The WBF has been invited to participate in the Olympic eSports Week in Singapore later this month. This will provide an opportunity for bridge to showcase its activities and development in the arena of electronic sports, with tens of thousands of visitors expected.
What has this to do with me, you may ask. Well, the answer is that as part of this process, the WBF has arranged for special tournaments on both BBO and FunBridge, with the prize for the eventual winner being an invitation (including travel and accommodation) to the Transnational Week (28 August to 2 September) during the upcoming World Championships in Marrakech; there are also other prizes in BBO$ and FunBridge diamonds. The qualifying events will be run next week on BBO and FunBridge, as follows:
- Qualifying Phase: Monday 19, Tuesday 20, Wednesday 21 June – multiple 6-board tournaments available every day on both platforms (charge BB$0.5 on BBO, 25 diamonds on FunBridge) – best five tournaments to count, with a minimum average of 55%
- Finals Phase: Friday 23, Saturday 24, Sunday 25 June – multiple 8-board tournaments available every day on both platforms (free of charge) – final ranking on the average of the best five tournaments
Players should register directly on the platform(s), stating that they are members of the Irish Bridge Union. You can play on one or both platforms.
You can find full details re BBO here and for FunBridge here
Incidentally, while mentioning Marrakech, we wish our Open Team (Mark Moran, John Carroll, Tom Hanlon, Hugh McGann, Tommy Garvey, and Adam Mesbur, with NPC Grainne Barton and coach Nick FitzGibbon) the very best of luck in the Bermuda Bowl. We had been harbouring hopes that our Women’s Team, which was first reserve, might be allocated a spot in the Venice Cup, but unfortunately that hope has now been dashed. Very hard luck on all concerned to miss out so narrowly.