[DanLe]

Let's take yesterday's Non-Life-Master Centennial Gold Daylong event. 1,343 players, so 300+ tables. (Dec 18, 2025)

If this was an NABC+ regional rated in-person tournament with 12 hands and 350 tables, the winner (top rated player) would earn 39 gold masterpoints.

And the ACBL Masterpoint Book says online events should offer the same number of masterpoints as face-to-face events.

In reality, the winner of this 1,343 person event was awarded 1.2 gold masterpoints.

I assume that this is because the event is flighted, ie it is treated like a bunch of much smaller tournaments. I am sure that there are good reasons for this (to avoid cheating or some such), but... wow. I could understand if the winner got 10 mp's, or even 5.

The difference between the 39 MP's that the winner should have received and the 1.2 that he did receive is just too much to explain in any rational way that I can think of.

Can anyone shed light on this - why the winner gets so few points relative to what they "should" get. And more generally, why BBO ACBL daylong tournaments yield so few points when the ACBL Masterpoint Book clearly states that "The total number of masterpoints available to be awarded in an online club game is the same as in a comparably sized face-to-face game."

[mycroft]

I don't know the full complications, but:

NLM makes a *huge* difference.
12 boards makes a *huge* difference. IIRC ~50%.
You would therefore not be getting anywhere near the 39 (and my BOTE calculation gives 35, effectively no difference) MPs for a Open Regional Championship 1-session event playing 24-27 boards.

And it's not a regional. It's a club game that, as a one-off, awards gold points. So, the calculation is totally different.

Have no idea if "daylong" makes a difference, or if "indy with robots" does.

1.2 seems low, unless it's "many individual sections (each with a winner), no(*) overalls", but maybe not. I think maximum club award is limited (and also gets reduced by game length and NLM status).

More information (with some things that might feed into that last)(*) from the BBO ACBL FAQ .

(*) Like the "every 100 tables" awards in that link. So "no" overalls, but several "mega-section tops".

Note: occasionally work for ACBL, and am duplicate-remover moderator on these forums, but am not at all involved in the back end of masterpoint awards or BBO. This is just guesswork based on information I have and is 100% not official (for either).

[jillybean]

LOL I hope the forum job is well paid

[mycroft]

The forums still exist (still hoping that Making Light comes back, but almost certainly not), so for this anti-social media person (put breaks in that wherever you feel appropriate) that's payment enough.

Plus, I can kick the real problems upstairs (*)


(*)something I'm rapidly losing the ability to do in my other job(**)(***).
(**)no, not that one, the other other one(****).
(***)which is actually a good thing. Almost all the time, at least.
(****)Okay, maybe it is that one, not the other other one. Depends on what you know about me.

[jillybean]

okay, what is the 3rd job?

[barmar]

The "penalty" for tournaments less than 18 boards is getting only 60% of the normal awards.

Also, ACBL changed their club game formula a year or two ago, but we haven't made this change on BBO (they also didn't update ACBLScore). When you play a virtual club game, they calculate the points at their end, and they're shown on Live for Clubs. Our traditional and daylong ACBL games continue to use the old formula.