Who can enter:

The 2008 World Junior Tantrix Championship is open to all players aged less than 16 on 31 December 2007, i.e. born in 1992 or later. There is no minimum ranking qualification for entering the tournament.

You must provide your real name and correct date of birth on entry, though you can choose for only your first name and the first letter of your surname to appear on the results pages.

Tournament format and how often you will need to play:

There is no specific date or time for each match, instead you arrange games with your opponents and there is a deadline for each round. The exact format of the tournament will depend on the number of entrants, but broadly it will be as follows:

Phase 1: A group phase lasting about three weeks. There are three groups, with 5 or 6 players per group.

During this phase, you will need to arrange mutually convenient times with your opponents to play an average of 2-3 matches per week, with each match consisting of three games against the same opponent and hence probably lasting about an hour.

Phase 2: A 8-player knockout phase for the players who finish in the top two in their groups. The two best players who finish third in their group will also qualify.

If you qualify for this phase, you may need to play up to one longer match (each lasting about 2 hours, though they can be split over more than one session) for each round that you survive, with the deadlines for each round being just under a week apart.

Rules:

The standard tournament rules apply, with time penalties if a player takes 15 minutes or more for a game and scoring using the Tournament Point system. Click to see the full rules in English, in French, in German or in Hungarian - they include notes on how to arrange games, what to do if an opponent does not show up and so on. There is now a shortened summary of the rules in English too.

Entry fee / Prize:

There is no entry fee for the tournament. To go along with the prestige of being the World Junior Tantrix Champion, the winner will receive the World Junior Tantrix Championship trophy to keep until the end of the year - see the picture on the right. Names of winners are being engraved onto the empty space, so your achievement as the World Junior Champion will be there for all future winners to see!

There will also be certificates to keep for the players who finish 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

Elo ratings:

All games played will count towards the Tantrix Tournament Elo Ratings which will be used to decide seedings for future tournaments. See Tantrix Elo ratings for further information.

Fair play:

Please read the "FAIR PLAY" section at the end of the entry form and think carefully about whether you are prepared to always play fairly before submitting your entry.

We have to reserve the right to default at our discretion people whom we have very good reason to think are either cheating or not making an effort to arrange a match, even if (given the nature of the Internet) we cannot conclusively prove it. We will not, however, abuse this right and it is only ever used in extreme circumstances.

Please note in particular that trying to gain an unfair advantage by entering more than once, playing for someone else or letting someone else (or a computer) play for you are very serious forms of cheating, as is entering the World Junior Championship if you are too old to be eligible for it. Doing so may lead to a long ban from all online Tantrix tournaments.

In order to preserve the integrity of the Championship, we may request evidence from players that they are who they say they are, unless they have already been to an offline Tantrix event or there are other trusted players who can confirm their identity. This evidence may be a copy of any id document that confirms your name and age. If we need to ask for this, we will return the copy to you or shred it immediately afterwards, whichever you prefer. N.B. There is no need to send this evidence now - you need to be aware that if you enter, you may need to prove that you are who you say you are, but we will ask for id only if we really need to.

If the main controller for the tournament is playing in the tournament too, as is often the case, an independent non-playing controller will be appointed to adjudicate if any dispute arises that involves the main controller as a player.

IMPORTANT: If you enter, please ensure that emails from tournaments@tantrix.co.uk, auto@tantrix.co.uk (and, once the tournament starts, emails from your AC, team captain and opponents) will not be blocked under any circumstances and that if your email account has a low quota, you do not let it get too full. This is because if we are unable to contact you by email for an extended period, we may have no option but to default you out of the competition. Email addresses provided will not be used for any purpose other than in connection with the running of Tantrix tournaments.