Players and pairs will have qualified following the rules outlined in their section, often by accumulating points playing NTRP tournaments during 2018, and perhaps then playing in a Sectionals tournament to determine the top players that get to advance.
The format for the events are up to 32 players being put in up to 8 flights for three round-robin matches each, followed by the 8 flight winners advancing to a standard quarter-finals, semi-finals, and final. In order to get all the matches in, potentially six over the 3-day weekend, the events use the Fast Four scoring.
Players qualify to play at a given level based on having either a 2017 or 2018 year-end rating at that level. This means that a 2017 year-end 3.5 who played 3.5 level tournaments all year and got bumped up to 4.0 at 2018 year-end is still qualified to play at the NTRP Nationals at the 3.5 level. I believe the rationale is that this is the Nationals event for players who qualified during 2018, so might as well let them continue to play at that level they were eligible for during that year.
Note that I believe it also allows a player who was a 4.0 during 2017 but got a 3.5 2018 year-end rating to be eligible at the 3.5 level, but I'm not sure how many sectionals qualifying and selection criteria would provide a path for these players at the 3.5 level.
The feedback I heard from last year's event was that it was very good, even if the Fast Four format was a little new/short/quirky for some. There will be some players that are looked at as sandbaggers, particularly those players that were bumped up at 2018 year-end but are still playing at their lower level, but that is just the nature of any Nationals event.
What do you think? Are you going? Do you wish you were going? What was the qualification process like in your section?
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