With the new Subbuteo season well underway, all eyes are now on the opening round of the English Championship Circuit, which kicks off in the Midlands at Pedmore Subbuteo & Table Football Club on Sunday, 20th October.
Over the past two seasons, the circuit has been a resounding success, growing in popularity as more players from the community participate in events around the country.
This season introduces a major change in format, as the Swiss System will be replaced by a group and knockout structure. After thorough consultation between the ESA board and its members, the decision was made to adopt this format, which is believed to be the ideal approach for players of all skill levels. The new structure aims to maintain the circuit’s fun and competitive nature while continuing to crown England's top Adult and Youth players.
ESA English Championship Circuit 2024/25
Overview
The ESA English Championship Circuit is a series of 6 tournament events across England where players compete and receive points based on placing to decide England’s best players.
This circuit will be used to determine:
English National Champion.
English Masters Roster (Top 10 Qualify).
Also used for England Team selection considerations.
Overall Format
6 Events will be held across England with the following details:
20th October 2024 – West Midlands – Pedmore Subbuteo & Table Football Club
19th January 2025 – East Midlands – Leicester Foxes Subbuteo Club
16th February 2025 – South – Andover Subbuteo Club
12th April 2025 – South East – Stanway Rovers Flickers SC
18th May 2025 – South West – Bristol Subbuteo Club
14th June 2025 – North – Yorkshire Phoenix TFC
Players will earn points (detailed below) based on their placing in events. Only the best 3 events point-wise will be considered for each player’s final score and placing on the overall leaderboard. In the result of a point tie, the fourth-best result will be considered.
Entries
To enter an event, the event organiser should be contacted. These will be detailed on ESA social media closer to the time of each event. The event organiser can contact the ESA regarding entries they wish to reject due to concern over disruptive behaviour.
Players who both belong to the English MNA and are ESA Members can enter all events and earn points.
Players who belong to a Non-English MNA and are ESA members can enter all events, but the points they earn will not appear on the final leaderboard.
Players who belong to the English MNA and are not ESA members can enter 1 event on the circuit but will not earn points. If they join the ESA, they will receive points and will be able to enter all championship events.
Event Format
Each event’s tournament structure will follow that which is detailed in the FISTF Tournament Organiser’s Handbook. This means that players will be drawn into groups of 4, though some groups may have 3 or 5 players depending on entries. All players compete in the same category.
Draw: Details on how the organiser should complete the group draw are detailed below. To summarise, there will be one seeded pot to randomly draw from based on previous Championship results, followed by everybody else. There is no club protection for players.
Group Stage: The top two players in each group will qualify for the main knockout stage, and all other players will qualify for the plate event. The order of determinants for placing in the group is as follows: Points, Head-to-Head, Goal Difference, Goals Scored, Penalty Shootout. A Bye will grant a 3-0 win to the present player. For the group stage only, if the goal difference in a match is larger than 4 (5-0, 6-1, 8-3, etc), the result should be recorded as 5-0. A result where the goal difference is less than 5, such as 8-4, will stand.
Knockout Stage: The knockout stage is a single elimination bracket which follows the FISTF structure in terms of player matchups and barrages. The plate event will follow a similar layout.
The following is the number of points that a player will gain on the overall leaderboard based on their placement in the event:
Winner: 100 points.
Runner-Up: 90 points.
Semi-Finalist: 80 points.
Quarter-Finalist: 70 points.
Qualified out of group: 60 points.
Plate Winner: 50 points.
Plate Runner-Up: 40 points.
Plate Semi-Finalist: 30 points.
Plate Quarter-Finalist: 20 points.
Participation: 10 points.
Organiser Details
Responsibilities: The organising club of each event is to pay £2 per player (excluding Under 18s) to the ESA to cover end-of-season trophies.
The organising club is to provide trophies to the winner, runner-up, and best achieving Under 18 player at their event. They can also provide further trophies at their discretion.
The “Best Achieving” Under 18 is decided by which player in this age group gained the most leaderboard points from the event. If two or more players are tied in this aspect, it will be decided by a head-to-head match or penalty shootout (organiser’s discretion).
The organising club is to assign 1 or more Head Referees for their event. This player is responsible for making the final call on rule-based decisions and assisting in assigning referees appropriately (explained below).
If there are any miscellaneous points not raised here that need to be resolved before the event, the ESA should be contacted. If a point is raised on the day of the event, the event organiser should use their discretion to reach the correct outcome.
Tournament Runnings: The organising club is responsible for gathering entries for their event in a fair running list. The entry limit should be equal to the number of pitches available multiplied by 4 – for example, having 10 tables means 40 players entry limit. There may be up to 12 sessions in an event, so make sure to keep to schedule.
The organising club should contact Kye Arnold or the ESA 3 days before the event to receive the standardised document to organise the tournament from. They will need to state how many tables and players are anticipated to be at the event.
This document will be an online link which players will be able to view as it updates in real time through the day. The organisers should provide the link to this online page through social media once the draw is complete.
Organisers must be able to produce livestreaming content and live results on social media. The organiser will be advised on providing the correct link to live results.
After the draw is complete, the tournament organiser (with support from the Head Referee) should check the automatic referee assignments and make changes where necessary. This also needs to be done for each round of the knockout stage.
The current version of this document prioritises Goal Difference over Head-to-head for the group stage, which the tournament organiser must remain vigilant of. If the knockout stage matchups appear incorrect as a result of this, the names of the relevant players should be swapped in the first knockout match they appear in.
Support from Kye Arnold on the day of the event will often be available to assist.
Completing the Group Draw
The draw will be completed no earlier than the night before the event, and no later than one hour before kick-off. There should be two pots of players: the seeds and the rest. The seeded pot will have a number of players equal to the number of groups. The players in the seeded pot are based on Simon Goodman’s English Championship Rankings total, based on the previous 2 seasons. These players should be randomly drawn, one per group – Seed 1 does not necessarily go to Group 1. Following this, the rest of the players should be drawn into each group. There will be no club protection for players.
The group draw for the event should be done with eyewitnesses, either in-person or through a livestream, following the rules previously stated. Players should be entered into the appropriate boxes on the document, which will then auto-fill the match slots.
The following is the English Championship Rankings. The event organiser should pick out the highest-ranked players that are attending, equal to the number of groups, to be the seeded pot (which will be drawn from to put the seeds in a random order):
To download the above information in PDF format, then head to our English Championship Circuit page of the ESA website English Championship Circuit | ESA (englishsubbuteoassociation.com)
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