CATAN CHAMPIONSHIP RULES

COMPOSITION AND EVALUATION OF GAME PARTICIPANTS

Announcing games

Before each round, a list prepared by the computer is published, in which the participants of the championship are ranked by tables. From this list, players can find out the table number at which they will be playing the next game and go find the appropriate table.

Field preparation

All games are played on a changing pitch. The court is prepared by the player who has the fourth starting position, except for the final, where the court is prepared by the organizers of the championship (however, if all participants mutually agree, the court may be laid out by any of them). To avoid speculation about the influence of the layer on the layout of land and ports, the square is laid out in the following way:

1. Separates land and sea fields.
2. Land squares are carefully shuffled face down.
3. The pile of squares is handed over to one of the opponents to move.
4. Sea squares are connected so that adjacent numbers are the same.
5. The created frame is filled with land plots. Take the land plots one by one, turn them face up and place them in the frame. The first square is placed near the frame in the place where the numbers "1" come together, while the others are laid out in a spiral inwards (clockwise).
6. On land, number circles are placed in a clockwise spiral inward, starting from the square that was placed first. If this space is a wasteland, of course, betting starts from the next space.
7. Shuffle the development cards face down carefully.
8. The pile of cards is handed to one of the opponents for transfer.

Agenda of the first day (18.03.)

On the first day, all participants play four rounds:

First round:

The players are arranged at the tables in a random order determined by the computer. If the number of participants is not divisible by 4, then tables 4-a have 3 players (a - remainder, dividing the number of participants by 4). Players determine the starting order by rolling both dice. The player with the highest number starts. If two or more players have the highest number, they (and only they) must roll the dice again until only one player with the highest number remains. This player will place the first village first, followed by the rest of the players in clockwise order. The last player's duty is to be the banker of the game.

Second round:

Players are sorted by rank. Then they are arranged at the tables: 1st to 4th place - at the first table, 5th to 8th place - at the second table, etc. If the number of participants is not divisible by 4 without a remainder, then the lowest ranked participants go to the tables where 3 players must sit. Players determine the starting order by rolling both dice. The player with the highest number starts. If two or more players have the highest number, they (and only they) must roll the dice again until only one player with the highest number remains. This player will place the first village first, followed by the rest of the players in clockwise order. The player with the lowest rank is the banker.

Third and fourth round:

Players choose their starting positions and determine the banker following the same principle as in the first two rounds. The only difference is that for the third round the ranking is made taking into account the results of the first and second rounds, and for the fourth round - the results of all the first three rounds.

ATTENTION!

Due to the very tight schedule of the championship, the time of each round is strictly limited to 1:30 h. When 1 hour has already been played, a turn time limit of 1 minute will be introduced into the game. If the game lasts already 1:30 h, the table is given another five minutes to complete the game. As soon as 1:35 h has been played, the game is stopped, allowing the current turn to be completed. There is no winner in this game. It is understandable that such an outcome is not desirable for most of the people, as the ranking is primarily based on the number of victories and only then on points, so please do not delay unnecessarily when making moves, and do not be shy to encourage your playing partners to pass the move on if the game is dangerously long.

Important!
It should be remembered that all four rounds of the main tournament are of equal importance. The fact that there is theoretically free time to finish the game after the fourth round (because there is no other round waiting in the "queue") is not a reason to extend this round - the fourth round games will also be stopped after 1:35 h.

At the end of the first day, a ranking is compiled, where the results of all four rounds are taken into account. Participants ranked 1st to 32nd will compete in the semi-finals on the second day of the championship (March 25).

Important! If the number of participants will be less than predicted, this number can be reduced to 24.

Agenda of the second day (25.03.)

It is very important to have exactly 32 participants on the second day to determine the results. Therefore, if one of the top 32 participants of the first day knows (or learns as time goes by) that he will not be able to participate on the set date at the time of the announcement of the results, he is obliged to warn about it immediately. In that case, the winner of the 33rd place will be in the lucky sixteen (if several participants refuse, then the 34th, 35th, etc., respectively). As the set date approaches, the participants will be contacted again (initially the first 32, but in the case of a participant's withdrawal, also the winners of the next places).

The order and play system of the second day is the same as the first day. After each round, half of the participants end their participation in the tournament, so there will be 4 games in total on the second day.

Final:
Prior to the final, the ranking of all semi-finalists is determined, taking into account all previous matches. This is called the final rank.

• To determine the champion, all the winners of the semi-final games sit down at the table. The order of moves is chosen by the players, starting with the player with the highest rank.

The winner of this game is the champion!

In the final game, the pitch is prepared and the banker functions are performed by the organizers of the championship.
The winner of the final table goes to represent Latvia at the world championship in 2018.

IMPORTANT CONCEPTS

A banker

The banker is the issuer and receiver of raw material and development cards. Only he is given the used resource and development cards and only he issues the resource and development cards from the bank. He must verbally describe his actions when dealing cards to himself or when depositing his resource cards in the bank. If the player who has to perform the duties of the banker is not sure that he can handle it accurately and skillfully, the players may agree on another banker from among themselves.

Player ranking

The ranking of players is determined by three criteria (in order of importance):

• Total number of wins (for example, a player with 3 wins is always ahead of a player who managed to win 2 times).
• Total number of UPs (if the players have the same number of wins, then the player with the higher total number of UPs is in the highest ranking place).
• The total percentage UP (%UP) number (in a situation where both the number of wins and the total number of UPs match, the %UP amount determines the place in the ranking). A player's %UP for a given game is determined by dividing the amount of UP earned in that game by the amount of UP earned by all players at the table. To calculate %UP for three-player games, the amount of UP for the game is multiplied by the average score of that game. If such an adjustment were not made, participation in three-player games would give an advantage. In the rare event that the %UP is also the same (which can mostly happen after the first round), the head judge will draw which of the players will occupy a higher position in the ranking.

Notes:

• The player's UP is determined by also taking into account the unplayed victory point cards.
• The maximum amount of UP a player can earn is 10. So even if the winner manages to "accumulate" 11 or more UP during the game (without playing UP progress cards and/or getting the longest path or largest army card when he has 9 points ), as a result only 10 will be counted.

Game questionnaire

In all rounds, each table is given a game questionnaire before the start of the game, where the round number, table number, names of the game participants and the score table are written. The players show each other their championship membership card, thereby confirming that they are who they appear on the questionnaire. After recording the scores at the end of the game, all players confirm that they agree with the results by signing the game questionnaire.

Player's choice of colors

In each game, players must choose the color of their pieces. If two or more players claim a suit, it is awarded to the higher ranked player. Before the first round, when the rank does not yet exist, priority in conflicts is determined by the starting position.

WHAT TO NOTE

• Don't drag on! Respect the time of other players too! If no one responds to your invitation to trade, it most likely means "no". In this championship, the length of the rounds is strictly limited, so the organizers of the championship may be forced to set a time limit for the move or even stop the game without determining a winner .
• When you finish the game, record the results in the questionnaire and declare the game over! Break up the playing field by arranging the land squares and number circles into separate piles, and collecting together the pieces you each use. Don't mess up the sea tiles as they stay the same layout every game. It is the responsibility of the winner to bring the questionnaire to the judges' table!
• Dice must roll on the table - so that they are not simply "placed". If even one of the dice has fallen to the ground or comes to rest sideways, both dice must be rolled.
• The participants of the game are themselves responsible for mutual control of compliance with the rules. If new actions have been initiated after an error has been made, the error can no longer be corrected. For example, if a "7" came up, but forgot (and no one reminded) to move the robber, but trade and construction have already started, the robber may no longer be moved (however, it should be remembered if the player for some reason does not want to move the robber and immediately tries to start the exchange or construction in order to to avoid this, he must take into account the reminder of other players to move the robber). Similarly, if the corresponding raw materials were placed in the bank, but the corresponding figure was forgotten, then after passing the move to the next player, the figure may no longer be placed on the field.
• Verbal statements are not binding and the final action may be changed depending on the player's wishes. For example, if a player says he will rob from player A, but then for some reason changes his mind and wants to rob from player B, he is allowed to do so. Or if a player deposits clay and wood in the bank, saying that he will build a road, but does not build it yet, he may, for example, pay more for crops and a sheep and build a village at the end.
• A piece is considered placed on the field when it is placed in a legal place and the player has released it. As long as the player has not released the piece, he can also move it to another place. However, if the piece is dismissed, its position may not be changed again.
• Agreements outside the rules of the game (such as a promise to give lemonade if you don't make a mugger) are not binding on either party and can be broken without consequence. Another thing is that the partner of the agreement can take it badly. The same applies to short-term alliances - they are not forbidden, but can fall apart at any moment.
• Influencing opponents' decisions with words is not prohibited - we assume that each participant is capable of making a decision independently. If you want to "punish" a player who you think is manipulating others, you can, for example, not trade with him or play against him with his own weapons.
• Physically influencing opponents before, after or during the game is, of course, completely unacceptable and will mean disqualification of the participant.
• If you have come to sympathize or are a participant of the championship who has already finished his game, then it is forbidden to make audible comments and give advice to the players while watching the game of another table. Interference in the game from the outside (even with a seemingly harmless retort) can affect the outcome of the game and is therefore not allowed! Depending on the "degree of harm", the participant who performs such an intervention may receive from a warning to disqualification (head judge's decision).
• All games are played with the Baltic version of the base game Catan. Communication during the game takes place in Latvian, but all game participants can also agree on another language.

THE ORGANIZERS ARE ALWAYS READY TO SOLVE OTHER QUESTIONS THAT ARISE DURING THE GAME. IF AN UNCLEAR SITUATION HAPPENS, DO NOT DELAY TO ASK FOR HELP!