Rules / FAQ – ENG – Virtual World Cup of Pool

Here are the rules for the first Virtual World Cup of Pool (VWCoP I – 2020)

Players/Teams
1. The event is a team event with teams of two players.
2. Although the participation is completely for free, every player needs the ShootersPool “online gaming subscription”, also known as “Premium Account”. The reason is that “free members” can’t access custom game rooms.
3. If you can’t find a player as a teammate, there are four possibilities:
  1. Go to the “Players Exchange”. Fill out the form and hope for an answer by e-mail. Even if you know that you are the only player from your country, there is still hope (see II.4.).
  2. Use the ShootersPool forum, especially the thread about the VWCoP.
  3. Use the ShootersPool Discord Server and ask around.
  4. Look at the rankings in ShootersPool – you can filter by country there!
4. There is actually no limit to the number of teams from one country. However, there will be a preliminary national qualifying tournament for countries with many teams (see V.1.2. “Stages”).
5. The team names will be a combination of the country and a number (e.g. “USA 1″, ” USA 2″ & “USA 3”). Which team receives which number is decided based on the “Global Team Rating” in ShootersPool at the time of registration for the VWCoP. The team with the highest “Global Team Rating” gets No. 1, the team with the second highest “Global Team Rating” gets No. 2 and so on. The “Global Team Rating” is the sum of the two players’ “Global Rating”. It is then compared with the other teams of the same country. In case of a tie, the “Tournament Team Points” are used as a basis (The sum of both players’ “Tournament Points”). If there is also a tie, the number of matches played is used as a basis. And finally it is simply drawn by lottery.
6. Of course it is not allowed to let someone else than the two registered players play for the team.
7. If your team is registered but there are any changes before the first matchday, please send an e-mail to info@vwcop.org. You can write in English, French, German and Spanish.
8. No changes can be made to the team after the start of the first matchday.

Choice of Country/Nation
1. Your team must consist of two players who play for the same country.
2. You play for the country you selected in ShootersPool (most likely your country of residence), no matter what nationality you actually have. You cannot play for another nation, even not when you have two passports.
3. Special arrangement for players from the UK: In ShootersPool you could only choose the UK as your country, but we will try to set up teams not for the UK but for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Please search a teammate from your place, so that e.g. two Welsh players are in one team – not one Scotish and one Welsh. If you live in the UK in a country other than your home country, you can still apply for your home country or country of residence, in derogation of 2. Example: You are Welsh but live in England. Then you can play for England or Wales. This rule only applies to the UK!
  One or two weeks before the first matchday, the situation will be evaluated again. Although it is unlikely (The UK has by far the most players in ShootersPool), it is possible that it will be changed to “UK teams” at short notice. Then, every English, Northern Irish, Scotish and Welsh team would be removed, but you will be informed in time and have enough time to reapply as UK-Teams. You could then either search a new teammate or register with the same one.
4. It may be that the tournament director decides that players from different countries are allowed to play together for a “special team”. For example, this could be a team from one continent (“Oceania” or “Rest of South America”) or simply “Rest of the World”.

Prizes
1. The eight best teams will receive prizes from a 6.000 VC pot (provided by ShootersPool) and a $250 vouchers pot for the online billiards store PoolDawg.
2. The exact prizes are as follows:
  1. Winning team: $100 PoolDawg voucher + 2.400 VC.
  2. Second placed team: $50 PoolDawg voucher + 1.200 VC.
  3. Semi-final teams: $25 PoolDawg voucher + 600 VC.
  4. Quarterfinal teams: $12.50 PoolDawg voucher + 300 VC.
3. The prizes will be split 50/50 between both players of the team. For example, both players of the winning team will receive a $50 PoolDawg voucher and 1200 VC. A different split is not possible.
4. The won vouchers will be sent to the players by PoolDawg itself via e-mail. So the e-mail addresses used to register the players for the VWCoP must be correct! The e-mail addresses of the first to eighth placed teams will be passed on to PoolDawg for this purpose.
5. The VC prizes are credited by ShootersPool directly to the account of the winning players.

External tournament system
1. Each player will receive a password for this website after registration. Please change this immediately after the first login by clicking on your profile in the top right corner.
2. In addition it will probably be necessary to use an external tournament system. At the moment, the use of toornament.com is planned. The following arrangements only apply if there is no change regarding the external tournament system.
3. The VWCoP will have its own toornament page where you can look up many details. But in most cases it is enough to look on this website as everything will be integrated (or linked if an integration is not possible).
4. For this purpose, the tournament director enters each player on the toornament page with his e-mail address and his ShootersPool username. This is not yet a registration on toornament.com.
5. There is the possibility of reporting the matches, but a registration is needed for that. Whether we report matches directly on the toournament page or with a different method is not yet determined and will be announced. So it could be that you have to register on toornament.com additionally. Please have that in mind already.

Stages
1. Stage 1
  1. The first stage of the tournament is a national qualification tournament. All teams from whose country more teams than permitted have applied must participate. So this stage could also be not necessary at all and will not be necessary for the majority of countries. All those teams will form groups according to their countries, so a draw is not necessary. They will play a round robin and the best teams will qualify for the second stage (according to the allowed number of teams). The order of the matches is determined by the tournament director or automatically by toornament if it is used.
  2. How many teams will qualify for the second stage has not yet been decided and depends on the total number teams and the variety of countries. At the moment three teams per country are planned. If many different countries participate, this can be reduced. But it can also be increased if it makes sense for a more high-class stage 2. The exact regulation will be announced after the registration is closed.
2. Stage 2
  1. The second stage of the tournament is the group stage. The exact number of teams per group has not yet been determined and will be decided according to the total number of teams. The goal is groups of four teams. Which team goes into which group will be drawn by lot.
  2. For the draw of stage 2, there are several pools (according to the number of teams per group) and the teams are divided into these pools according to their “Global Team Rating”. In case of a tie, further values are taken as a basis, exactly as for the allocation of the team number (see I.5.). Example: If four teams are needed per group, there are four pools. The global ratings of the teams are then divided into four classes. This way the best 25 % would be placed in pool 1, the lowest 25 % would be placed in pool 4. After that, one team would be drawn from each pool for each group. At the end, in each group should be one team from each pool. In addition, there will be a "country protection" which means that a team can only be drawn into a group if there is not already a team from the same country.
    The draw will be made by the tournament director by means of a program. At the moment it is planned that it will also be streamed.
3. Stage 3

Matchplay & Scoring
1. All matches are “Scotch Doubles” (2 vs 2). There will be no single matches.
2. Stage 1 & 2 matches are “Best of 10”. As there is no "Best Of" mode in ShootersPool right now, there is a special arrangement needed which is described later (see VII. "Technical procedure of a match"). The winning team receives three points for the group rating, the losers receive zero points. In case of a tie (5:5) both teams receive one point. For reasons of distortion of competition, the match must not be conceded, because the individual results (game ratio) will be used for the ranking within the groups if teams are equal on points.
  Example: "USA 1" has seven points after three matches (5:5, 8:2, 7:3) and a game ratio of +10 (20:10). "Spain 2" also has seven points after three matches (5:5, 6:4, 6:4), but a game ratio of +4 (17:13). "USA 1" would therefore be ahead of "Spain 2". If the game ratio is also the same, the "matches played" decide, because it is possible that a team has not played all matches (see VIII. "Non-appearance"). The team with more matches played will be ahead. If the teams played the same number of matches, the direct comparison counts (If “USA 1” won against “Spain 2”, “USA 1” would be ahead of “Spain 2” in the group). If this match was a draw, the “Global Team Rating” decides. The team with the LOWER “Global Team Rating” at the time of their registration will be ahead of the team with the higher rating. The “Global Team Rating” can be looked up for each team on this website under “Teams”. And in the unlikely event that this value is also equal, the decision is made by lot. Here again is the order of the used values:
  1. More Points
  2. Better Game Ratio
  3. More Matches played
  4. Direct comparison won
  5. Lower “Global Team Rating”
  6. Lot
3. Please note: 2. might be changed in the next weeks. It describes the plan at the moment, but it could be that the technical process will make ties impossible. Then, there would be only wins and losses at all stages. In stage 1 & 2, the winning team would then receive only one point for a win and the loosing team would still receive no points of course.
4. Stage 3 matches are “Race To 7” in the first rounds before the quarterfinals, which will be “Race To 8”. The semifinals will be “Race To 9” and the final will be a “Race To 10” match.
5. The ingame room settings and game rules are as follows:

Technical procedure of a match
1. The matches will be scheduled for Sundays, 9:00 pm, but only as a deadline. In stage 1, your time-zone will be chosen in your group. In stage 2 & 3, the CET (Madrid, Spain) will be applied. The pairings and scheduled dates and times will be found on this website.
2. Teams can agree on an earlier date and time the whole week or a maximum of the Monday after. In case you agreed on another time for a match, you have to let the tournament director know. For that purpose, you will have to login on this website and use the reschedule function. Note that the change will not apply automatically. So the tournament director will update the info which is important for other players and streamers. For that purpose it would also be helpful if you don’t agree on different appointments on short notice, although that is allowed.
3. Each match takes place in a password protected game room. You can find this room in ShootersPool under the tab “Match / Team Play”. The rooms will be named like this:
  1. For stage 1, example for USA national qualifiers: “VWCoP | USA qualifiers”
  2. For stage 2, example for Group A: “VWCoP | Group A”
  3. For stage 3, example for the quarterfinals: “VWCoP | Quarterfinals”
4. If necessary, a table number is added to the room name, e.g. “VWCoP | Last 32 | Table 1”
5. Please note: This is the current plan how the tables are named. It may change due to several reasons, but by all means there will be "VWCoP" in the table's name.
6. One player is appointed “Room Master” by the system (usually the one who enters first). He has to set the teams manually (this works by drag & drop). The “Room Master” should drag the team with the higher “Global Team Rating” at the time of the registration for the VWCoP to the left side (Team 1). The “Global Team Rating” can be looked up for each team on this website under “Teams”. It's recommended to put the player with the higher individual "Global Rating" as Player 1, for reasons of overview. But that is not a duty. You will see the individual “Global Rating” directly in the game room behind the usernames.
7. For stages 1 & 2, there is a special arrangement. As there is no "Best Of" mode in ShootersPool, the group matches has to be organised in an unusual but still practical way: The rooms are "Race To 1" rooms. So for a "Best Of 10" match, the teams play exactly ten "Race To 1" matches. Each "Race To 1" match counts as one rack for the actual match. But there is an easy way to keep the overview: On the game room page (which you can access with CTRL+Tab ingame), there is a nice table, the "Room Ranking". There you can see immediatly the "matches" played (which count as games/racks) and the won "matches" which are the current standings. Here is what it looks like:
  
  After each game the “Room Master” has to set up the teams by drag & drop again. But this only takes a few seconds. Test matches have shown that this is not a big problem.
8. Please note: 7. may change completely if it will be decided that there are no ties at all stages (see VI.3.).
9. For stage 3, the procedure is more common. The room master has to set up the teams at the beginning and the teams play their match in “Race To” mode.
10. If the room master sets up wrong teams, the players should leave the room and come back. The “Room Ranking” is not significantly affected by this. So they can continue the match (although a different player maybe the “Room Master”). This only applies if the Room Master has not drawn the right teammates into one team. All other mistakes (higher rated team is not “Team 1”; higher rated player is not “Player 1”) are not a problem and the match should continue. Most important, it doesn’t influence the “Room Ranking” so that a good overview is guaranteed.

Non-appearance
1. The match must start no later than ten minutes after the scheduled time. If another time has been agreed upon and reported (see VII.2.), this time is valid, otherwise the deadline applies.
2. In terms of non-appearance, the consequences are always applied only after the ten minute waiting period has expired. There are several scenarios. Here are examples with teams “USA 1” and “Spain 2”:
  1. A team does not appear: “USA 1” is online and in the game room, but no player (or only one player) of “Spain 2” appears. “USA 1” has won the match. One of "USA 1"'s players has to report a whitewash immediatly.
  2. Both teams miss one player: Only one player from “USA 1” and only one player from “Spain 2” are in the game room. The match is cancelled. In stage 1 & 2 (seeV. “Stages”) both teams just receive no points. In stage 3, the team with the HIGHER "Global Team Rating" will win. If the “Global Team Ratings” are equal, the same method like the determination of the team number is used (see I.5.).
  3. Only one player at all appears: One player from “USA 1” is in the game room, but no player from “Spain 2”. “USA 1” is considered to be online and 1. applies. The player online has to report a whitewash immediatly.
  4. No player appears at all: 2. applies as if one player from both teams were online.