Tips :: Playing in ICC Tournaments

ICC has special programs that are used to run tournaments. They keep track of the standings, and tell players when and who to play. Currently, there are nine different copies of the Tomato program, each running in its own channel:

• Tomato -- Runs blitz tournaments in channel 46.
• Flash -- Runs bullet tournaments in channel 49. These are very fast games, under 3 minutes in length.
• Slomato -- Runs standard (or long blitz) tournaments in channel 222.
• WildOne -- Runs wild tournaments in channel 223. These are chess variants. Make sure you know what kind of variant, before you join!
• Cooly -- Runs miscellaneous tournaments in channel 224.
• LittlePer -- Runs miscellaneous tournaments in channel 225.
• Pear -- Reserved for special events, runs in channel 227.
• Ketchup -- Runs miscellaneous tournaments in channel 228.
• Olive -- Runs miscellaneous tournaments in channel 230.

Joining Tournaments

The easy way is via Blitzin's Events Window. When a tournament is open, there will an item there with a short description of the tournament (similar to the s-shout as described below) and a button on the left that's supposed to look like a sign-up sheet. Just click that button and that will take care of all three steps below!

But no matter what interface you use, whenever a tournament opens, the tournament bot will make an sshout about it, giving the tournament information. For example:

Tomato s-shouts: Swiss Blitz 5 0 rated Rating: 0..2900, 
5 rounds Tournament!!! 0 players now (looking for 8..16) 
Type "+chan 46", "tell Tomato join" and "tell 46 Hi, i am in" :-)

• Step 1: +chan 46 -- this adds channel 46, the channel where the tournament is taking place, to your channel list.
• Step 2: tell Tomato join -- this tells Tomato, the tournament bot that you want to join.
• Step 3: tell 46 Hi, i am in -- this lets everyone in the tournament channel, including the manager, that you have joined the tournament.

Playing in Tournaments

Once you have joined a tournament, you will get verification from the tournament bot. You should immediately finish up any game that you are playing, and you shouldn't start any new ones. Once the tournament starts, you will be informed of who you are paired with, and what command to use, generally in the form of match opponent. With Blitzin, it's particularly easy because a box pops up with the match command you should do and you just need to click OK.

After you play your game, your result will be automatically recorded. After all the games of the current round are completed, the current standings and the pairings for the next round will be shown. This continues until all rounds are completed. The final standings of the tournament will then be shown, and you will get a message about your place.

Tournament Standings

The tournament bots keep a player file for each player that plays in a tournament. They will keep track of all the tournaments you've played in, and calculate a special rating, called a t-rating. You can see your tournament player file with the command tell tomato finger.

>Tomato finger info on Junk:
>
> Registered since: Thu Jan  8 98  7:22
> Last played     : Fri Jun  5 98 19:29
> Tourneys Played : 26
> 
> t-rating        = 1869
> #[ 1st PLACE ]  = 5
> #[ 2nd PLACE ]  = 7
> #[ 3rd PLACE ]  = 4
> dr-pts          = 0
> no-tourney      = 0 games
> forfeit         = 0 tourneys
> leave           = 0 tourneys

There are also many other Tomato commands for showing information about the tournament players. Try tell tomato history to see the last 20 tournaments that you've played in, or try tell tomato best for the top players, by t-rating.

See also: help tomato, help channels.