Kismis Invitational

KISMIS Invitational

It’s time to start planning for a tournament should it ever arise at the end of the year. I don’t think I got enough time in Singapore to pull a full-scale ‘advertise and invite teams from all over Singapore to come and join’ kind of tournament, so I’m proposing a mini-tournament – an invitational.

With 16 core members of Kismis, I’m sure we can come up with at least three 5-a-side teams if not four with the help of some friends. Also, if I can get my SA gang to form one team, and Hao’s friends can form another – if not two, then we can get a 6 team mini-tournament already. With more teams joining from connections of other Kismis players, like the ex-players who have enough to form a team, we can have a pretty decent tournament. We could also invite friends to come down even if they don’t have a team and put “random” or “loose” players together as a team. I reckon getting 6 to 8 teams should be a realistic target.

We could settle this invitational within 1 day. Having say 2 groups, then the top two of each group go into the semi-finals. Then grand-final. That shouldn’t be too hard to co-ordinate. To give a rough idea, a 6-team-competition would have 6 group games and 2 playoff games. If time permits, we can even have a 3rd-4th playoff or games for those who didn’t make it out of the group. For an 8-team-competition, we would get 12 group games and 2 playoff games (if my maths is right).

If say we have 20 minute games. The tournament can be over within 3hours and 5hours for 6-team and 8-team competition respectively assuming one court. If we got two courts, it’s half the time, etc. Do the math.

Now, location is a problem. Kismis would be a good place because there are 3 courts. We can take two of them then we got 2 games running concurrently. However, it would lack proper goalposts, unless we can somehow rent it. I heard the NUS courts would be under renovation when I’m back, though it would be good as we got sufficient contacts in NUS to be able to book a court if it isn’t. St Wilfred is probably hard to book, and also expensive. While places like Tiong Bahru, with a brilliant caged-court, would have only 1 court to play on. If anyone knows of a place say like NUS can book some courts, I’ll be delighted to consider that location. Also about the goalposts in Kismis, can rent or buy anot? I can bear the costs.

While we’re on the cost issue, I’m willing to pay for everything, like if we need to rent the courts/goalposts. I also can sponsor drinks, though I know you all not so evil make me pay for everything right? ... Right? And then prizes, just have a commemorative token to remember the occasion and winner can already right? I trust being a street soccer team, we would have sufficient soccer balls even if we can manage to host two concurrent games.

We can improvise with referees. I could call down some neutral friends, but it is unlikely that someone who knows the game wouldn’t be playing, so since it is just a friendly social competition, we can get some of the players to be referees for games they are not playing in. I mean after all, there are two groups, and so the results of one group wouldn’t directly affect the other. But I trust in all friendliness, the referees wouldn’t be biased anyway.

As for the date, I would be touching down in Singapore last weekend of November, and since we all rather have a December tournament rather than one in January I would believe, so I would have to pick a date for within the month. The weekends in December are: 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th and 31st. I should think 24th being Christmas Eve is out, while I might not be around on the 17th. Day before the new year might be quite cool, but looks like 10th is the best date. One problem with the date issue is that there were suggestions to combine this invitational with the Chalet. And obviously the timing of the Chalet would depend on the bookings available, so it would be much harder to coordinate.

I, for one, am not too keen on integrating the chalet with the tournament. Though it sounds nice to be able to gather together after the tournament, having some BBQ and drinks and just chill and socialize between players, it is harder to coordinate and also if you’re paying for a the chalet, why spend your time elsewhere playing in a tournament? Well, I’ll leave that to you guys to talk it out – though as things go, it might take forever to come to a conclusion about it.

I believe I have covered every aspect of a simple invitation. If I missed out an important issue, don’t hesitate to shout out to me. Suggestions are more than welcomed; most of you have me on MSN whilst you can also contact me via the team email or my personal email. I hope to get the foundation plans laid out before I touch down in the country.

Thanks for your co-operation guys!

-CHAU