c4countdown

It's February, so it's time for the fifth annual (because nth annual isn't a phrase I use often enough) Apterous Masters tourney. For those of you just joining us, this is a knock-out tournament where some of the very best players are invited to compete against each other, with 'wild card' spots available for everyone else through a qualifying tournament.

The format will be the same as it has for the previous couple of years- qualifying and round 1 games will be best-of-3 matches but will get incrementally longer the later into the tournament we go, until we get to the best-of-11 final.

Enrties- for both qualilfiers and masters- will close at 5pm on Monday 20th February, and the qualifying draw will then immediately take place live on apterous. If multiple rounds of qualifying are needed, the draw for all necessary rounds will take place at the same time. The deadline for qualifying games will be 7pm on Sunday 4th March, at which point the draw for the first round proper will start. Each round will last one week, meaning we should be done by about the start of April. As some of you know from previous years, I will come down hard on people being lax about playing their games.

There are 28 invitations going out this year so competition for qualifying spots will be exceptionally tight. The invited masters are:

Paul Howe
Innis Carson
Jon O'Neill
Mark Tournoff
Jon Corby
Charlie Reams
Junaid Mubeen#
Nick Wainwright
Steven Briers#
Kirk Bevins
Ryan Taylor
Chris Davies
Andrew Hulme
Richard Priest
Dinos Sfyris
Oliver Garner
Jack Hurst
Eoin Monaghan
James Robinson
Adam Gillard
Edward McCullagh
Mark Deeks
Graeme Cole
Robert Foster
Matt Bayfield
Andy Platt
Andy McGurn
Marcus Hares

As always, red indicates the invitation has been declined, green indicates the invitation has been accepted. A hash # denotes that the player declined their invitation last year, and will not be invited again if they decline again this year.

List of qualifying entrants:

Thomas Carey
Rhys Benjamin
Mark James
Peter Lee
Edwin Mead
James Bradley
Matt Morrison
Jennifer Steadman
Chris Marshall
Heather Badcock
Ian Volante
Matthew Tassier
Martin Long
Bob De Caux
Phil Collinge
Chris Hare
Gevin Chapwell
Thomas Cappleman
Niall Seymour
Dylan Taylor
Chris Butler
Josh Hurst
James Roper
Scott Gillies

Good luck to all those participating!

Count me in.

In.

One snag though, just to be awkward I'm going to be on holiday between Monday 12th and Friday 23rd March, so if I'm still in the tournament by that stage I'll only have a small window in which to play those weeks' games. Hopefully I'll be able to sort something out though.

Yep.

Might as well try for the qualifiers. How many wild card spots are there?

Thomas Carey wrote:Might as well try for the qualifiers. How many wild card spots are there?

At a guess, 4 + however many declinatures there are.

And count me in.

Qualifiers please.

Qualifiers Please.

In please.

Qualifiers please.

Thank you for the invitation, Ben. I gladly accept it. Looking forward!

I'd be delighted to accept the invitation, Ben - it'll be a novelty for me not to have to qualify. Nice to see Rob, Andy P and I sneaking in without having been on-screen!

Qualifiers please

How did I make it? I'm the worst player in that list by some way

Qualifiers please

Qualifiers please

Andy's place please

Yes please!

also, in please

I'll have a go at this qualifying lark. (please)

In please Ben, thanks for the invitation.

I'll try to qualify.

I'd love to, but you can put my name in red.

Edward McCullagh wrote:I'd love to, but you can put my name in red.

Aww, come on. Think of yourself as Paul Scholes here.

I will gladly accept this offer to join basically the hardest field ever.

Heather too please Ben.

Qualifiers please.

I accept your invitation.

Yes please for the qualifiers.

In for qualifiers please Ben

Count me in for the qualifiers if there are still places available.

Why isn't Michelle Nevitt invited? Just what have you got against her, Ben?

(Yes please btw)

Qualifiers please Ben.

Thanks for the invite but I'm so out of the loop now, I think it would be better to let a qualifier have my place. Good luck to whoever that may be!

Count me in for the qualifiers, please.

If I was entering, I'd just say "in" rather than "in the qualifiers please". It's not as if I'd particularly want to be in the qualifiers as such - that's for Ben to sort out. You should all be ashamed of yourselves, you sycophantic cunts.

Actually yeah, why not - in.

Gavin Chipper wrote:Actually yeah, why not - in.

in what?

Jon Corby wrote:

Gavin Chipper wrote:Actually yeah, why not - in.

in what?

Straight into the main draw, thanks. I didn't think I'd get to choose actually.

In please

Qualifiers please

I'll have a go please Ben.

Just over a week to register your interest/accept your invites. I'll be sending out aptomails tomorrow to those who haven't seen this thread.

Yes please - thanks Ben

At this rate we're needing Pre-Pre-Qualifying at the least and for some people that will be Pre-Pre-Pre-Qualifying!

Five short of needing more than one round by the looks of it.

Still three days to register for the entrant and still nine masters yet to get back to me regarding accepting/declining their invites. Rather obviously, I'll take lack of communication to mean 'no ta'.

Please take note of the amended draw time for the qualifying round on Monday- it'll be at 5pm and not the previously stated 7pm.

In please, honoured to have been given a direct invite

I'd like to get involved with this please

Josh Hurst wrote:I'd like to get involved with this please

You are unlucky not to make Ben's list I think

Andy Platt wrote:

Josh Hurst wrote:I'd like to get involved with this please

You are unlucky not to make Ben's list I think

We'll need to bring Ryan in for this discussion. (I was thinking the same to be honest.)

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Andy Platt wrote:

Josh Hurst wrote:I'd like to get involved with this please

You are unlucky not to make Ben's list I think

We'll need to bring Ryan in for this discussion. (I was thinking the same to be honest.)

From what I recall from last year, the selection of players is based on TV performance and co-event performance, and not so much on apterous performance. Not sure how many co-events Josh has been to.

This was also why Ed wasn't selected for the masters last year - I believe the selection was made before his octorun was shown. Might have been after he'd won two shows or something. Of course, this didn't stop him getting through the qualifying rounds and all the way to the final.

me please

The qualifying draw has taken place. 17 masters have accepted their invitations leaving 15 spots to be filled, and as there are 25 people entering qualifying, 5 people have been given automatic byes into round 1. They are:

Chris Butler
Phil Collinge
James Roper
Oli Moore
Peter Lee

The remaining ten matches are:

Edwin Mead vs Rhys Benjamin
Heather Badcock vs Ian Volante
Chris Hare vs Chris Marshall
James Bradley vs Thomas Cappleman
Gevin Chapwell vs Niall Seymour
Thomas Carey vs Dylan Taylor
Mark James vs Scott Gillies
Josh Hurst vs Jennifer Steadman
Matt Morrison vs Bob De Caux
Matthew Tassier vs Martin Long

Good luck to all qualifiers! All games must be played by 9pm on Sunday 4th March. If games are completed earlier I will bring forward the round 1 draw.

Yeah, GL with that one, Jen.

Ah, a bit of Badcock bashing!

Ian Volante wrote:Ah, a bit of Badcock bashing!

You're all expecting me to supply a punchline to this, aren't you?

Just wondering, how were the byes decided - was it a 'drawing names out of a hat' scenario or was there some kind of equation for working out that those five should go straight into the main tournament? ...Not because I'm bitter or anything.

The draw was completely random. Everyone was assigned a random number in excel, then they were scrambled a bit and put in order.

Apterous Masters 2012 Qualifying Result:

Chris Hare bt. Chris Marshall, 112-45 113-67

The nine other games have now been added to the tourney system.