Apterous Vase

The Apterous Vase, often called the Aptovase or just the Vase, is a tournament currently being run on Apterous by Piaras Last-Name and restricted to players "outside the general tourney-winners' catchment area". It began on the 14th of August 2023 and is scheduled to end in January 2024.

Format

The tournament uses three different structures for each phase, with the Swiss system for the qualifiers, round-robin for the groups, and single-elimination in the knockouts.

Players wishing to enter had to meet two rating and pro rank-based requirements to ensure that their skill level was right for the tournament. After the players who had proven too skilled had been removed, 28 players were left. Matt Gould, James Burley, MSR and Alex Williamson received a bye to the group stage; the other 24 competed in the qualifying round.

Qualifiers

The 24 players competed in a Swiss-style round, in which they had to win two games to advance. Losing two games would eliminate them. The top 12 qualified for the groups, and the next four competed in a playoff for the last two places. Failure to play a game by its deadline would result in a 25–0 loss, or win if effort was made.

Rank	Name	Won	Lost	Scored	Diff.	Notes
1	Steven Oldham	2	0	236	+65	Qualified
2	Edward Ashcroft	2	0	202	+47
3	Sam Shepherd	2	0	123	+46
4	Kieran Bray	2	0	201	+38
5	Ian Volante	2	0	189	+38
6	Jason C.	2	1	185	+24
7	J Bartram	2	1	222	+23
8	Maria Chandler	2	1	262	+21
9	Piaras Last-Name	2	1	230	+1
10	Jason Turner	2	1	265	±0
11	Last Ashwin Hero	2	1	304	-10
12	Martyn Pegram	2	1	184	-19
13	Roger Peak	1	2	235	+2	Won playoff
14	Alan O'Regan	1	2	212	-14	Lost playoff
15	Ian Wray	1	2	277	-25	Won playoff
16	Mich R	1	2	176	-30	Lost playoff
17	Niall Cusack	1	2	85	-41	Eliminated
18	Tlou Laz	1	2	229	-46
19	Dan Spinks	0	3*	206	-38
20	James Doyle	0	2	152	-17
21	Andy SC	0	2	150	-17
22	Mark O'Regan	0	2	168	-21
23	Fi Thorne	0	2	84	-32
24	Colin Thompson	0	2	154	-45

*Dan Spinks returned in the third game, as the best-performing player eliminated, to even out the 13 players left.

Games of note, whether for high scores, comebacks or other things, are listed below.

Game	Date	Round	Player 1	Score	Player 2	Notes	Max
Vase23Q07	15/08/2023	QR1	Last Ashwin Hero	114 – 107	J Bartram	High joint score: 221	146
Vase23Q09	21/08/2023	QR1	Roger Peak	109 – 131	Alan O'Regan	High joint score: 240	157
						Tournament high score: 131
Vase23Q27	17/09/2023	QR3	Last Ashwin Hero	102 – 101	Roger Peak	High max count: 11 (Ashwin)	124

Qualifying playoffs

The four best players with 1–2 records played two best-of-3 playoffs for the last group stage places.

Game	Date	Round	Player 1	Score	Player 2	Notes	Max
Vase23QP1	29/09/2023	QP1	Alan O'Regan	97 – 103	Ian Wray	14th (Alan) vs 15th (Ian)	143
			Ian Wray	85 – 71	Alan O'Regan		132
Vase23QP2	07/10/2023	QP2	Roger Peak	86 – 74	Mich R	13th (Roger) vs 16th (Mich)	123
			Mich R	81 – 91	Roger Peak		143

Group stage

The group stage began on Thursday 12th October and will conclude on Friday 10th November. Three groups of six played for six spots in the knockout stage. A win was worth 2 points, a draw 1 and a loss by 10 or fewer (LB) was worth a half-point.

Group A
Rank	Name	W	D	LB	L	Scored	Diff.	Points	Notes
1	Matt Gould	1	0	0	0	112	+23	2	Quarter-finals
2	Ian Volante	0	0	0	1	89	-23	0
3	Sam Shepherd	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Extra group
4	Jason C.	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
5	J Bartram	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
6	Roger Peak	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Tiebreakers: points, amount of games played, point difference, points scored, match between tied players, total raw scores.

Group B
Rank	Name	W	D	LB	L	Scored	Diff.	Points	Notes
1	James Burley	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Quarter-finals
2	Steven Oldham	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Kieran Bray	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Extra group
4	Maria Chandler	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
5	Martyn Pegram	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
6	Ian Wray	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Tiebreakers: points, amount of games played, point difference, points scored, match between tied players, total raw scores.

Group C
Rank	Name	W	D	LB	L	Scored	Diff.	Points	Notes
1	Edward Ashcroft	2	0	0	0	212	+22	4	Quarter-finals
2	Piaras Last-Name	1	0	0	1	189	-17	2
3	MSR	0	0	2	0	156	-5	1	Extra group
4	Alex Williamson	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
5	Jason Turner	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
6	Last Ashwin Hero	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Tiebreakers: points, amount of games played, point difference, points scored, match between tied players, total raw scores.

Games of note, whether for high scores, comebacks or other things, are listed below.

Game	Date	Round	Player 1	Score	Player 2	Notes	Max
Vase23C07	12/10/2023	Group C	Edward Ashcroft	130 – 110	Piaras Last-Name	High joint score: 240	142
						Round high score: 130
						High max count: 11 (Edward)