The page provides an outline of our current "policy" for non UK teams entering the UKUA Tour.
There is also (temporarily) an update on the current situation regarding Tour One 2007 in this context.
It is the UKUA's current and long-standing view that some non-UK based teams entering Tour events is basically a good thing - despite the fact that it does create complications around seeding, etc. The goal of encouraging this would be to have some variety and additional strong teams in the tournaments could be of great value in providing teams with the opportunity to play against teams that they do not know. We would expect to limit the number of non UK teams at any given event to one or two (and certainly only one in the A Tour).
In 2007 we have introduced some changes to try to mitigate some of the problems that can be created by strong teams entering one A Tour event.
1. It is our preference to run the A Tour as a 16 team event - but we introduced the option of creating an 18 team format if a foreign team entered AFTER the promotion/relegation places had been finalised from a previous Tour event.
2. At Tour Zero the format was carefully designed with specific attention on the final positions 11-14 as they were the key positions in terms of starting the season in the A Tour or not.
3. We had strong indication of interest in entering Tour One from BigEZ (who finished 4th at EUCF06) prior to Tour Zero's format being finalised. So - it was designed on the basis of 11 teams qualifying for the A Tour. Teams at Tour Zero were informed of this prior to playing - which meant we would be able to stick with the preferred 16 team format at Tour One.
Update re Tour One 2007 (5th April)
Unfortunately we have now had confirmation that BigEZ will not be able to attend Tour One. However - given that all the teams at Tour Zero were aware that 11th place was the last A Tour qualification place we intend to keep the space open for a strong foriegn team until the closing date for entry to Tour One. NB - this is really only possible because the Tour One will host the A and B tour events at the same location. If that was not the case we would clearly need to make a decision sooner in order that The Brown were able to plan their travel.
The Brown have been informed of the situation directly in the last few days - and we would like to thank them for taking the situation "on the chin" without complaint!