Author: Ben Schultz

NAH Series 2013

Posted on by Ben Schultz

Regional qualifiers

Eastside Qualifier
April 13th – 14th
Boston, MA

South West Qualifier
April 20th – 21st
Fresno, CA

Midwest Qualifier
May 25th – 26th
Columbus, OH

South East Qualifier
June 15th – 16th
Athens, GA

Northside Qualifier
June 15th – 16th
Grand Rapids, MI

South Central Qualifier
June 15th – 16th
Denver, CO

Cascadia Qualifier
June 29th – 30th
Seattle, WA

NAH 2013 Structure is Approved!

Posted on by Ben Schultz

The North American Hardcourt Bike Polo Association has officially approved a structure for 2013!

With only a few addendums, the original structure was approved. In case you missed it, the complete proposal is available on the blog here.

The additions that were discussed at the board meetings were as follows:

1. “Trade Deadline” Date

The relevant date for a player’s regional identity is the qualifier registration date. A player’s regional identity is maintained for the entire season, regardless of subsequent relocation.

2. Regional Status of Teams

Team Regional Status is determined at the Team level. 3-Region Teams adopt the Regional Status of the qualifier that it chooses to compete in. Teams must maintain their regional status throughout the entire season. To the extent that a player must be replaced, the replacement player must share the Regional Status of the replaced player, or of the Team.

  • Example 1: Three Eastside players, replacement must be an Eastside player.
  • Example 2: Two Eastside players, one Northside player. Eastside players must be replaced by Eastside player. Northside player may be replaced by Northside or Eastside player.
  • Example 3: Eastside player, Northside Player, Midwest player, qualified out of the Eastside (and therefore an Eastside Team for NAHBPC). Eastside player must be replaced by Eastside player. Northside player may be replaced by Northside or Eastside player. Midwest player may be replaced by Midwest or Eastside player.

3. NAHBPC Bonus Slots Determined by Team Regional Status

For any Team of any composition, the Bonus Slot for a top-24 finish goes to the region out of which the Team qualified. A Northside player on a 2/3 Eastside Team, qualified out of the Eastside (required in that situation), does not gain any credit for the Northside out of top-24 finish. This is intentional, and will hopefully create some interesting meta-game between the regions, wherein the regions should want to discourage talent drain. At the same time, attempts at sandbagging “less skilled” regions, will only serve to enhance those regions’ chances to gain bonus slots at the NAHBPC

Think we did a good job with this? Hate it? Let us know in the comments, on facebook or through twitter..

Qualifying for WHBPC 2012

Posted on by Ben Schultz

The organizers of this August’s WHBPC 2012 in Geneva have allocated 16 spots to North American teams, plus another 4 or so for a wildcard tournament.

NAHBPC 2012 is taking place this July 6-8, which doesn’t give much time for teams who place well to get their tickets for Geneva, so NAH has created a system to ensure that as many top NA teams will be able to participate, while still making NAHBPC an essential part of qualification, as it was in 2011.

Like in other types of NAH qualification, you can register as a team if 2 of your 3 players are “qualified”. This system is designed for 48 players, where a minimum of 32 players will be “qualified”.

There are three ways to qualify:

  1. WHBPC 2011 (3 players)
    The top placing North American team from WHBPC 2011 is qualified for WHBPC 2012. That’d be Crazy Canucks, so Chris P, Alex C, and Rory, from East Van are now qualified, and have until June 30 2012 to claim their spot.
  1. NAH Regional qualifiers (21 players)
    Three players from each NAH regional qualifier will qualify for WHBPC. The team that places first at the qualifier tourney has 7 days to lay claim to their spot, which means that two players on that team must form a team and register for Geneva within those 7 days. If after 7 days this hasn’t happened, players on the team that places 2nd at the regional qualifier can claim the spot. Similarly, if after 7 days two players on the 2nd place team do not claim their spot, the players on the 3rd place team can claim it. But it stops there, the spot can not get passed to the 4th place team. For these players to keep their “qualified” status, they must attend NAHBPC 2012 in Milwaukee. Players who won the SW and SC regional qualifiers have until April 30 (10 days) to claim their spot. NAH regional reps will be managing this process in their respective regions, and checking in with the players who qualified at their respective region’s qualifier. By the 4th week of June, we will have a full list of the players qualified for WHBPC 2012 via the regional qualifiers.
  1. NAHBPC 2012 (8-24 players, or more.)
    The remaining spots will be allocated via NAHBPC 2012 in Milwaukee, according to how their teams place. We expect this to be the top 8 teams, approximately. If, 7 days after NAHBPC, the spots earned at NAHBPC 2012 have not been claimed and the 16 slots allocated to North American teams have not been filled, this will become first come first served.