Sydney is talking about hosting a Bench Minor style tournament - dates tentatively set for February 5/6. This will be my homecoming tournament and a farewell for Julien.
Basically the idea behind the Bench Minor tournament is that teams have a bench of players (we will be aiming for about 9 per team). Games will be played for somewhere between 40 - 60 mins and played in two halves.
The benefit of playing with a bench is that 3 players go out play AS HARD AS THEY CAN for a few minutes then swap out either on the fly or after a goal. “Lines” can also be formed within your team - that is - 3 players that work specifically well together will for the most part go on court together. But you may also have other groupings such as a “defensive line” for keeping out those goals in the dying seconds. Or an offensive line of your 3 best attackers to hammer in a few goals and close that gap.
Penalties for rule infringements will also be assessed. This will be 30 seconds, 1 minute or 2 minutes in the box, depending on the severity. This is also a good time to use that defensive line we were talking about. The penalty expires after the time runs out or after a goal is scored on the punished team. Delayed penalties will also be used to give advantage to the team that was fouled.
Things are still pretty loose at this point depending on how many players show interest and from where they come.
We are talking maybe one day of Bench Tourney and one day of pickup. Or the second day as a double elim tourney. Or two days of the Bench Tourney. As I said, it depends on how many players show up, and what you guys wanna do.
At the bench tournament in NYC earlier this year, teams were decided through a draft. Team Captains were picked based on skill and knowledge of players from other cities. All players pre registered and were compiled on to a list. In private there were rounds of selection where each Captain took turns to choose a player from the draft. After this was done there was an opportunity to trade players between teams before team lists were published.
We have also spoken about doing City based teams, but this would rely on having an even turnout from each city. A draft would generally lead to more even and competitive play in my opinion, but you have a chance for input now.
A few other new(ish) things are going to be tried for this tournament. This (may) include: netted goals, an on court ref, and maybe a few new rules.
In time we will create a tournament on the League of Bike Polo, where players can officially register for the draft. For now, its all a while off, so express your interest and make some discussion below.
See below for info on the NYC bench tournament:
Bench Minor Tournament | The League of Bike Polo
Lessons from Bench Minor | The League of Bike Polo
Bench minor tournament - Bike polo - Nyc march 2010 on Vimeo