Issue #3, April 2013
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**
What is the STAR Tournaments all About?
**
(interview with Pete Nelson, Star Board
Member conducted by the Wolfman)
(Notes from the Wolfman:
As our members no doubt know by
now, SOM Baseball Tournaments is
a personal passion. As
you will read in the April column about the 1974 National
Convention which a group of us setup - bring gamers together via
tournaments is a key part of the history of SOM Baseball.
Since 1986, there have been a group of dedicated Strat-o-matic
Baseball fanatics who have carried this torch offering
tournaments all over the U.S. called the STAR Tournaments and
now with their sister group SOM Tours, who we will discuss in
May, are beginning to offer in Canada. Its possible these
tournaments could be defining who are some of the best SOM
Baseball gamers on the planet. Plus recently STAR has
begun to offer on-line tournaments utilizing Netplay and Skype
plus is going to support our initiative for a weekend line of
tournaments in September of this year - see the newsletters main
page for other details. We are lucky to have Pete Nelson, who is
one of five STAR Board Members to speak with us to learn more
about the STAR Tournaments. Also Pete has had his share of
winning a few tournaments as well and has won the WORLDS
tournament which is the championship tournament held each year.
Thanks Pete for being open to share with our members. )
The STAR
Tournament Logo along with Board Member Pete Nelson
showing his Seattle roots |
Wolfman:
Pete, I have
participated in the Star Tournaments in Chicago twice
before and I can tell you that it brings the very best
SOM Baseball gamers on the planet together in one place.
I didn't have much luck in the face-to-face tournaments
as I am use to playing the computer game but I did
learn some new startegies that helped me in my computer
league from my involvement in your tournaments. I have
to say that the competition at the tournaments is fierce
but its a great way to learn the game. Thank you Pete
for allowing our readers to gain more insights into the
STAR tournaments and taking time to answer my questions.
So Pete, how did the Star
Tournaments start, when is the first year it was offered?
Pete:
Star Tournaments
started in 1996. Prior to Star, there was an organization called
the Table Baseball Association which ran tournaments
nation-wide. It became clear that the TBA was not going to be
around any more and a group of us got together to form Star to
keep tournament play going.
(Wolfman's
Note - I met in
Chicago John Kreuz through our assistant Larry Braus who was the
founder of the TBA which began in 1986. The idea of the
WORLD tournaments which is to find the Champion for each year
was started in 1986 and the TBA winners of the WORLDs along with
the STAR champions starting in 1996 are shown on the STAR
tournament website.) |
I am one of five Star
Board members, a Tournament Director (TD) for Portland,
Treasurer and a half-dozen other roles including taking care of
our website. Stan Suderman is the president of our Board.
Wolfman:
Now when I
participated in the STAR tournaments in Chicago I met Hank Smith
who I had an email correspondence with and even had a chance to
play Hank in the tournament. My understanding is Hank was one of
the originators of the STAR Tournaments. Can you share with our
members exactly what role Hank Smith played with the
tournaments? I also would like to acknowledge Hank for his
outstanding efforts to keep alive the SOM Baseball Tournaments
and all the time he spent to do so as unfortunately he recently
passed away which is a great lost to our community.
Pete:
Hank Smith was
one of the early leaders within Star and was our first
Commissioner. In fact, Hank was the person who named Star. Hank
was a good friend of mine and was the greatest ambassador for
our hobby that we've ever had (or likely will ever have!). We'll
miss him. Hank is 4th all-time in tournament games played but
only played in one event last year as his health prevented him
from playing as much as he had in the past. We occasionally have
elections in Star and Hank served as our official vote-counter.
Wolfman:
What is the goal for
holding these Tournaments? How are the tournaments setup?
You hold the tournaments in many cities I see, how is this
accomplished?
Pete:
The goal for
these tournaments is to have fun. We love the competition and
the camaraderie. Tournaments have various formats. For our
Face-To-Face (FTF) events, we usually draft our teams on Friday
night or Saturday morning. Then, we play a schedule of games
with the top teams qualifying for the playoffs. A tournament
champion is crowned on Sunday night. We also have an Internet
Division where games are played using the SOM computer game and
scheduled when people are available to play.
Just this year, we've added
a third option (PureStrat). The cards are used just like with
FTF but the games are played from your own home with an internet
dice roller and Skype for communication. What makes this all
work are the volunteers in the various cities who are willing to
give their time to organize and run these events. Star provides
publicity for these events with our website and Message Board
plus a flyer that is included in the card sets. Star also
provides the structure and in-game rules plus Star runs the
National Championship every year (which we call the Worlds).
Star also keeps track of the records for all players and
provides useful draft information (including an average pick
sheet from all tournaments) and a draft simulator (DSIM) to help
people prepare for the draft and some use DSIM during the draft.
(Wolfman's
Note - Again from
my experiences in Chicago, the DSIM is a computer program that
helps a person draft their team at the tournament as all the
elligible players who can be drafted are included as well as the
statistics from prior drafts which players were picked in which
position in the draft. If nothing else and you visit the STAR
website and download their DSIM program, it can help you rank
the quality of the players in the current SOM Baseball set for
your own leagues or tournaments!)
Wolfman, PureStrat is
the name given by it's inventor (Bryan Albin) for the tournament
format that allows people to play tournament games from home
using an Internet dice roller and Skype for communications. It
is also the new name for the West Region of Star (with Bryan as
the Region Director). In the PureStrat Region, we have both FTF
tournaments and PureStrat tournaments. (Wolfman's Note - so
the PureStrat Region offers both face-to-face and on-line
tournaments.)
Additionally for our tournaments, we use Super Advanced rules
but have made a few changes to those over time. We have a Rules
Committee that looks at ways we can improve the tournament
experience.
Wolfman:
Pete can you go into
more detail from start to finish, what the experience would be
like to participate in a star tournament so our readers will
have a better idea off what it is like to be in a STAR
Tournament?
Pete:
(Ref #1)
Different tournaments have different formats but all tournaments
start with a draft where each entrant selects 25 players and a
ballpark. If you have 15 or more entrants, you will have
multiple divisions of between 8 and 14 players. All divisions
have to be the same size so, if you had multiple divisions, one
or more DSIM teams (teams drafted by computer using Stan
Suderman's DSIM program) would be added to balance out the
divisions. Some people use DSIM to draft their team but most
people have their own system (which may or may not use a
computer). For most FTF tournaments, the draft is held at the
tournament site. After the draft, you play the number of series
that the format calls for. Usually, 4-game series.
After the regular season,
the teams with the best records advance to the play-offs.
Depending on the number of entrants, you might have 1, 2 or even
3 rounds of play-offs (again, depending upon the format for that
tournament). For the FTF weekend tournaments, the winner can
expect to play 35-40 games. For the Skype tournaments (where you
use the cards like in FTF but play from home using Skype for
communication and the web for a dice roller), you'll play
slightly more games but they're spread out over an entire month.
Same for the NetPlay tournaments (that use the SOM computer
game).
(Wolfman's Note: So in STAR for their on-line tournaments,
some use SOM Netplay program to do their tournaments and others
use Skype where you are playing your opponent live through skype
each viewing the cards of both teams.)
Wolfman:
How is a champion for
a specific tournament decided - is it based on record or is
there some elimination process you use?
Pete:
Records are used
to determine who makes the play-offs and the play-offs are used
to determine the tournament champ. (Wolfman's Note - so
its the collective won-lost record of the participants after all
tournament play is done which determines who makes the
playoffs.)
Wolfman:
Can you give an
example from this year of a team's roster that were selected to
create a champion team that won one of your tournaments? What
role does the pick of the stadium or ballpark serve?
Pete:
You can go to the
star website (
http://studio303.com/star ) and click on APS, Drafts,
Eligible Players link (left margin). From there click on the
Draft Summaries link (second column of links). Then click on Los
Angeles March B. You'll see the entire draft and note the
records for each player and you'll also see that Sean Riley won
drafting Votto with the second pick overall. The stadium plays a
very important role as you want to draft a stadium that fits
your team. If you have a lot of power on your team, you want to
be in a hitter's park. If you don't have a lot of power or your
pitchers give up a lot of bombs, you want to be in a pitcher's
park.
Wolfman:
What is the normal
schedule of a tournament - do people come in on a Friday or
Saturday - how many games should a person expect to play on the
weekend? How is the draft orientated - how many people in a
group can you have max?
Pete:
(See Ref #1
above.) Some FTF tournaments have a Friday night draft while
other FTF events have the draft on Saturday morning. There are
even a few FTF tournaments which hold the draft via Skype or the
Internet and then gather in one place to play the games.
Wolfman:
What type of teams do
you personally like to draft (like defensive, pitching, power
hitters, on base, etc )? Do you switch the team from tournament
to tournament?
Pete:
I personally like
to draft a good defensive team. Other than that, I have no
particular strategy. I just take what the draft gives me a build
a versatile team that can be successful in multiple situations.
You're always going to be weak somewhere though.
Wolfman:
Now I noticed in the Chicago Tournament, that the winner
received a cash prize and the participants had an option to just
play for fun or to pay a higher fee if they wish to compete for
the ultimate cash prize. When we did our tournaments at the
National Coventions we awared our winners with trophies. Can you
discuss how the cash prize evolved within STAR and how this
works exactly?
Pete:
Star is not
involved in prize money. Many events offer a play-for-fun option
where the entrant pays only their share of the costs. Prize
money is up to the tournament host. Star collects $50/tournament
to cover the costs associated with running our non-profit
corporation (Star Tournament Association). We will not
sanction any tournaments where anyone involved takes a cut for
themselves. These costs include the conference room at the
Worlds, the cost of putting a flyer in every card set, web
hosting costs etc. No one in Star has ever made a dime for
themselves and in fact most of us have contributed significant
funds toward this enterprise.
(Wolfman's Note: - there are various regions which make up
STAR, each city has a Tournament Director and various cities are
part of one of the regions. Each region decides
independently what the fee to play for fun or if they wish to
offer a cash prize. One aspect discussed with me by Bryan
from Purestrat is that the expense for a person to attend a STAR
tournament who is not local is getting hiring for the plane
expense and hotel. So for a person to win a tournament
helps to recoup these costs. As Pete is explaining the
STAR Tournament Association is the glue that keeps all the
tournaments linked together and is collecting the statistics of
what happens at each tournament.)
There are other expenses that a tournament will have (for
example, the conference room) so each tournament must collect
enough from each entrant to cover their expenses. Prize money is
entirely up to the tournament - Star has nothing to do with
that. We're not for it or against it. The only thing we insist
on is that, if prize money is collected, it must all be
distributed back to the entrants (so much for first, second,
third etc.). How they do that is entirely up to them.
So, in your Chicago example, I assume that the expenses were
$25/person. Anything collected above that would have gone into
the prize money pool.
Wolfman:
What has been some of
the most exciting moments in the Star's History - either unusual
game play - or play in championship series? Can you explain what
the Worlds are?
Pete:
There have been
many exciting moments over the years. Anyone who has ever played
could talk for hours about all the crazy stuff that has
happened. My most memorable game was in the 2004 Worlds where I
was playing Mark VanKlaveren in the play-offs. It was game 7
with the loser out and the winner going onto the semi-finals.
Mark had run out of pitching and was using the hitter's pitching
card. For some reason, I could not touch that guy as he shut me
out for several innings before getting the win and going on to
win the championship. I remember getting a guy on first only to
have him picked off trying to steal off the +9 hold. The Worlds
is the biggest (and final) tournament of the season and is open
to anyone. The winner of that event is considered our champion.
Willy Dominguez won it this past January (Wolfman's Note - to
see our interview with Willy for this issue, click
here).
Wolfman:
Let's talk about the
on-line tournaments that you are offering now. Is there a
stronger interest in an on-line tournament verse face-to-face?
Pete:
There is still
more interest in FTF but participation in our Internet Division
and PureStrat play is growing.
Wolfman:
For the on-line
tournaments you are holding - via either Netplay or Skype - do
you also do a draft - is there a different strategy to play in
these? What is an electronic dice roller and how does this work?
Yes, the draft is the same
for all three kinds of tournaments (FTF, NetPlay and Skype). The
only significant strategic difference is with the bullpen usage.
With FTF, the bullpen usage caries over from series to series.
With NetPlay and Skype, the bullpen re-sets after each 4-game
series. Thus, you can see unusual pen usage in game 4 because
there is no reason to save someone for the next game. This is a
necessary accommodation which allows the 4-game series to be
played in any order for the NetPlay and Skype tournaments. The
dice roller is a web application provided by a special SOM group
on the internet. When you're ready to roll, you just click on
the roll button. You can check it out at:
http://www.strat-o-matic.net/dice/login.cfm (it's free).
Wolfman:
What are some of the
key strategies that you recommend Pete should any of our readers
decide to participate in a future Star Tournament for the first
time? What should they know to prepare for the tournament to see
success in their play? Is there any tournaments being offered
that are not using the latest set of baseball cards released by
Strat-o-matic?
Pete:
The main thing I
tell new players is to not try and do too much during their
first event. People have won tournaments drafting a team off the
Average Pick Sheet (This is a document that shows the player
who is selected on the highest average of each pick of the draft).
Just come and have fun and layer in additional complexity as you
learn from others about what works and what doesn't. There is no
one way to do this. There are many different philosophies out
there and people have success using many different styles. For
example, I'm known for drafting good defensive teams. Lots of
people think I'm nuts but this style has worked pretty well for
me over the years. The main thing is just come and play. You
will learn more from a weekend of playing than you would from
many months of preparation.
SOMT offers tournaments using cards from past years (called
Throwback). There was one in February and another is scheduled
for September 7th in Pittsburgh of this year. (Wolfman's Note
- SOMT {SOM Tours} is the sister group offering tournaments, see
my comments below.)
Wolfman:
How does one apply to
participate in a tournament?
Pete:
Easy. You go to
our website
http://studio303.com/star and click on the schedule link
(middle, toward the top). Find the tournament you're interested
in and click on the link. You'll find the contact person who you
can call or e-mail to get details for the event. This
information is also in our flyer that came with your cards. Or,
you can just show up but I strongly suggest you get in touch
with the tournament host (or tournament director) prior to the
event so you know what to expect.
Wolfman:
What is the best way
for interested people to contact you?
Pete:
e-mail me at
petenelson31@comcast.net
Wolfman:
Do you have support
in any way from the Game Company? Do they have any say or rules
you must follow to offer your tournaments sanctioned by the Game
Company?
Pete:
We are not
sanctioned by the game company but have an unofficial
relationship with them. I guess you could say they support us as
they agree to put our flyer in the card sets every year. SOM
does not have any say in how we run our tournaments or what
rules we use. Our rules do not differ that much from the SOM
Super-advanced rules.
Wolfman:
Is there anything
else that is important to share with our readers that was not
asked in prior questions that you believe would be of value for
our readers to know about the Star Tournaments?
Pete:
Some people are
intimidated by tournament play. Then, they come and have a great
time and realize that it's just Strat and not that much
different from what they're used to playing. And, we have some
alternatives now (PureStrat and the Internet Region) for those
that can't dedicate a whole weekend or can't travel.
Wolfman:
Do you have any plans
for new tournaments or new activities in the future - how many
tournaments are you holding each year - where would you
like to see Star go?
As of now, we aren't planning any new activities. We have
Internet tournaments once per month and Skype tournaments once
per month. Plus, we have a full slate of 42 FTF weekend events
that are held all across North America (this is a combination
of tournaments coordinated by STAR and SOMT). The schedule
is included in the card sets that come from the game company
plus you can see the schedule on our website (http://studio303.com/star
) by clicking on the 2013 Schedule and Results link (middle,
toward the top).
As for the future, I would like to see more Strat players give
tournament play a shot. The only way to find out if it's for you
is to give it a try.
Wolfman:
Pete, thank you again for allowing us this opportunity to speak
to you and learn more about the Star Tournaments, which many
consider the premier Baseball tournament that now are being
offered.
We also wish to acknowledge your support for our newsletter by
allowing us to share it with your members. We hope in the future
there are ways we may be able to work together on joint projects
with you.
(Final Notes from the Wolfman:
As you have seen on our main
page, one of the section of the April newsletter is about the
idea of creating a weekend in September where various baseball
tournaments will be offered on-line. As we state on this
page, Pete has been sharing with us various advice and we look
forward to working with STAR to join us in this great adventure.
This is part of the reason why this month we have interviewed Pete
and Willy, so our readers have an idea of the tournaments
currently being held. Next month, in our May issue we will
introduce you to SOMT or SOM Tours. Pretty much both groups,
SOMT and STAR are holding similar tournaments and are sister
organizations but each has their own geographical area where the
tournaments are held. STAR is doing the Western, Midwest
{sharing} and South of the U.S. and SOMT has the East Coast,
Midwest {sharing} and did a tournament in Toronto, Canada. We
also will speak to Bryan Albin of Purestraat, the Western region
of STAR who came up with the Skype Internet based tournaments.
We hope you are enjoying learning about the current and past
tournaments and meeting the key individuals involved.)