Club Directors and Coaches:
As in all the tournaments that we host, there will be no coaches’ meeting at Icebreaker. This packet contains all the information that would have been disseminated in such a meeting, so we ask that you review it closely. That said, we do require that coaches check in with us at the tournament desk to pick up their rosters.
The a.m. wave begins at 8:00 a.m. (with doors to the venues opening at 7:00), and p.m. waves commence at 3:00 p.m. Schedules will be posted on AES not later than Tuesday, 1/30, but it is possible that something will change between the time that you read this and tournament time, so double-check once more later in the week and before you go to bed on Friday to ensure that nothing has changed. We will also update AES with real-time results throughout the weekend so that grandma and grandpa can follow their favorite team’s progress from afar.
A NOTE ABOUT WAVES, POOLS AND INITIAL PAIRINGS:
Seeding is still a crap-shoot this early in the season. We have done the best job we know how to seed teams fairly based on results to date. We tweaked the resultant pairings to ensure that teams from the same club are in separate pools to the extent possible, and to minimize the instances in which teams from the sister clubs (e.g. A5/GA5; Tsunami South/Tsunami DeKalb) are pooled together.
So whether your team is listed first, second, third or fourth in a pool, we hope you will recognize that our goal is simply to provide all attendees with good competition against a wide variety of teams in this early-season tournament. Computer rankings will take over soon enough.
Format for Icebreaker – 2/3-4/2018
Locations: Suwanee Sports Academy (“SSA”) Courts 1A, 1B - 7
Southern Volleyball Center (“SVC”) Courts 1, 3, 4 & 5
Jackson County High School (“JCHS”) Courts 1 - 4
Peachtree City Volleyball Center (“PCVC”) Courts 2 & 4
17/18 Power – SSA –A.M. wave – Courts 4 – 7
The 18 Power division will have four teams, and 17 Power will have 12. They will be combined for pool play into four pools of four teams each. The divisions will be broken apart for bracket play on Sunday, to which all teams advance. First-round losers in bracket play will play a consolation match.
17/18 Club – SSA – Court 3, A.M wave, and Courts 5 – 7 in P.M. Wave
Six teams are registered for 18 Club and seven for 17 Club for a total of 13 teams. They will be combined during pool play and then broken apart for bracket play on Sunday. One, four-team pool will compete on court 2 at SSA in the a.m. wave, and three, three-team pools will compete on courts 5 – 7 in the p.m. wave. 2nd and 3rd-place finishers will play cross-over matches upon the conclusion of pool play, and first place finishers will compete in another three-team pool.
Pool play is for the purpose of seeding the Championship Brackets, to which all teams will advance. First-round losers in Bracket play will play in a consolation match.
15/16 Power – SVC – A.M. wave – Courts 1, 3, 4 & 5
The 15 Power division has three teams entered, and 14 Power has thirteen. They will be combined for pool play into four, four-team. The divisions will be broken apart for play on Sunday. Those in the 15 Power division will play in a 13-team single-elimination bracket, with first-round losers playing a consolation match.
Those in the 16 Power division will play in a three-team Championship pool. In the event that the pool results in a three-way tie in matches, each team having a 1 – 1 record, a tiebreaker will not be played. Rather, the Champion will be determined in accordance with the tiebreaking protocol described herein (i.e., set percentage, point percentage, etc.)
16 Club – SVC -- P.M. wave – courts 1, 3, 4 & 5
14 teams are registered in 16 Club. They will be organized into two pools of four teams and two pools of three teams, with members of the three-team pools playing cross-over matches upon the completion of pool play (1 vs. 1; 2 vs. 3; 3 vs. 2). The top two finishers in pool play/winners of cross-over matches will advance to the 8-team Championship Bracket on Sunday, with those finishing 3rd or 4th on their pool/cross-over match competing in a six-team silver division.
First-round losers in Bracket play will play in a consolation match.
15 Club – JCHS – A.M. wave – courts 1 - 4
The 15 Club division will have sixteen teams. They will be organized into four pools of four teams each. First and second-place finishers in pool play will advance to the Championship Bracket on Sunday, with 3rd and 4th place finishers competing in the Silver Bracket. First-round losers in Bracket play will play in a consolation match.
13/14 Power – PCVC – A.M. & P.M. waves – courts 2 & 4
The 14 Power Division has four teams registered, and the 13 Power division has six. They will be combined for pool play in to one, four-team pool and two, three-team pools, with members of the three-team pools playing cross-over matches (1 vs. 1; 2 vs. 2; 3 vs. 3). The divisions will be broken apart for Bracket play on Sunday, to which all teams advance. First-round losers in Bracket play will play in a consolation match.
14 Club – SSA – P.M. wave – courts 1A, 1B, 2, 3 & 4
There are 20 teams in the 14 Club division. They will be organized into four pools of four teams and one pool of three teams. The top two finishers in each pool will advance to a 10 – team Championship Bracket, while those finishing 3rd or 4th in their pool will compete in a silver bracket. First-round losers in both brackets will play a consolation match.
13 Club – JCHS – P.M. wave – courts 1 – 4
The 13 Club division will have 15 teams. They will be organized on day one into three pools of four teams and one pool of three teams, with members of the three-team pool playing three sets to 25 points irrespective of the results of the first two sets. The top two finishers in each pool will advance to the 8 – team Championship Bracket, while those finishing 3rd or 4th in their pool will compete in a 7-team silver bracket. First-round losers in both brackets will play a consolation match.
11/12 Club – SSA – A.M. wave – courts 1A and 2
Five teams have entered the 12 Club division, and three have entered 11 Club. They will be combined for pool play into two pools of four teams each. Pool play results will be used to seed Sunday’s play, where those in 12 Club will compete in a five-team bracket, and those in 11 Club will compete in a three-team Championship Pool. First-round losers in bracket play will play a consolation match.
In the event that the 11 Club Championship Pool results in a three-way tie in matches, with each team having a 1 – 1 record, a tiebreaker will not be played. Rather, the Champion will be determined in accordance with the tiebreaking protocol described herein (i.e., set percentage, point percentage, etc.)
MATCH FORMAT
Matches will be the standard best two out of three sets, the first two sets being played to 25 points; a tiebreaker, if required, will be played to 15. All sets must be won by two points with no limitation. In a few instances teams in three-team pools will play three sets to 25 irrespective of the results of the first two sets. Accordingly, it is imperative that we move quickly from match to match if we are to remain on schedule. Referees have been instructed to start the 10-minute warm-up clock immediately upon completion of the previous match, so please have your teams ready to go.
It is our goal for each team competing at Icebreaker to play in a minimum of five matches. Accordingly, first-round losers in bracket play can expect to play a consolation match on Sunday unless otherwise noted.
TIE-BREAKING PROCEDURES
Are more fully described in the SRVA handbook, an excerpt of which is included below. Tie-breaking matches will be played only to the extent that the results affect advancement to gold bracket play. A one-game match to 25 will be played if a tiebreaking match is necessary to differentiate advancement to gold vs. silver brackets in either of those age brackets. Note: if a team involved in a tie-breaking match has left the building, they will automatically forfeit the tie-breaker.
Following is the SRVA tie-breaking protocol:
Teams qualifying for the playoffs but tied for position only shall not compete in a playoff set to determine position. Rather, each team’s position shall be determined by the priority system described below. However, no teams shall be eliminated from the playoffs based solely upon points or a point system, except for the gold/silver format tournaments. If there are more teams tied for the playoffs than there are positions, the tied teams will compete in a minimum number of playoff sets so that no team will be eliminated from the playoff based on points.
A. Any one-set playoff necessary to determine which team will make the playoffs will be conducted in accordance with the current year USAV Rulebook. If no specific instructions are included in the rulebook, then a one-set playoff will be to 25 points, switch sides at 13, win by 2 with no cap.
B. If two (2) or more teams are tied for the same number of playoff positions, each team’s position shall be determined by the following methods (this same method will be used when re-seeding is required for four team pools). When using these methods to determine position of teams the following order will be followed without repetition.
1. If two teams are tied for two spots, the higher seed is determined by the results of the match between the two teams, first on won-lost records, then by point percentage.
2. If three or more teams are involved or if two teams are still tied after number 1 above, superior team(s) is determined by best record using total sets played, then a comparison of the total point percentage for all of round-robin pool sets played will be used.
3. If still tied, a coin toss will determine playoff positions.
C. If two or more teams are tied for one playoff position, the minimum number of 25-point rally-point sets will be played:
1. Two teams tied for one position: one 25-point rally-point set.
2. Three teams tied for one position: Superior team determined by best record using total sets played, then by total point percentage using total sets played will receive a BYE and plays the winner of a 25-point rally-point set between the two remaining teams.
3. Four teams tied for one position: Seeding of teams determined by best record using total sets played, then by total point percentage using total sets played. Team 1 plays Team 4 in one 25-point rally-point set; Team 2 plays Team 3 in one 25 point rally-point set and winners play one 25 point rally-point set to determine the team in the playoff.
D. If three teams are tied for two positions: Team with best record using total sets played, and if still tied, then by best total point percentage using total sets played is given the first position and the two remaining teams play one 25-point rally-point set to determine the second position.
E. If four teams are tied for two positions: Ranking of teams is determined by the criteria in VII.B.2 and 3. The highest ranked team is given the first position and the remaining teams play 25-point rally-point sets to determine the second position. Team 3 plays Team 4 and Team 2 plays the winner for second position, using single 25-point rally-point sets.
A. If five teams are tied for two positions: Ranking of teams is determined by the criteria in VII.B.2 and 3. The highest ranked team is given the first position and the remaining teams play 25-point rally-point sets to determine the second position. Team 2 plays Team 5 and Team 3 plays Team 4, using single 25-point rally-point sets. The winners of these playoff matches play each other for the second playoff position.
TEAM REFEREE OBLIGATIONS
Referee schedules are included in the pool assignments. With few exceptions, teams losing in bracket play on Sunday will ref the next match on that court. Several teams will be required to ref the 8:00 A.M. Sunday match before they play, so again, please check the website as well as the pools and brackets to see if your team is affected. Teams with 8 a.m. ref assignments must be in place on the court no later than 7:45.
Coaches, please remind your players that MP3 players and Cell Phones are not to be used while working the score table and that snacks and drink bottles should not be on the table. For courts without an electronic scoreboard, scorekeepers should lift the score board and show the score frequently, minimally at serve changes and time outs.
REAL-TIME, ON-LINE UPDATES:
Results will be continuously posted in real time on advancedeventsystems.com. We will have i-pads and/or LED screens available at all locations for those needing to check schedule obligations, results, ref assignments, etc. Lastly, participants may wish to spare themselves the walk to the central desk at this and every AES-scheduled tournament thereafter by downloading the AES app. Simply go to the app store, search for aes xpress, and follow the prompts.
PARKING is free at all venues:
SSA: Earlybirds will be able to park in the lot adjoining the courts, but others will have to drop off their kids at the entrance and find other parking opportunities nearby. There exists a well-marked overflow lot right off McGinnis Ferry Road which is fine. It is permissible to park on Burnett Road, the non-curbed road that serves SSA, provided that the wheels of your vehicle are not touching the paved surface, but are all the way on the shoulder. Again, cars that intrude upon Burnett Road will be towed. Do not park in the parking lots of adjacent businesses -- it is an aggravation to them and they will likely tow you if they are working on the weekend. SSA will have one or more parking attendants on duty and they will post “no parking” signs to alert you to problem areas, but sometimes those signs walk off, so we’re emphasizing it in this email. Beyond the above, there are side roads off Burnett that are fine. Just bring your walking shoes!