, although the admission price for aticket to Dragonmeet is needed.

Here is further information about the competition:

Ticket to Ride World Championship Tournament Format

Introduction

Days of Wonder is holding the first ever Ticket to Ride World 

Championships in June of 2010. The winner of the championship 

will go on the trip of a lifetime - a week long trip for two 

on the legendary Orient Express!

Beginning in October, a series of Regional Qualifying tournaments

will be held in France, Germany, UK, Spain, Poland, the Benelux

countries, US and Canada - with the top players qualifying to play

in National Championships. From there, 8 champions will emerge and

win a trip to Paris France and a seat at the table at the World

Championship event.

Below is the tournament format explaining how Regional Qualifying

tournaments will be run, as well an overview of the National and

World Championships. Each tournament will have a designated Tournament

Manager who is charged with conducting the tournament, settling any

disputes, and calculating the scoring to determine the ranking and

winners. He will also make sure that players maintain a sense of 

decorum, play fair and display good sportsmanship at all times. 

If players do not follow these rules, they will be disqualified and 

asked to leave the tournament.

Eligibility Requirements

Players must be 18 years of age, or older on the day of the qualifying

 event that they are participating in.

Players must be a citizen or resident of the country in which the

qualifier is being held.

Players must sign up for the qualifier tournament on the Days of 

Wonder website. This is necessary so that they verify their eligibility

and to acknowledge their agreement to all the rules and conditions of

the tournament and championship. For some events, on-site registration

is allowed if participants sign acknowledgement of rules document.

Regional Qualifying Events

The purpose of the regional events is to qualify players for that

countries National Championship. In most cases the winner of the event

will be the only qualifier. However in larger events, it is possible

that 1 or even 2 runners-up may also qualify - this will be determined

beforehand by Days of Wonder.  Even if there is only one qualifier, 

the runner-up positions are important because these players, in the 

order of their finish would be asked to take the place of the winner, 

if the winner is not able to attend the National Championship.

Tournament Rounds

There are 3 rounds in each Qualifying tournament. They consist of:

-       2 or 3 Preliminary games

-       3 Semifinal games 

-       2 or 3 Championship games

Each player will play 2 or 3 games in the preliminary round. Because

we are trying to identify the all-around best Ticket to Ride players,

these preliminary games must contain a mix of Ticket to Ride base games,

including Ticket to Ride and Ticket to Ride Europe. Either of those can

be replayed as the 3rd game in the round, or the tournament manager may

also include Ticket to Ride Marklin as the third game. Ticket to Ride

1910 should not be used in this round, as it will be played in the 

Semi-final round. Ticket to Ride Nordic and Ticket to Ride Switzerland 

should not be used, as they cannot accommodate the preferred 4-player 

configuration of the Preliminary games.

Preliminary games should, whenever possible, be played as 4 player games.

If there is 1 extra player, that player can be added to an existing 4 

player game. If there are 2 extra players, create two, 3 player games 

to accommodate those players. If there are 3 extra players, create a 

single 3 player game. 

At the end of each preliminary game, the position each player finishes

(1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc…) and the points they scored are recorded, along 

with the number of the table at which they played. We recommend readying 

ahead of time a score sheet for each table, and having the players write 

in their name in the table entry for the corresponding preliminary when 

they sit down at the table. The player responsible for managing the 

score markers should make sure to write down each players’ score and 

position at game’s end.

After all Preliminary games are completed and scored, the Tournament 

Manager determines which players move to the next round, based on the 

scoring criteria below. 

The number of participants will determine the number of players in the 

semifinal round as shown in this table:

# of Participants      Players in Semis

<= 48   8

49-96   12

97-144  16

145-191 20

192+    24

Scoring

The players who qualify for the next round are determined by creating a 

ranking of the players. The ranking score of a player is determined by: 

the sum of his final position in the 2 or 3 preliminary games. The player

 with the lowest Sum Score number is ranked first. The player with the 

highest Sum Score number is ranked last.

Example: Player A finishes 2nd, 3rd and 1st in her games. Her Sum Score

 is 6 (2+3+1). Player B finishes 4th, 3rd and 2nd. His Sum Score is 9. 

Player A is then ranked ahead of Player B.

Tie-breakers

If 2 or more players are tied for the last qualifying positions, 

tie-breakers will be applied in the following order to determine the 

qualifiers for the next round:

1.      Total # of wins in preliminary rounds. Among the tied players,

 the player(s) with the most wins (ie coming up in 1st in a game) will 

qualify. If players are still tied then… 

2.      If the number of players in the 3 games that the tied players

 played in were different, then the player who defeated the most total

 player(s) in the preliminary rounds will qualify. If players are still

 tied then…

3.      The player(s) with the highest total # of points scored (in all

 rounds) will qualify. If players are still tied then…

4.      The player(s) with the highest % of points scored out of total

 points in the games each played will qualify.

5.      If the tie is still not broken, then the tied players will play

 a single game to determine who qualifies. 

Semi-finals

The Semi-final round games consist of 2 games of Ticket to Ride USA 1910 

(1 game of 1910, and one Mega Game) and will always be played as 4 player

 games as the number of qualifiers is always divisible by 4. 

At the end of the 3 games, the ranking is calculated using the same

scoring mechanism as the Preliminary rounds.

- The top 2 ranked players will go to the Championship Match.

- The 3rd and 4th ranked players will play in the Consolation Match 

Championship and Consolation Round

The Championship and Consolation rounds are played as head-to-head, best

 2 out of 3 matches on the original Ticket to Ride (US map). If a player

 wins the first 2 games, a 3rd game is not required.

The winner of the Championship Match is the winner of the Regional

Tournament and qualifies for the National Championship. The loser of

the Championship Match is awarded 2nd place in the tournament. The

winner of the Consolation Match is awarded 3rd place and the loser of

the Consolation Match is awarded 4th place. These positions are 

important in that runners up may be asked to replace the winner if he

is not able to attend the National Championship.  (See Prize Details 

below)

Prizes

The Regional Tournament winner will receive the following:

        - Invitation to the National Championship 

- Tournament Plaque honoring the winner 

- Special Gold Ticket to Ride Score Marker

- Reimbursement for travel costs to the National Championship. 

(Amount varies depending on country and will be paid only after 

they participate in Nationals)

-       US/Canada Qualifiers get invitation to Alan Moon’s Gathering 

of Friends

The 2nd place finisher will receive the following:

        - First Alternate to the National Championship if winner is

unable to attend

        - Silver Ticket to Ride Score Marker

The 3rd place finisher will receive the following:

        - Second Alternate to the National Championship if first two

cannot attend

        - Bronze Ticket to Ride Score Marker

The 4th place finisher is the Third Alternate to the National Championship