Amazing event! I think i'll watch the games again just to study. Thanks Mr Olsen and all others taking part of organising this final. Great work congrats!
It was a trap! Marc and Justin fell for it, so did Mochy. Bad luck to Mochy for landing that difficult decision. I wonder if ZZ would have got it right? I wonder if anyone would get that right? Maybe Dirk? I guess we'll never know.
Good work. One thing I found curious, having played in zero events with a clock, is that the players took a long time making up their minds for many moves (until they were down to seconds on their clock). I play on Galaxy and have been vocal about standard time matches not giving enough time and casual time matches giving too much time. Then I saw the ad for this weeks big Miami event and the clock regulation is 12/2 = 12 seconds per move and 2 minutes per point reserve time. Galaxy's Standard clock is 10/1. I think Galaxy should implement a clock setting of 12/2 and while we wait for that, rename the clock settings Snail, Speed, and Sonic. It would be nice to also add a volume control, a toggle to turn off having to watch the opponent play hockey with their checkers, and a blocked player list for each player so they never have to again get paired with someone they don't want to play with (like the ones who walk away when they can't win and let the clock run down to zero).
You guys could have easily flipped the camera or simply had them switch places at the table so that we didn't have to deal with the disorientation on the third day
The thing is Mochy is playing always 1000% so retiring leaves us sad but he goes through so much preparation that I can understand he it tired of it. Basically the guy does not need motivation to further study its game and improve it.
Does the computer analysis allow for playing against a particular opponent or situation versus what the best “technical” play is? I know in chess that sometimes the top players will know what the best move in a position is, but will choose to play a weaker move in order to confuse their opponent or bring them out of theory. I guess because it’s a high stakes championship event it’s different, but I was wondering if the allowance of a “human play” is a concept in the backgammon world. Regardless, I’m glad I stumbled onto this corner of the internet because it’s a fun watch.
The "big blunder" from ZZ that they mentioned at about 4:47 must have been a mistranscription. He made no blunders up to then and the 42: Bar/23 11/7* that Justin mentioned was actually best. I'm watching after the fact and maybe it will be resolved. I will watch the rest with bated breath.
There are some other games/sports where players can be told the rules while playing. But I don't know of any where this happens without the players asking. That seemed very odd.
Backgammon is overdue for a rule change. Make it like chess: once you touch your checkers, you have to place them, and you can't change your move. Since there's already the heavy element of luck in the game, at least the part that's skill should be entirely mental skill - not trying on different outfits or playing musical chairs. Watching move changes is aggravating for the spectator, angering for the opponent, and amateur game-playing by the player making the changes. It's time for backgammon to grow up and make the mental part of the game entirely mental. End the infantile dithering on moves, and backgammon will gain by becoming more professional. It's way overdue.
This was anything but fun to watch to be honest. And yes if i do think too that touch your checkers you have to play them. At least whenever i play a cashgame i always use that.
They think way too long, its just no fun to watch. And imo they make too much mistakes either. They got the titles but i genuinly think i could win. Way back when you had MSN BG i was a top 25 player (just to compare), and in the meanwhile ive been better but i dont olay that much nowadays. Played some huge cashgames and mostly won. Cant remember my last recent loss (without exaggeration), but then again i didnt played against good players recently. I dont want to smalltalk master Mochy but im not impressed…
@ To be honest, you guys with all those stats and talking behind the scene, you gained pretty much nothing more than i can without. If we may believe your stats (which i do by the way) i made less blunders according to the stats. But lets talk numbers instead, how many games do you think you have played? Im 42 and i have played more than 500 cash games (maybe way more but not less). You try to belittle me with ‘hahahaha’ but im Turkish and my favorite boardgame is BG. I am pretty sure that i have played more games of BG in my life than you guys did and for sure more games than that ZZ guy did. The plays you guys cheered when one of those 2 players made after 2 minutes of thinking i would have played within seconds (im a fast player). One of the reasons why i play less nowadays is simply because no good player dares to play against me. Without exaggeration at least 5/6 players with whome i played have broken the BG board after they had lost to me. But yeah you have all your reasons to not believe me but i come from the country where this game is a tradition. And to say the least i was pretty much not impressed with this finals.
great tournament and a brilliant resource to study. But how does PR work and how does it affect the result? Why did Mochy lose when he won the last game? 🤔
The final is decided via twelve 7-point matches, where the players get 1 point for a win and 1 point for a "PR Win" (the player with the lowest error rate according to eXtreme Gammon XG++ analysis). The first player to achieve 13 points wins the championship title.
PR is a quantitative measure of a player's skill, by comparing how much, on average, their chosen moves deviate from the best moves (according to XG which is the strongest backgammon program). The top-level players have a PR so close to each other that their matches are basically a 50% win chance proposition, down almost exclusively to the luck of the dice. This is why UBC rewards a point based on who plays with the lowest PR (and I hope the idea catches on to other tournaments as well).
My opinion, some time Zizka was playing extremely bad that I couldn’t believe it, what he was thinking wow, I enjoyed watching them, Mochy always my favorite player. Congratulation to Zizka 🫡
Tx to everyone who organized and commentated. Very fun to watch these past few days.
Amazing event! I think i'll watch the games again just to study. Thanks Mr Olsen and all others taking part of organising this final. Great work congrats!
Sad to hear that Mochy decided to retire from UBC 😢
Marc and Justin's collective gasp at 4:42:30, when XG reveals that hitting was a .111 blunder, is priceless.
It was a trap! Marc and Justin fell for it, so did Mochy. Bad luck to Mochy for landing that difficult decision. I wonder if ZZ would have got it right? I wonder if anyone would get that right? Maybe Dirk? I guess we'll never know.
Great performance by both and a wonderful show! Thank you all!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great stuff! I am slowly getting caught up on this. I somehow avoided seeing who won, so shhhhh. Appreciate you guys!
Happy that you enjoy it!!
An exciting final day, with many upsets and frustrations, and many amazing jokers and anti-jokers.
Good work. One thing I found curious, having played in zero events with a clock, is that the players took a long time making up their minds for many moves (until they were down to seconds on their clock). I play on Galaxy and have been vocal about standard time matches not giving enough time and casual time matches giving too much time. Then I saw the ad for this weeks big Miami event and the clock regulation is 12/2 = 12 seconds per move and 2 minutes per point reserve time. Galaxy's Standard clock is 10/1. I think Galaxy should implement a clock setting of 12/2 and while we wait for that, rename the clock settings Snail, Speed, and Sonic. It would be nice to also add a volume control, a toggle to turn off having to watch the opponent play hockey with their checkers, and a blocked player list for each player so they never have to again get paired with someone they don't want to play with (like the ones who walk away when they can't win and let the clock run down to zero).
Mochy is retiring from UBC? I wish he would reconsider!
ou peut on acheter les pions du jeux?
ils sont magnifiques
You guys could have easily flipped the camera or simply had them switch places at the table so that we didn't have to deal with the disorientation on the third day
The thing is Mochy is playing always 1000% so retiring leaves us sad but he goes through so much preparation that I can understand he it tired of it. Basically the guy does not need motivation to further study its game and improve it.
Does the computer analysis allow for playing against a particular opponent or situation versus what the best “technical” play is? I know in chess that sometimes the top players will know what the best move in a position is, but will choose to play a weaker move in order to confuse their opponent or bring them out of theory. I guess because it’s a high stakes championship event it’s different, but I was wondering if the allowance of a “human play” is a concept in the backgammon world.
Regardless, I’m glad I stumbled onto this corner of the internet because it’s a fun watch.
The "big blunder" from ZZ that they mentioned at about 4:47 must have been a mistranscription. He made no blunders up to then and the 42: Bar/23 11/7* that Justin mentioned was actually best. I'm watching after the fact and maybe it will be resolved. I will watch the rest with bated breath.
OK they did catch it of course. Whew.
There are some other games/sports where players can be told the rules while playing. But I don't know of any where this happens without the players asking. That seemed very odd.
Pardon me, but if it's all the same to you, I think I'll just gently press the Like button....
guys you didn't post the final PRs
Yes we did. It's on the UBC website as well as on our Instagram, Facebook etc
Noooo. First The Undertaker and now Mochy leaves. Why??
Never seen Mochy on the back foot for such long periods. Congrats ZZ, very well played. Enjoy ur retirement Mochy, see you on ur comeback tour 😜
The rules are incomprehensible, who won؟؟؟؟؟
zdenek
ZZ is the best player in the world at the moment, in my opinion
What’s up with the constant yawning from Justin? It’s the final day of the UBC get some sleep!
I think Mochy will not retire, Kindly rejected UBC (( Poor organisation.)
Magnus Carlsen congrats
Also Justin with the tasteless Catholic priest comment about kids was unwarranted
Backgammon is overdue for a rule change.
Make it like chess: once you touch your checkers, you have to place them, and you can't change your move.
Since there's already the heavy element of luck in the game, at least the part that's skill should be entirely mental skill - not trying on different outfits or playing musical chairs.
Watching move changes is aggravating for the spectator, angering for the opponent, and amateur game-playing by the player making the changes.
It's time for backgammon to grow up and make the mental part of the game entirely mental.
End the infantile dithering on moves, and backgammon will gain by becoming more professional. It's way overdue.
This was anything but fun to watch to be honest. And yes if i do think too that touch your checkers you have to play them. At least whenever i play a cashgame i always use that.
That's what the clock is for.
They think way too long, its just no fun to watch. And imo they make too much mistakes either. They got the titles but i genuinly think i could win. Way back when you had MSN BG i was a top 25 player (just to compare), and in the meanwhile ive been better but i dont olay that much nowadays. Played some huge cashgames and mostly won. Cant remember my last recent loss (without exaggeration), but then again i didnt played against good players recently. I dont want to smalltalk master Mochy but im not impressed…
Hahahahahaahah 🤣
@
To be honest, you guys with all those stats and talking behind the scene, you gained pretty much nothing more than i can without. If we may believe your stats (which i do by the way) i made less blunders according to the stats. But lets talk numbers instead, how many games do you think you have played? Im 42 and i have played more than 500 cash games (maybe way more but not less). You try to belittle me with ‘hahahaha’ but im Turkish and my favorite boardgame is BG. I am pretty sure that i have played more games of BG in my life than you guys did and for sure more games than that ZZ guy did. The plays you guys cheered when one of those 2 players made after 2 minutes of thinking i would have played within seconds (im a fast player). One of the reasons why i play less nowadays is simply because no good player dares to play against me. Without exaggeration at least 5/6 players with whome i played have broken the BG board after they had lost to me. But yeah you have all your reasons to not believe me but i come from the country where this game is a tradition. And to say the least i was pretty much not impressed with this finals.
Bro...what??? hahahaha
Sounds like an awesome dream.
great tournament and a brilliant resource to study. But how does PR work and how does it affect the result? Why did Mochy lose when he won the last game? 🤔
Who has the lowest error rate will gain 1 point.
The final is decided via twelve 7-point matches, where the players get 1 point for a win and 1 point for a "PR Win" (the player with the lowest error rate according to eXtreme Gammon XG++ analysis). The first player to achieve 13 points wins the championship title.
PR is a quantitative measure of a player's skill, by comparing how much, on average, their chosen moves deviate from the best moves (according to XG which is the strongest backgammon program). The top-level players have a PR so close to each other that their matches are basically a 50% win chance proposition, down almost exclusively to the luck of the dice. This is why UBC rewards a point based on who plays with the lowest PR (and I hope the idea catches on to other tournaments as well).
My opinion, some time Zizka was playing extremely bad that I couldn’t believe it, what he was thinking wow, I enjoyed watching them, Mochy always my favorite player.
Congratulation to Zizka 🫡