Core Event of the French hobby, the Défi Britannia gave its name to this Website, the link letter of those players and even sometime of those players themselves. Started at 4, it knew a regular expansion every year to reach 67 players in 2001. The Défi is rather a championship than a Cup. It is a yearly event performed in 2 parts. During the first part, players are encouraged to play as much as they like. The only criteria to qualify a game for the French Défi is that at least 2 of the players are "members" of the Défi, that is to say have subscribed to the bi-monthly news letter. Membership also includes free entrance to all other tournaments of the French Hobby AND possibility to be mentioned on the diary of players. The scoring system favors the victory and the big scores by allocating each a bonus based on position (absolute VP) AND multiplying it by the score of each players RELATIVELY to the mean of the color played. Position bonus are 5 for 1^st, 2.5 for 2^nd, 1.5 for 3^rd and 1 for 4^th. Two important concepts behind that is that the more you play, the more point you earn AND only the victory is nice ! But even a 4^th improves your position in the ranking (even if not as much). That is one of the key of the success of the Défi among the players. In 2000, one player has played 34 games in 3 month ! ! ! Last but not least, in 2001 a new rule have been introduced to motivate players to "break groups" and encounter new partners : the "N" modifier affects your overall score, and is based on the number of players you played with ("N"). Your best N/2 score count 100%. The following N/2 count 50%. Then 25% and so on. This was meant to reward the players who encountered more players rather than always playing with their friend. The "N" champion played with 35 different players (out of 67).

After 3 month of qualification, when generally about a 100 games are played, the 16 best are qualified for the play-off. They are spread in 4 semi-final with the following pattern :

So 4 semi-finals are organized. The 4 winners of those semi-final enter the final, where the winners gets everything. This direct elimination system helps avoiding all kind of meta-gaming and "target the leader". The only advantage you get from having a better ranking during the qualification phase is that you get to choose your color, and you even have some influence in choosing the other players color thanks to a bet system.

The Defi is always evolving, and probably next edition will qualify 28 players rather than 16, organizing one more level of play-off, quarter-final (12 best directly goes to semi, and the 16 remaining try to get the 4 last tickets). This way more players will get a chance to compete for the title, which matches the regular expansion of the Défi. Among the past winner, only one did it twice (Jean-Marc Breant). He has been for very long the leader of the french ELO ranking and still is second, and he is also once again in final (and favorite of this final) in 2001. Even if initially most of the players were in Paris, the Défi now count active groups in other French town, notably Lyon and Nancy.

Next edition : VII^th, qualification 25 December 2001 - 31^st March 2002, playoff April and May.

Location : France

Official Site : http://www.chez.com/britannia section Events -> Défi

Contact : Yann CLOUET (yann.clouet@solucom.fr)

System : 3 month qualification + play-offs.

Rules : WEBC Rules

Registration : Free for members (membership is 5 Euro per year).