World of Card Games

Tournaments, League Matches, and Formal Challenges

Currently, I'm the sole Tournament Director for the Jungle Gym Spades League. I'm finding it hard to fill the demand for tournaments. Some people want to play in every tournament, but if they do, not everyone gets a chance to play.

There are two ways to play "ranked" games without playing in a tournament - and without my intervention at all. 1) You can arrange your own "1 vs 1 match" or 2) you can issue a "Formal Challenge."

Here's a snippet from the MyLeague FAQ:

What is the difference between a regular match and a formal challenge?

Regular challenges are issued in live chat when you run into someone you want to play a Ladder match against.

The Formal Challenge System is in place so that if you are having a hard time finding someone you want to challenge you can do so through the website with our support. You should always try to get your match through the normal methods first before resorting to issuing a formal challenge.

The point is that the formal challenge is a last resort. Usually, ordinary methods - using email or chat - will work to run a match.

How to Run a 1 vs 1 League Match

Two players agree in advance to play a game as a league match, and whoever loses is bound by the honor system to report the loss at the MyLeague site. These players must make sure that they are opponents in the same game. They might use email or chat to agree on a time and place to play (e.g. a specific private table name, at 8 PM Eastern on Friday evening), or they might arrange it as a spur of the moment thing.

It's even more fun if you can get another pair of players to participate in that game, using it as their own 1 vs 1 match.
The hitch is, you can only report a loss as an individual. So you report your loss against one other player. It seems a little odd that they don't have a way for the team to report their loss. However, I have confirmed with MyLeague staff that it is okay to report 1 vs 1 matches like this, even in a team game.

You can have 1 vs 1 matches in Spades even if your partners do not participate, as long as you are playing on opposing teams.

As an example: Bob and Alice agree to a 1 vs 1 league match. Bob will report his loss to Alice if Alice wins, otherwise Alice will report her loss to Bob. They recruit two friends who are not even in the League to be their partners. When the game is over, Alice wins. Bob reports his loss as described above.

Another example: Bob and Alice want to play a 1 vs 1 match. So do Cathy and David. They all agree to meet at a private table in 20 minutes time. Bob and Cathy agree to be partners while David and Alice are their opponents. Eventually, Bob and Cathy lose the match, while David and Alice are the winners. Immediately, Bob visits MyLeague to report his loss against Alice (since they were involved in a 1 vs 1 match). Also, Cathy reports her loss against David, since they were involved in their own 1 vs 1 match.

How to Run a Formal Challenge

Click on the "Standings" menu item at MyLeague, and click on "Formal Challenge" sub-menu. You'll see a form like this:

formal challenge page at MyLeague

Now you'll see that you can only put one name in for the opponent. That seems kind of crazy, because Spades is a team game. However, I have contacted MyLeague support, and they said it's fine to challenge a single player even in a team game. You just have to make sure that when you play your "match" game, your challenged opponent is on the opposite team. Just like regular matches, your partners need not even be in the League to complete the challenge.

I'd recommend doing this with a little more planning. Instead of doing a single formal challenge, find yourself a partner, and each of you do a formal challenge against someone else. Make sure that you both arrange to play your challenge match at the same table (probably it's a good idea to agree upon a private table name, as well as a specific day and time). That way, everyone at the table will be involved in the challenge. I hope it's easy enough to discuss the details using the personal messaging that is available at MyLeague, or regular email or chat.

Once you finish your match, the losers must go to the same page above and click on the "Report Loss" link. Remember it's the losers who do this - if they don't, you can give them a nudge/reminder, or contact me, because I can also report losses as the Tourney Admin.

That's it! If you try this, please let me know. I'm curious to know if this is a fun thing or not. I tried it this morning (May of 2015) with a volunteer, and it was all pretty easy! If anyone wants to challenge me to a match, feel free!

Oh one more thing: there's are rules about who you can challenge. If you try to challenge someone and it doesn't work, I'm guessing it's due to those rules.

BTW if you "formal challenge" someone, please make an effort to cooperate with them to complete the challenge ASAP. Players can only be involved in one formal challenge at a time. If you do not complete the challenge within 7 days, both players involved get a rank reduction, so you both have an incentive to complete the challenge. Warning: I reserve the right to bump players from the League if they create a formal challenge but do nothing to follow through. This hurts the challenged player!