by Heinrich von Westphalen » 20 Oct 2014, 14:30 due to the recent events the Challenger Tour got a new moderator and I'm delighted to do this job for the upcoming year. There will be made some slithly changes at this tour because I was and will be dedicated to make the tour more attractive, especially by supporting beginners and those guys, who don't play this game that much to be competitive enough for the World Tour. I think everybody wants to be a champion, so I'll try to organize a enjoyable tour for all the players I've mentioned.
I should give a small overview about the changes ...
THE MODERATOR
For those guys who don't know me, I am from Germany, 24 years old and working as a PostDoc in theoretical physics. I play this game since summer 2012 and be an active player at the World Tour since January 2013. As I already mentioned in my application I know this game like the back of my hand and be experienced in all its facets, especially in gameplay / tour (top five player in both categories), connection issues and modding. I don't give a damn about origin, religious confession or other things and will be a competent point of contact, no matter which topic (connections issues, modding, tour, gameplay etc.) or rank the player had / has. Due to my job I will be available on Skype for the most of the time, in some cases of urgency even via Skype application on my iPhone.
My Skype-ID is live:heinrichvonwestphalen and I advise to add me if you're planning to play on this tour.
TOUR
The TE Challenger Tour, known until the end of 2008 as the TE Challenger Series, are the second highest level of international competition in this game. If your ranking is 40 and below, it is advisable to prefer to play at this tour, because tournaments are limited for players who aren't in the top 40. This will give you the chance to meet players on your level and improve your level.
Challenger are categorized in Challenger 80, 90, 100, 110 and 125 and named after the number of points a player gets for winning the tournament.
I'll try to offer a Challenger Tour event every week with some exceptions (during first week of a Grand Slam / some Masters and if there's no demand). The selection of the tournament depends on the World Tour tournament in this week (e.g during second week of a Grand slam I will offer an higher ranked tournament than during a week with TE 250 events) and the surface. If there are two equivalent events, I'll leave it to chance (by random.org).
TOURNAMENTS
Time schedule and organisational procedures of the Challenger Tour will be similar to the World Tour with a few minor exceptions.
- Registration
The registration for a tournament will be opened 17 days (usually on Friday morning) before the corresponding tournament starts and can be found here. Simultaneously, an application topic will published with all required information round about the application for the tournament, including period of the event, surface, seeds (will updated frequently) and a lot other stuff. The only exception are the ATP Challenger Tour Finals, which will be separately announced and organized.
- Draw
The draw of a tournament will be released 3 days (usually on Friday morning) before the corresponding tournament starts and can be found here as well. Simultaneously, an official topic will published with all required information round about the tournament, including ranking points, deadlines etc.pp. In exceptional cases I'm not able to moderate the tournament I'll inform about my proxy in official topic.
- Match organisation
As soon as the draw is released, participants are able to play their matches. There's no need to wait till offical start of the event. Contact your opponent in the match topic and add him / her on Skype. If you don't installed a Skype application, you can download it here. Skype is required for this tour by the way.
Furthermore avoid increasingly popular empty phrases like "When?", "Play?" or similar messages ... it will decrease significant your chances of a mild-mannered moderator. Determine your time frame escpecially when it's departing from your mentioned one in your profile. A good example would be:Player xy wrote:I added you / contacted via Skype. I can play from X AM / PM to X AM / PM UTC+X.
If there are any problems to contact the opponent / realise the match, contact me timely (before deadline) via Skype. We will find a solution, so don't worry.
- Victory ceremony
As soon as finals played the tournament will be archieved and the ranking (World and Challenger Tour) be calculated. Additional I'll announce the champion in official topic. I would really like to publish a statscreen like I did for my matches on World Tour (example), but a need a .dmo (or at least the matchlog) to do this.
RANKINGS
The TE Challenger Tour rankings works like TE Race as an easy-to-understand, simple-to-follow annual race from season start to season end. Every player starts at zero at the beginning of the year and their points accumulates by tournaments of the Challenger Tour. Points by World Tour events won't be added. The rankings can be found here and will be updated after every Challenger Tour event.
Points by Challenger Tour events will be added to both rankings (World + Challenger Tour).
TE CHALLENGER TOUR FINALS
The TE Challenger Tour Finals is a tennis tournament played at the end of each year, involving the top eight players in that year's TE Challenger Tour. Like the TE World Tour Finals, the TE Challenger Tour Finals is not a straightforward knock-out tournament. Eight players are divided into two groups of four, and play three round-robin matches each against the other three players in their group. From there, the two players with the best records in each group progress to the semifinals, with the winners meeting in the final to determine the champion.
I'll announce every details about this Challenger Tour Finals 2014 (17 November) in the course of this week.
So I wish all the players on this a lot of joy on this tour and if there any questions, contact me via Skype.
Kind regards,
Heinrich von Westphalen.
that makes me more excited to play in the chalenger tour 
