Category: Rules

2015 Season and Beyond

Posted on by John Hayes

NAH Qualifying Series

As in previous years, teams will qualify for the NAHBPC through regional qualifiers.

The regional reps must provide the list of qualified teams, and one wild card team to the NAH (tournaments@nahardcourt.com) by Monday August 3rd 2015.

Qualifiers

The following changes will be made from last year.

Regions will have full control over their qualifier. This includes:

  • Dates: (as long as it’s before August 3rd).
  • Format: This may be the format of the tournament itself, but can also include multiple tournaments, a qualifying series, or a geographical split into sub-regions, for example. For any guidance, please see http://www.nahardcourt.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/NAH_Ruleset_v4x_Appendix_A.pdf for suggested formats, or contact tournament@nahardcourt.com.
  • Rules: Any deviations from the NAH rules must be approved by the rules committee, but changes are likely to be rejected only on the basis of safety. For example Eastside may choose to use wrist shots, which would be fine. But making t-bones legal would not.
  • Budget: Regions can decide on registration fees, how they are collected, and how that money is budgeted. Paying referees was a success in 2014, and it is suggested that regions budget for this.
  • Registration: We recommend using Podium for registration, and opening it at least 6 weeks before the tournament. We require registration details to be posted on LOBP, and sent to tournaments@nahardcourt.com at least two weeks in advance, so that everyone has a fair chance to register. Out-of-region players must be able to register, but regions may have an in-region only period of up to 1 week.

As a change from last year players may now play in multiple qualifiers. This creates a few different scenarios:

  • If a player qualifies with two different teams, they must choose which team to register and play with in the NAHBPC, they cannot play with both.
  • Teams must register for the NAHBPC as ⅔ of lineup they qualified with. If this is not possible, then they will lose their qualifying slot. Teams playing with an already qualified player, or a player they know will try to qualify with another team, must plan for this.
  • If a ⅔ qualified team plays in another qualifier, it will be assumed they qualified from the first qualifier, and their final position in later qualifiers will be ignored, unless they notify the NAH, and tournament organisers in advance. For example if the Means had been able to play ESQ as well as MXQ last year, and qualified, unless they had notified the NAH and ESQ organisers in advance, they would be considered to have qualified through the MXQ slots.

Qualifying Slots

Qualifying slots will be allocated to each region as follows:

20 teams, 2 from each region.

24 teams, based on the top 24 in 2014, where each team earns a slot for the region it qualified in. This produces the following totals:

  • Cascadia: 11
  • South West: 5
  • Eastside: 4
  • Great Lakes: 4
  • Heartland: 4
  • South East: 4
  • Great Plains: 3
  • Mexico: 3
  • Northside: 3
  • South Central: 3

In addition the champions (Beaver Boys), are already qualified for the NAHBPC (minimum 2/3 of the same lineup), and do not need to qualify. If they choose to attempt to qualify, then the region they attempt to qualify in will get an extra slot. If they do not attempt to qualify, nor register for the NAHBPC, their slot will not be allocated to a region.

The final 3 slots, plus any unclaimed slots will be allocated to the wildcard tournament.

 

NAHBPC 2015

The NAHBPC will take place in Lexington, KY, from Thursday 17th – Sunday 20th September 2015.

Thursday will be a 30 team wildcard. This will consist of 6-7 rounds of Swiss, followed by a small double elim, for the qualifying slots. For example, for 3 slots, the top 8 teams will go to the elimination.

After the wildcard is done, early evening, the courts will be open until late for pickup and practice.

Wildcard registration will open on the first Monday after the last regional qualifier. Each region will get one slot, two slots will be given to Lexington, for their volunteers, and a slot will be given to the Ladies Army 2015 winners. In the event the Ladies Army winners have already qualified, or can’t attend, the slot can go to another team of the Ladies Army organisers choosing. We would suggest the next highest ranked team, who are not qualified, but can attend.

The remaining slots, including any unclaimed from the above, will be first-come-first-served. Any team of 3 players may register for the wildcard, they do not need to have played in a qualifier.

Friday will be 48 teams in equally seeded AM and PM groups, where teams will play 5 games each.

Saturday morning will be the top 18 teams (9 from each group), playing 4 games.

Saturday afternoon will be the remaining 30 teams (15 from each group), playing 5 games.

Sunday will be a double elim for 28 teams (the top 18 group, and the best 10 teams from the remaining 30).

The format may change, due to weather, or other unavoidable scenarios.

 

NAH Bench 2015

This year the NAH Bench is provisionally scheduled for November, hopefully in Guadalajara, Mexico. As yet, nothing is confirmed. In the event that does not work out, we will look for another warm location for the same dates, or postpone it to spring 2016.

We are changing the qualifying system for the 2015 NAH Bench. Rather than base it on performance in 3vs3, the overwhelming feedback has been that clubs want to qualify in their own regions. Some regions already have existing bench championships (such as ESBI), we hope those regions will use it for NAH qualifying. Like with 3vs3, regions will have full control over format, rules, team/squad size, budget, registration, etc.

Regional Bench qualifiers may include clubs from outside the region, or multiple teams per club. Teams must be club based, but regions will have the flexibility to decide how those teams are formed, and who may play for them. Regional reps must provide a qualified club, willing to travel, and a reserve list, to the NAH, by Monday 14th September. If no qualifier is possible, then they should determine another way to decide on a club that wants to go to the Championships.

The Bench championships will consist of 12 club based teams. One slot will be given to each region, with one additional slot going to the champions (Portland), and the host club. In the event a region cannot, or chooses not to send a club, regions will get a second team in the following order, based on finishing position in the 2014 NAH Bench, and 2014 NAHBPC finishing position, for the 3 regions that did not send a team. This process will continue to 3rd teams, 4th teams, etc, if required. The regions who already have 2 teams (Cascadia and the host region), will be skipped in the first round of re-allocations.

  • Cascadia
  • Great Lakes
  • Eastside
  • Heartland
  • South Central
  • Northside
  • South East
  • South West
  • Great Plains
  • Mexico

 

WHBPC 7

The 7th WHBPC will take place in Timaru, NZ, in the week of 3rd-7th February 2016.

As yet, no allocations or format have been announced. The NAH will use the NAHBPC results to allocate slots.

 

NAHBPC 2016

With the growth of the squad format (5 player squads), and no worlds to qualify for, based on the feedback from many tournaments of that format in the coming season, we will give serious consideration to use this format for the NAHBPC 2016. This means 2015 may be the last year traditional 3vs3 is used at the highest level of competition in this continent.

 

WHBPC 8

The NAH would like to bid for the WHPBC 8, with an aim to host it in late summer 2017. We ask interested regions to look for 3-4 court locations, and get back to us with a proposal by the end of 2015..

German translation of NAH Ruleset

Posted on by Joe Rstom

Thanks to Graz Bike Polo, in Austria, who have translated the NAH rules into German.

The original English ruleset is the only one applicable to NAH tournaments (we hope to change this sooner rather than later, at least for Spanish and French), this may be very useful for those whose first language is German, and would like to use our ruleset.

http://graz.bikepolo.at/cms/wp-content/uploads/NAH_4.3-Deutsch-BPA-Version_final.pdf.

2014 Referee Certification + More

Posted on by Joe Rstom

1. Version 4.2 of the Rules

We’ve updated §3.3 – Overtime.

It has reverted to the overtime rule of prior seasons: Instead of five minutes followed by first-goal-wins, it will simply be first-goal-wins after a rejoust. You can find the updated pdf here, or on the Rules page.

NAH Ruleset v4.2

2. NAH Referee Requirements for Qualifiers and Supplemental Support

Staffing 

A minimum of two paid and certified referees per court, available to be scheduled throughout the duration of the tournament. The names of these certified referees should also be sent to the Referee Committee prior to the qualifier. So, for a qualifier with two courts, four names should be submitted. These certified referees do not need be scheduled the entirety of the weekend. It is recommended that a certified referee oversee the scheduling responsibilities. This underpins what will be a single-referee system throughout swiss rounds and early bracket games, moving to a double-referee system later in the bracket.

After the meeting the basic requirements above, if the organizer wants to schedule unpaid, uncertified referees, that is their prerogative. It is also recommended to have certified referees scheduled for all winners bracket / late losers bracket games, especially when moving to a double-referee system. If a region has significantly less teams, NAH will make exceptions to this requirement case-by-case.

Compensation

A minimum of $20/day for paid referees, for which NAH will provide supplemental support. In lieu of a membership system, the additional $10 per player tournament fee is going primarily towards this expense. The amount you receive will be based on the number of participants. If a region has significantly less teams, NAH will make exceptions to this requirement case-by-case.

3. 2014 Certification Material + Supplemental Education

After several months of development, NAH is releasing the 2014 certification test which can be found here. It includes individual quizzes on each section of the rules, as well as a final section of long-answer questions that all require video analysis. The tests for most sections are not meant to be easy. A high success rate will require careful analysis of the exact wording of the rules.

In contrast to the tests, the Referee Committee also wrote explanations for each section of the rules in a conversational tone for those players who want more insight into how rules were developed and will be applied. This also features an additional section of instructions for referee conduct. The education materials can be found here.

Certification Course

Education Material

4. Qualifier Referee Signup including Out-Of-Region Referee Share

NAH, through organizer suggestion, has created a google form to collect referee signups for people who would like to signup in their own regions, as well as travel out of region to other qualifiers. This list will be shared with tournament organizers, who can then reimburse travel expense, if their budget allows. Organizers are encouraged to find non-playing referees but nothing is required at this time as resources are limited.

Referee Signup Google Form

Please contact joe@nahardcourt.com with any questions, thoughts, concerns. Also, if you’d like to help revise and add to this for 2015, please drop a line.

A special thanks go out to Bruce, Crusher and Kruse for their help with this project. Also huge thanks to our long-time partner, Fixcraft, who has demonstrated continued support with a contribution of referee shirts for qualifiers and for providing the first-ever official referee uniforms for North Americans.
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NAH Ruleset v4.0 Approved by NAH Board and Club Reps

Posted on by Joe Rstom

Voting on the NAH Ruleset v4.0 is now complete, and votes have been tallied.

Before we announce the results I’d like to remind everyone in the community that this isn’t the end of Rules development. If you have constructive input to provide, after spending the time thinking through the changes critically, trying them out in tournaments or pickup, please e-mail kruse@nahardcourt.com or joe@nahardcourt.com. Plenty of great feedback was provided thanks to this club rep voting process, specific to the rules and more generally about the process. As we move more towards direct member voting, you will see specific rules or combinations of rules put to a vote, and possibly even a mechanism for anyone to introduce a polished rule to be voted upon. This infrastructure requires a huge time investment, and we are doing the best we can to put the pieces in place. More on that in the coming weeks.

The vote was sent out, by email to a mostly updated list of club reps.

Club Reps Emailed: ~110 (due to delivery failures, inactive clubs)
Respondents: 53

In favor of Adopting v4.0 for 2014: 47
Opposed to Adopting v4.0 for 2014: 5

1 Club Abstained. Non-Respondents are considered ‘yes’ votes, but it’s not necessary to include them.

The NAH Board voted unanimously in favor.

This ruleset has been Ratified, and we’ve made some minor language changes after receiving feedback from all these amazing Club Reps. From now on all changes will be kept in a version history over on the Rules page.

You can download v4.1 by clicking this link..