The 2018 Leavenworth Regional Start Page

Gateway to masterpoints, results, photos

Basic Tournament Information

Location: Leavenworth is a unique city in central Washington state, about fifteen miles northwest of Wenatchee on Highway 2.  The city has a Bavarian theme throughout, a deliberate strategy to re-invent itself which took place in the late 1960s and 1970s.  The early history of Leavenworth was based around the second largest sawmill in Washington State, built before World War I.  The tournament site is the Festhalle, at 1001 Front Street.  Near the Festhalle are dozens of restaurants of all types, many with a south German theme.  The climate in mid-fall is cool with some precipitation days, so bring warm clothing and rain gear just in case, although many days will be bright and sunny.

Driving: From I-90 exit Northbound onto Hwy. 97 in Ellensburg at the W. University Way exit, then left on Hwy 2, northwest through Peshastin into Leavenworth.  Highway 2 east from Everett, north of Seattle, is a much more scenic route which will take about two hours.  Highway 2 west from Wenatchee is about 20-30 minutes drive.

Transit: Link Transit's 22 route goes very close to the playing site, starting in Wenatchee at Columbia station, but is limited and does not run as often on Saturday and not at all late in the evening or on Sunday.

Bus/Train: Northwest Trailways connects Tacoma, Seattle, and Everett Station with Leavenworth and continues west as far as Spokane, leaving Everett daily at 10:10am and leaving Leavenworth for the coast at 3:10pm daily.  There is also an Amtrak train from Seattle and Everett which leaves late afternoon daily and arrives at about 8pm; the return trip leaves at about 6am and arrives on the coast later that morning.  Important: If you come by Amtrak or Northwest Trailways you need to arrange to be picked up or taken to Icicle Station, which is a mile from the city centre.  Call Leavenworth Shuttle and Taxi at 509/548-7433 to arrange a pickup from the station, or a shuttle to the station.

Restaurants and Shops: The Festhalle is very near many local restaurants and shops of all types.  The beauty of the town will entice you to walk the nearby blocks between sessions, and you will make many interesting discoveries, both on Front Street and along the many cul-de-sacs that lead from it.  Basic groceries are available at Dan's Food Market, about ten minutes walk east of the Festhalle just past McDonald's, and at Safeway, a short drive further east.

Tournament Site: The Festhalle has plenty of nearby parking (some across Front Street) will feature all the usual tournament amenities: Hospitality, Partnerships, flyer desks, just inside the main entrance.  We'll let you know about special events and speakers as we find out the information.

Dates, Times, Events: 9:00 am, 1:00 pm, and 7:00 pm are the start times from Tuesday thru Saturday.  The tournament begins on Monday October 29 at 7pm, with a Monday-Tuesday Knockout Teams and an Open Pairs which is the first Evening Side Game.  On Sunday November 4, play begins at 10:00 am with a two-session Swiss Teams and a two-session Bracketed 0-2000 Swiss Teams.  Sessions should end 3¼ - 3½ hours after they begin, on Sunday things should end by about 6pm, and possibly earlier.  Morning Sessions from Tuesday to Saturday have only one pair event: the Morning Side Game Series (open pairs), but there are two-day Morning Swiss Teams on Wednesday-Thursday and Friday-Saturday.  The main sessions are afternoon and evening, with three full knockout teams, Swiss Team days on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.  Each day from Tuesday thru Saturday has a two-session Open and Gold Rush Pairs, and Side Game Series for Morning, Afternoon and Evening Games.  There are no 199er games this time, but the Gold Rush Pairs have a 0-100 strat and give newer players a chance at winning a two-session event!

This Web Site: We have a group of pages linked together by links bars like this one:

Daily Pages: Before the day's events are processed, these will contain a schedule of events in this order:

• Morning-only Games
• Two Session Afternoon and Evening Games
• Afternoon-only Single Session Games
• Evening-only Single Session Games

There will be details on each event, what type of game it is, what the strat limits are, last year's winners, and a direct link to the ACBL Live results, which will be active following each session.

At the end of the day Director-In-Charge Matt Koltnow will send me the days results and I will process them into the website in the early hours of the morning.  The day completed version will feature the following:

• Masterpoint Leaders at the end of the day (not including events that are not yet complete
• Noteworthy News Items Received
• Two Session Pair Games: Open Pairs, Gold Rush Pairs
• Two Session Swiss or Bracketed Teams
• Single Session Open Swiss Teams or Board-A-Match Teams
• Completed Knockouts
• Rosters for Surviving Teams in Knockouts that are not yet complete
• Side Games
• Side Game Series Leaders

Once a day is complete, no changes will be made unless there are late scoring corrections.  Some browsers save a copy of a page and do not check to see if the content has changed; in most browsers you should be able to hit F5 to reload the page and stop using the one your computer has saved.

Other Pages: You're looking at the Welcome page right now.  The Masterpoints! Page, which we call DUMPS (Daily Updated Master Point Summary) will be updated every night first, before the daily pages of results take shape, and will contain the latest masterpoint totals and tournament leaders, both overall and limited to non-Life Masters.  Also, they will have everyone's current total broken down into red and gold points, but will not include masterpoints already won in events that have yet to be completed.  The Photos Page will depend on people sending me photos taken.  Now that everyone's cellphone has a camera, anyone can do this!  Here is a good guideline on how to get best results:

• Above the Strike Zone: Try not to include in the frame any part of the body below where the letters would be on a baseball uniform.  People want to see faces, not waistlines.  If you have people of different heights, you might have to include the tall one's strike zone(s), but make faces your focus.
• Fill the Frame: Don't stand so far back that only 10%-20% of the frame is faces.  Move up close and look at your screen as a guide.  I will always crop out legs and shoes, and if this leaves an image that is small, the quality will suffer.
• Send the biggest version you can: It's important.  ooga@shaw.ca is the address to send photo files to.  Don't send the one that takes up the least bandwidth, it will look blurred on a screen if the resolution is lowered beyond a reasonable level.
• Identify!: I need to know who the people are and what they did.  If they won an event, tell me which one and first names from left to right in the photo will suffice (I can get the rest from the data I am sent).  I'd also like to credit the photo taker, so tell me who you are as well.
• Watch the lighting and background: At night, photos taken in the dark may not look too well and require touchup.  The playing area is usually best for light.  I have taken a lot of photos that seem to have trees coming out of the tops of people's heads, so avoid that if you can, although now that all photos will appear online in colour (as opposed to monochrome on paper), this is not as big an issue as it used to be.  Leavenworth has some great outdoor scenes that would make great photos: if your team goes out for dinner, take a photo of the team somewhere and send it along if you win!  Simple is usually best, against a wall inside the playing area, or even in a space in the middle with people milling around a distance away can sometimes work.
• Patience: There's a lot to do at scary hours during a Daily Bulletin week, and it may take a day or two before I can get around to posting photos.  Or responding to those who have sent them.

The Table Counts page simply has a spreadsheet with table counts and event types which can be used as a nice visual schedule to the different types of events, as well as to track the attendance of the tournament.   This comes directly from my spreadsheet program and looks better on a computer screen than on a mobile device, but even there you should be able to see what's happening.  Finally, the ACBL Live link goes to the list of tournament events, from which you will need another click or three to find the one you want.  Direct links are available from the daily pages and may be faster.

Thanks for visiting!  This is still a work in progress and the progress in getting it where I want it to be is quite slow, but there's quite a nice new look from what I was producing in Penticton (for which I must thank Google Fonts, Python, and several good sources of HTML5 and CSS material).  Feel free to contact me (see above) with reports of errors or if something isn't working for you.