Last year we took on the challenges of hosting a team tournament and we chose Spades. We would like to take this opportunity again to thank everyone because due to your fair play you enabled us to have a very successful and enjoyable tournament You also proved that team tournaments can work in the Playroom. This time we have decided to host a Belote competition. Although it is a new game in the Playroom, we feel that enough people know and love it enough to enable us to get a good number of teams to make it interesting, competitive and enjoyable to spectate! Running a team competition as I suggested above is much more challenging as we require 4 players per game and we have to get them to turn up all together. in the Cribbage tournament we did have a number of the original entrants pull out for various reasons and those were very understandable reasons so there is no complaints there, but if you really do want to take part in this tournament please think carefully before entering, as it's even harder to find teams that can replace you. It is important to make this tournament a success as it will encourage more people to take on the responsibility of a team tournament with all it's challenges in the future.

We are aware time is a factor for some and that's why we have decided to run the competition in 2 different groups for the first day as we hope it will encourage more teams from around the world to take part. The first group games will start at 15:00UK time and the second group will start at 19:00 UK time, so please register your preference when your team enters the competition. If you don't mind when your team plays then please let us know that too as it will make the draw easier to manage. If you are not able to find a team partner but are still interested in playing, then please register for this competition and we will do our best to try and find you a partner. we suggest that people practise with their partners before the tournament begins. If you are not familiar with your playing partner then you have a perfect excuse to get a bit of extra practise before everything starts.

The Belote tournament will start on Saturday 23rd July 2016 with Group A starting just after 15:00 BST, 16:00 Central Europe, 17:00 eastern Europe, 2:00 Fiji; Asia: 19:30 India, 18:30 Iran, 19:00 Pakistan, 21:00 Vietnam; USA: 4:00 HST, 6:00 AKDT, 7:00 PDT, 8:00 MDT, 9:00 CDT, 10:00 EDT.

The second part of the Belote tournament will start on Saturday 23rd July 2016 with Group B starting just after 19:00 BST, 20:00 Central Europe, 21:00 Eastern Europe, 6:00 Fiji; Asia: 23:30 India, 22:30 Iran, 23:00 Pakistan, 1:00 Vietnam; USA: 8:00 HST, 2:00 AKDT, 11:00 PDT, 12:00 MDT, 13:00 CDT, 14:00 EDT.

If your country/region is not covered in any of the timezones above then please contact one of the organisers for further assistance.

We are looking for 16 teams containing 2 players in each team, but if there is a huge demand it can be expanded to accomodate more teams.

the draw will be split into pots 1 and 2 as they reflect different timezones, as I have stated above. I will draw randomly the matches for group A from pot 1 and will repeat the same action with pot 2 for Group B. As you may have already worked out the final will have the winners of Group A play the winners Of Group B. Please note that for the second day we will start slightly earlier so will start day 2 mid-way between both timezones for the latter stages of the tournament.

The victory score limit for the first round will be set to 700 points, The second round 800 points, The Semi-Final 1000 points and the final will be set at 1200 points. We estimate that the first rounds will take between 25 to 35 minutes, depending on the speed of players and how the game unfolds.

RULES

1. If a team/team member fails to turn up for their match the game will be awarded to the opposing team and that team will then be given a bye into the next round so please turn up on time. Please note that rules 2 and 3 will be taken into concideration for the first round of the tournament.

2. At the start or prior the tournament commencing we will try our best to replace any Teams/team partners that are unable to make their match if possible. If a team partner has to withdraw for any reason and you need to get another team partner, feel free to do so, but you must inform us: Adventure-time, Teardrop or Ynwa, right away by sending us a message in our inbox, so that we can give notice to the opposing team and make any other necessary ajustments. If you are unable to find another team partner we will do our best to find you one. Once we are informed that that team partner is unable to participate anymore we will ensure the first player on our standby list will get the first chance to play in the tournament. If they are unable to take part then the next player on the list will gget that spot.

3. If your team is unable to make the tournament could you please notify us of your teams withdrawal from the competition as soon as possible so we are able to form a team from the players on the standbye list. Pleas don't promise any other people your team's place in the tournament as It is for the organisers to make that choice and not the team that has to withdraw from the competition.

4. Please don't help your partner during the game as this is strictly forbidden. We won't hesitate in taking strong and appropriate action against anybody caught doing this. In this matter the referee's decision is final. Anybody caught will not be part of any future tournaments we host.

5. Please don't take too long deciding on whether you want to take on the contract or not during the betting phase. The same applies during the rest of the game as You may incur a penalty of 50 points and if necessary you could be expelled from the competition. We don't want to take action against anybody, but if we need to, we will do what is necessary to discourage slow play. Remember it is not nice for anybody to have to wait around for ages as we have other games to get through.

6. Please limit talking during rounds as we don't want to remove people from the table and make sure when writing a PM to use the @ sign at the start of your message, as your message will go out to the table without it.

7. Anybody abusing the playroom rules or disruptive during the tournament could be disqualified if they are still in the competition, or will be banned from the table. They Could be excluded from any future tournament we host!

If anybody has any further questions regarding the tournament then please don't hesitate to ask one of the organisers who will do their best to assist you as best as they can.

We wish you the best of luck in the tournament and hope it is a really enjoyable one for you all!

Thanks

Adventure-Time, Teardrop and YNWA.

can i joyn

hay i would like to participate i would let u know of my team mate after finding 1. Wish u good luck for the tournament

i want to join,

I am here, I don't have a partner, please select me one.

blind tec i will be yr parkiner

ok, I hope that everything will be ok :)

Hello!
Aurel and me would like to take part in this tournament, if still are free spots.
If it is possible, we'd like to be in group B, because the starting time is at 9 p m eastern Europe, that will be perfect for me.
If it is not, then I could not participate, due to the schedule of church, what I use to attend saturday.
Thank you!

Thank you all that registered an interest in playing in our Belote tournament. We already have some very interesting teams and we will be looking forward to hosting the tournament very soon. We are still looking for teams so if you have a team then pleas contact the organisers or register your interest here and we will get back to you. Our priority is teams but if wee need to make teams with players that are unable to find a partner we will do so as suggested previously but that will depend on the format of the competition.

Thanks

Adventure-Time, Teardrop and YNWA.

Hello, I would like to participate.

When we decided to host the Belote tournament we originally looked for 16 teams as we did for the Spades Team tournament. We currently have 8 teams and that could rise to possibly 12 but we think realistically we won't get 16 teams. we still have a number of very good teams that have entered the competition so it does not lack for quality. they say every cloud has a Silver lining and that is the case for this competition. Usually when we have more teams/players you can only give people one chance so if they loose their game due to having the bad luck to play a potential winner first up they go out immediately.

If we have 8 teams we will have 2 groups of 4 teams, they will play each other in a round robin competition. Everybody will get 3 consecutive games so not too much waiting around for the next game. Only the top 2 will qualify for the Semi-final from each group. The Semis and Final will be played at 17:00 UK Time on Sunday.

If we have 12 teams then we will have 4 groups of 3 teams and only the winner from each Group will make the Semi Final.

We will update you if there are any further developments.

Adventure-Time, Teardrop and YNWA.

Hi, I'd like to participate so, if any of you don't have a partner, I'll consider you as a teammate. Sabina just contact me

BELOTE DRAW & FIXTURES

We have 12 teams that entered the 2016 Belote tournament so we had to make a slight change that would enable everybody to get 2 games each. We have 4 groups of 3 teams. Group A & b will play at 15:00 UK time and group C & D will play at 19:00 UK time. Only the winner of each group will progress to the semi-final!

The draw was unseeded so it means that any team could play any other team in their time zone. There was one exception as I had to ensure that myself & Teardrop couldn't play in the same time zone as Adventure-time & Everyone as we would not have both been able to play at the same table. If we had been in different groups it would have been more limited for other teams taking part as 2 of the 4 slots were already filled.

GROUP A

1. Teardrop & YNWA
2. Basket & The Raven
3. Alesia & Furki

Match 1. Teardrop & YNWA V Basket & The Raven
Match 2. Teardrop & YNWA V Alesia & Furki
Match 3. Basket & The Raven V Alesia & Furki

GROUP B

1. angelina-princess & zulfqar007
2. Guliwer & Magicalkrrish
3. Fawaz & marina7

Match 1. angelina-princess & zulfqar007 V Guliwer & Magicalkrrish
Match 2. angelina-princess & zulfqar007 V Fawaz & marina7
Match 3. Guliwer & Magicalkrrish V Fawaz & marina7

GROUP C.

1. Christina & Aurel
2. Adventure-Time & Everyone
3. qedirgencero & Ormanci

Match 1. Christina & Aurel V Adventure-Time & Everyone
Match 2. Christina & Aurel V qedirgencero & Ormanci
Match 3. Adventure-Time & Everyone V qedirgencero & Ormanci

GROUP D

1. Estrellavega & johny
2. Genti & prabhu
3. serdjoni & Sabina

Match 1. Estrellavega & johny V Genti & prabhu
Match 2. Estrellavega & johny V serdjoni & Sabina
Match 3. Genti & prabhu V serdjoni & Sabina

Please note that the draw is subject to change, Hosts are able to alter the order of fixtures due to requests or people turning up late etc.

All we can do now is wish everybody the best of luck for the tournament.

Adventure-Time, Teardrop And YNWA

Dear organisers
Excuse me,, for the time of tournament,I think I can't play in group B because it's too late in Vietnam. I remembered I had registered with Ynwa that put me in groupA. Please consider my case.
Thank you & sorry for my problem.

Aren't groups A and B at 3 pm UK time? so if you were on C or D, it would be even later for you.

All issues have been solved now so all those that helped in some way thanks a lot. There are a couple of other things to bring up so this is a good time to say so.

The target score for all group matches in round 1 are 800 points. The Semi-Finals will be 1000 points and the final 1200 points

We know Belote Is A beta version and does contain the odd bug:

Belote and rebelote

If a player owns the king and the queen of trump, his team can obtain 20 bonus points. To get them, he must announce « belote » when playing the king, and « rebelote » when playing the queen, just after having played the corresponding card but before the next player plays.
The king and the queen must be played in that order; playing the queen and then the king don't give the bonus.
Of course, the bonus is lost when forgetting one of the two announcements.

We are aware that if You play the Queen then play the King later you will still get the 20 points and this is not supposed to happen. For the purposes of the tournament you will get your bonus of 20 points whatever way you play them.

I have been told that there is a bug that wil give the team making the contract 79 points while the defending team gets 83 points I have not seen this bug or an example of it. If this happens we will go back to the scores of the previous round and manually award the correct points. the teams will play as normal and if they have to play a further round after to make up the numbers they will. So if team a had 400 points and team be had 450 points we would award the162 points to the correct team. So in this example team A would get 162 more points because they made team B fail. this would move team A to 562 points while team B would remain on 450 points. All final decisions would be decided by the organisers.