Due to persistent vandalism, account creation has been suspended. If you would like an account, please contact Charlie Reams on Apterous.

2020–22 FOCAL season

From Countdown

The 2020–22 FOCAL season was the fifth season of FOCAL. It was won by number eight seed Jack Hurst, who qualified due to number five seed Edward Byrne being unable to attend the finals event.

The season was heavily disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and most tournaments were cancelled.

Changes from 2019

The main change between 2019 and 2020–22 was the move to a new scoring system, following complaints the previous system was heavily biased in favour of middling performances at big tournaments over superstar performances at smaller ones. Whilst a distinction over the number of entrants was retained, such a bias was the basis of the new system, designed by Gevin, and uses the formula of:

(1 − [position] ÷ ([players] + 1)) × 1000

For an event that has 50 entrants, therefore, the winner now receives 980 points.

Original 2020 calendar

Manchester returned to the calendar after no event in 2018 and 2019 there, whilst Edinburgh moved to later in the year. A new event in Peterborough was planned, replacing the Cambridge event.

Cancelled events due to the COVID-19 pandemic and calendar changes

Several events, usually on the calendar, had not been announced prior to the pandemic, and it is therefore unknown whether they would have been continued or not. Several events were cancelled owing to the COVID-19 pandemic: events in West Yorkshire and Blackpool were planned and announced during the relaxation of restrictions in summer 2020, but had to be cancelled due to the onset of the second wave over the 2020–21 winter. A Leeds event, played using Goatdown rather than standard Countdown, was planned for November 2020, but had to be cancelled for the same reason; it was later confirmed as the April event in the 2023 calendar.

Due to the shortage of events in 2020 and the first half of 2021, it was confirmed that events from both years would combine with 2022 to form a three-year season. This meant that some events took place up to three times over the course of the championship: Waterford (three times) was able to go ahead between February 2020 and August 2021.

COLIN was initially planned in its usual January slot for 2021, but was postponed initially to May 2021, before being cancelled outright as an event. As COLIN has adopted a roman numeral numbering system since COLIN X in 2014, the COLIN XVII name and its "hangover" spin-off are shown here as being postponed to January 2022, rather than being cancelled.

A full calendar emerged for 2022 – Lincoln, Manchester, Newcastle (rebranded to North-East), Blackpool, and Edinburgh returned, with Waterford being joined by an event in Galway as part of an Irish double-header. A new event in Brighton was held in July, with Birmingham returning to the calendar for the first time since 2018. Wolverhampton dropped of the calendar to be replaced by finals in Milton Keynes, which returned for the first time since 2019.

Events

Round Event Location Date Entrants Winner
1 COLIN XVI Lincoln 25 January 2020 46 Jonathan Wynn
2 COLIN XVI: The Hangover Lincoln 26 January 2020 34 Jack Worsley
3 Co:Manchester 2020 Manchester 15 February 2020 33 Tom Carey
Co:NuT 2020 Newcastle 28 March 2020
Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
Co:York 2020 York 18 April 2020
Co:London 2020 London 16 May 2020
Co:Peterborough 2020 Peterborough 6 June 2020
Co:Edinburgh 2020 Edinburgh 27 June 2020
4 Co:Waterford 2020 Waterford 15 August 2020 21 Ed Byrne
Co:WY 2020 West Yorkshire 5 September 2020
Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
Co:Blackpool 2020 Blackpool 10 October 2020
Goat:Leeds 2020 Leeds 7 November 2020
2020 FOCAL finals December 2020
Co:Peterborough 2021 Peterborough 12 June 2021
5 Co:Waterford 2021 Waterford 24 July 2021 22 Ed Byrne
6 Co:Blackpool 2021 Blackpool 14 August 2021 55 Bradley Horrocks
7 Co:Braintree 2021 Braintree 13 November 2021 25 Rob Foster
2021 FOCAL finals December 2021
Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
8 COLIN XVII Lincoln 29 January 2022 31 Conor Travers
9 COLIN XVII: The Hangover Lincoln 30 January 2022 30
10 Co:Manchester 2022 Manchester 26 February 2022 40 Jack Worsley
11 Co:London 2022 London 9 April 2022 52 Rob Foster
12 Co:Newcastle 2022 Newcastle 14 May 2022 36 Callum Todd
13 Co:Galway Galway 11 June 2022 29 James Robinson
14 Co:Waterford 2022 Waterford 18 June 2022 18 Hazel Drury
15 Co:Brighton 2022 Brighton 16 July 2022 39 Jack Hurst
16 Co:Brum 2022 Birmingham 13 August 2022 18 Bradley Horrocks
17 Co:Blackpool 2022 Blackpool 10 September 2022 35 Tom Carey
18 Co:Edinburgh 2022 Edinburgh 15 October 2022 31 Conor Travers
19 Co:Braintree 2022 Braintree 5 November 2022 24 Rob Foster
GF Co:MK Open 2022 Milton Keynes 26 November 2022 23
2020–22 FOCAL finals 8 Jack Hurst
* COLIN XVII was originally scheduled for January 2021, but was postponed twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Points table

Pos. Entrant 2020 2021 2022 Points
LIN LHO MAN WAT WAT BLA BRA LIN LHO MAN LON NCL GAL WAT BRI BIR BLA EDI BRA
1 Bradley Horrocks 12 4 16 1 2 2 9 22 2 5 1 5 7328
2 Callum Todd 3 3 6 7 7 5 8 6 9 1 2 2 4 7304
3 Tom Carey 11 5 1 13 5 6 6 3 13 7 3 10 1 5 7123
4 James Robinson 32 11 4 3 13 16 18 6 1 9 13 6 2 6896
5 George Armstrong 39 25 20 9 14 8 14 13 6 7 3 4 8 6378
6 Tim Hebbes 24 29 9 10 9 14 21 11 4 3 7 6007
7 Tom Cappleman 4 6 3 4 7 14 4 5872
8 Jack Hurst 6 14 3 2 10 1 5 5809


* Edward Byrne qualified as the number five seed going into the finals, but couldn't attend, so the number nine seed and eventual season winner, Jack Hurst, took his place.

Colour Result
Gold Winner
Silver 2nd place
Bronze 3rd place
Green Top 10 finish
Blue Other finish
White Did not participate