Secrets of foosball, finally revealed…
One of the most common foosball tournament formats in the US is something called a “DYP”: a Draw Your Partner tournament. DYPs are a great way to get into competitive foosball, giving everyone from beginners to pros a fun and casual way to work on their game. The key thing about DYP tournaments is that partners are drawn randomly. You don’t need to come with a partner in order to play, just show up! If you’re a beginner, your partner will probably have more experience than you and will be able to coach to help you learn.
We run this format in the Bay Area every Tuesday at 8 pm, at California Billiards, and every Thursday at 8 pm, at Kennedy’s Irish Pub and Curry House in SF. Entry fees are from $0-10, depending on your experience level. First timers are always free.
We run a bunch of different varieties of DYP in the Bay Area. If you don’t know the details, don’t worry about it. Just show up, introduce yourself, and the tournament director will make sure you’re in the right place at the right time.
If you do want the details, read on… we run a bunch of different formats, depending on our mood any given evening. These are some of the common ones.
Monster DYP: new partner each round, and play one game to 7. You get 2 points if you win, 1 point if you tie at 6, and 0 points if you lose. Then you get a new partner and we play another round. Around 10 PM we’ll switch to single elimination play-offs, where points are used to seed the top 8 players on to teams. Those teams play best 2/3 matches to determine who wins the tournament. We usually finish by 11 pm.
Points Race DYP: just like a Monster DYP, except we skip the playoffs. Final points tallies are used to award places, with opponent strength and goal differential breaking ties. Again, we’re normally done by 11 pm.
Monster DYP with Singles Playoffs: same as the Monster DYP, but the playoffs has the top 8 players play best 2/3 singles matches instead. The finals usually finish by 11:30 pm.
Double Elimination DYP: you get a random partner at the beginning of the night, and play best 2/3 matches against the rest of the field in a double elimination tournament. The main difference here is you and your partner get a chance to settle in as a team. Start and finish time vary a bit here, it depends on the number of players.
Questions? Come find us at the SF Foos facebook group, and happy foosin!
