The District finals will be held May 25, 26, and 27, 2002 at the Richardson Convention Center in Richardson, Texas.

There is no unit level qualifying for Championship or Flight A. All teams wishing to participate in Championship or Flight A must register at the tournament site prior to 1:00 p.m. on the first day of competition, Saturday, May 25, 2002. Any team attempting to register later than 1:00 p.m. may not be allowed to compete, at the discretion of the Director in Charge.

One half of the field entering at Unit level qualification will qualify for each of the two flights at the District Level competition.

Sanction is required for the Unit level B & C qualifying event. There is a $15.00 per team fee to be paid to District 16 for each team entered in the unit level event(s) and $1.25 per team, per session, sanction fee to be paid to ACBL.

All Units must complete their qualifying by April 30, 2002 and have the report form filed with Lu Edwards by May 5, 2002.

Eligible teams planning to enter the District level event should notify Lu Edwards by May 10, 2002. Forms will be sent to eligible teams based on the reports received from each Unit. Runner up teams will become eligible to replace any teams from their Units not notifying Lu Edwards by May 10, 2002. Notices will be sent to such teams as noted on the report forms. NOTE: NOTIFICATION DOES NOT WAIVE THE REQUIREMENT TO REGISTER BEFORE 1:00 P.M. ON SATURDAY, MAY 25, 2002.

All teams participating in the District Level Competition shall register at the tournament site no later than 1:00 p.m., Saturday, May 25, 2002. Any team attempting to register later than 1:00 p.m. may not be allowed to compete, at the discretion of the Director in Charge.

Unit Qualifying Events should be two session Events. Swiss or Round Robin Formats should be used, depending on the number of teams. Appropriate Victory Point Scales should be used for Swiss. Flights B & C may be held separately or together. Any Flight C team which enters a separate Flight B event and qualifies is eligible to enter the Flight C District Level if all other eligibility condition are met. Please see National Conditions for further information and Masterpoint Awards.

All ACBL dues for non Life Masters and Life Master Service fees must be current for participation at the Unit Level and beyond. Payments received along with the Report Form are considered current.

The top 50% of teams in each Unit Level qualifying game are eligible to participate in the District Level competition. If the qualifying game has an odd number of tables, the greater half qualifies. Ties for the last qualifying position are not to be broken as per the Unit Level Conditions of Contest.

Lu Edwards,
District 16 GNT Co-Coordinator
9102 Applecrest Way
Spring, Texas 77388
Phone: 281.350.1928
e mail:luedwards@hotmail.com

Mr. W. Cameron Cameron
Manager, Special Events
American Contract Bridge League
2990 Airways Boulevard
Memphis, Tennessee 38116
Phone: 901.332.5586 Ext. 286

The results should be on the appropriate forms furnished by the District office or on ACBLSCOR generated report forms and must be accompanied by the appropriate funds as calculated by use of the result form. These should be returned no later than May 5, 2002.

Please include all teams and an address for all team captains on your report to District, not just those qualifying.

All teams qualified to participate at District Level will be responsible for paying a normal entry fee at District Level competition. Each Unit is requested to substantially subsidize teams continuing to the National Level, if the team members are from that Unit.

Augmentation: Please note that teams may not be augmented after the start of the first Swiss team match at the Unit Level (Flights B and C) or after the start of the first session at District Level (Championship and Flight A) until after District Level is completed. Teams progressing to the National Level will be allowed to Augment up to two players from the District, regardless of those players prior eligibility for District play. As long as three original team members remain, substitution for the rest of an original five or six man team is allowed AFTER the District event has determined the winner in each Flight.

District Level Competition:

The format for the District Level competition is the same for each flight subject to adjustment by size of entry:

First Round Competition: (2 Sessions: Saturday , May 25, 2002)

# Twelve or fewer teams enter the event: Two sessions to trim to four teams, omit 10:00 a.m. Monday session. Round Robin Knockout format.

# Thirteen to twenty four teams enter the event: Two sessions to trim to eight teams. Round Robin Knockout format.

# Twenty five or more teams enter the event: Two sessions to trim to sixteen teams. Round Robin Knockout format.

# Second and subsequent rounds shall be straight Knockout Events.

# All round robin matches shall be scored using the applicable 30 point Victory Point scale.

# Conditions for play shall be announced by the Director in Charge.

# In the event of a tie, ACBL tie breaking procedure shall apply.

Knockout Rounds:

# One IMP is a clear win. Ties will be broken by successive eight board playoffs.

Quarterfinals and Semifinals:

# Flight A shall play 26 boards, half matches throughout the event.

# Flights B and C shall play 24 boards, half matches throughout the event.

Seeding and Ranking - All Flights:

First Round:

# Two seeds per bracket, based on:

! Defending champions (at least three members)

! Number of GNT wins per team member

! Average Masterpoints of all members

! Director's discretion

Second (and subsequent) Rounds

# Based on V.P. from first round (1 8, 2 7, etc.)

Final Round:

# The seeded team will choose one specific half and the other team directs the other half.

# Playbacks are permitted.

# NOTE: If late entries disrupt the seeding above, the Director in Charge may make seeding adjustments as deemed proper, in the best interests of the event.

# A tie for seeding purposes will be broken by a coin flip. A tie for the last qualifying position in a section will be broken as follows, applying succeeding steps until the tie is resolved:

# A two way tie is broken by:

! The result of the match between the tied teams.

! All matches will be scored on the basis of win=l, tie=1/2, loss=0.

! A play of eight boards.

# A multi tie is broken by:

! All matches will be scored on the basis of win=l, tie=1/2, loss=0.

! Matches played between all tied teams will be scored on the basis of the results between the tied teams.

! Victory Points of matches between the tied teams.

# In the event a multi tie is reduced in number by any of the foregoing steps, only the remaining teams will be considered in tie breaking procedures for succeeding steps. In the event a multi tie is reduced to two teams, the procedures for two team ties are applied.

Conventions Allowed:

All players must play at least 50% of the boards played in each of the four events (Round Robin, 3 Knockout matches) at the District Level competition in order to qualify for overall master point awards and to be eligible to play in the remainder of the Grand National competition. No contestant may play any match where such match (or half match) is so late that it is mathematically impossible for said player to play at least 50% of the total boards played by his/her team in each of the four events, unless he had become a fully qualified replacement and had played 50% of the boards in each of the events since that time.

# Total field of any flight at this time may elect to modify remaining schedule, keeping it within the confines of the sectional tournament running concurrently.

# The Director in Charge will start each successive round of the round robin as soon as practical.

# Each team is obliged to finish its match in the allotted time. If the Director assesses penalties for tardiness or slow play, these penalties cannot be waived.

A team must be prepared to field at least three members or it forfeits the match scheduled for that time. If due to absence, for cause, only three members are available, a substitute may be utilized for no more than one calendar day or two half days during any one level of competition. Substitutes must be approved by the Director in Charge, and should not appreciably strengthen or weaken the team. A substitute must be a member of the District and may not be a member of a team still in competition. If four members are available, a substitute is not permitted for an absent fifth or sixth member. A substitute player is entitled to any match awards while playing.

After the District Level has begun (at least one board has been played by any team), and a team finds that one of its players, and only one, for cause, can no longer play (including but not restricted to illness or removal to another part of the country), that player may be permanently replaced by another member from the District who has never entered on another team or entered on a team which qualified, but is unable to continue on to the District competition. This replacement now assumes all of the rights and prerogatives of the members of the team, while the player who has been replaced has no further rights in the competition. The original player receives any Master Points due at the time of withdrawal. The replacement receives the Master Points thereafter.

For a team to retain its eligibility to continue in the competition, a minimum of three charter members must remain on the team and meet the 50% playing requirements. Any team participating at the District Level is considered as playing the final stages of the District competition.

Before the District Level has begun, if a four member Flight B or C team finds a pair cannot continue to the District Level, the remaining pair may merge with another such team, with the approval of the GNT committee, upon written notice received by the GNT committee by 8:00 p.m. on May 23, 2002.

The protest period expires 30 minutes after each match, half match or segment, as applicable.

The Director in Charge is responsible for the selection of a five-member committee to handle any protest through the semifinal matches. Should a protest (or protests) occur during the final knockout match and the result of the protest is material to the outcome of this match, then a Protest Committee shall be assembled at the earliest practical date to hear the protests. Composition of this Committee is the responsibility of the Chairman of the District Ethics Committee, the District Executive Secretary, or the District Grand National Teams Coordinator, whoever is the first non affected person in the order given. Should all of the persons be affected by the playoff, then the District Director (or alternates in order should the District Director be affected) shall appoint a committee to hear the protest.

Any team which fails to seat a complete team within five minutes of the announced starting time of a session, match, half match or segment, will be penalized 3 IMPs in the net score of that match and 1 IMP for every two minutes thereafter. If a full team is not seated within 20 minutes of the announced time, that team will forfeit the match in question. The team which does not default wins the match and goes to the next level for a head to head Match Session. If the default occurs during a Round Robin Session the team winning by default shall receive the largest of the following:

! The average of its Victory Points scored in other matches not involving defaults

! The average number of Victory Points scored against a team that defaults, excluding defaults.

Play of the matches must be completed within the allotted time plus the grace period. Failure to complete play of boards will result in the penalties as follows:

! When penalty points are assessed against a team for tardiness or slow play, no indemnity points are to be awarded to the non offending side.

! For the round robin, Victory Points assigned to the non offending side are computed as though there had been no penalty imposed on its opponents. (Note: This will result in an adjustment in the check total).

! No waiver of a penalty for tardiness or slow play is per match must be curtailed due to tardiness or slow play, the non offending team side receives 3 IMPs per board curtailed. These 3 IMPs are added to the non offending team's total and Victory Points for both teams are computed on this basis.

! If any table is unable to complete all boards of a given match, the result of that match will be based on only those boards completed at both tables unless in the opinion of the Director in Charge, only one side is at fault. In the latter event, the Director may take such action as, in his judgment, will best protect the rights of the non offending side.