Anyone planning to play in the Qlympics in November?
When I originally heard about the BCA sponsored Qlympics event in Louisville, Kentucky, I was a little curious, very interested, and a bit confused.
I was confused because the previous BCA events have always been so organized. You could go to the BCA site and see exactly what dates and times everything was happening at, e.g. “Scotch checkin at noon on Tuesday, May 8. Singles checkin at 9:00a.m. on Thursday, May 10. Singles play begins at 10:00a.m. on Firday, May 11. etc. etc.”
The Qlympics site offers event dates, entry fees, and entry form downloads. On this site, you can also download the flyer for the event, view the player qualifications for the event, and, of course, see the beautiful ad displaying photographs of the hotel and rooms.
Another confusing thing happened recently when I received an email from the BCA with the following information:
“Qlympics is hosted and co-sponsored by the Clarion Hotel and Convention Center. If you want to participate in the added money at this event, you will definitely need to make your reservations at the Clarion Hotel at (xxx) xxx-xxxx (the reservations code is “Qlympics”) and have a room there for the duration of your event. Sorry, reservations made through 3rd party web sites, etc. will not entitle you to share in the added money.“
So, the entire Qlympics event spans over a course of 18 days, November 1st through the 18th. If I wanted to participate in every single event AND receive a piece the full, ambiguous money-added prize fund, it would cost me a total of $1,635.48 (after taxes) for 18 days of hotel nights.
This sparked the following questions (feel free to post any of your own)…
- When will there be a more accurate schedule with times posted for this event?
- What if you’re sharing a room with another participant in the tournament? Is it now critical to make sure everyone’s names are on the room?
- What if the hotel is completely booked? They currently are not. I just called. However, they only have 395 rooms. What if you happen to be the unlucky 396th person to call?
- Will there be two prize money postings so players that don’t stay at the hotel can know how much they would have won? OR will they just deduct the added moneys from the total amount that you won?
- What’s next? $200 hotel rooms and free entry into the tournament???
- Or, what’s doubly next?!??? Will players then be forced to stay at the Riviera from now on during nationals in order to receive a portion of the added money?!??? What happens if it gets moved to the Venetian or a much less affordable hotel/casino? Will we be forced to stay there as well?
I’m not trying to encourage or discourage anyone from attending this event. I was just wondering if anyone else had these same concerns and what your thoughts are about this event or any other event that would force you to stay in the hotel to be eligible for the added prize fund?
I’ve posed the above questions to the BCA and will let you know what I find out.
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[...] to discover a most eloquently-written, professional response from David Vandenberghe of the BCA to my inquiry early this month regarding the Qlympics event. See [...]