International Student Badminton Tournament
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
International Student Badminton Tournament (ISBT) is a badminton tournament organised for students, by students. They take place all over Europe, including England, Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Norway and Russia. ISBT's promote both the sport of badminton and the social aspect of the game.
ISBT's are open to all standards of player. Many of the tournaments allow recent graduates to enter under their former clubs. The players are divided into 4 categories - A (national to top regional standard), B (regional to top club standard), C (club standard) and D (recreational standard). Each player competes in two out of the three disciplines: singles, doubles and mixed doubles. Each match consists of 2 games, so that the result is either a win, loss or draw.
The tournaments are usually 3 to 4 days long and consist of playing badminton during the day and partying at night. Competitors often sleep in the same sports hall where the matches are played and are typically woken up in the morning to the sound of themed music and announcements of the first match of the day. In the event that a player does not turn up for a match, their opponent will receive a walk-over and full points. ISBTs are usually themed, with a fancy dress party on the last night.
The 'Swiss ladder' system is used to rank the players. This means that players compete against others who have had similar results in previous games. A player does not normally play the same opposition twice. After the last round has been played either the player at the top of the table is the named the winner, or there is a play-off between the top two pairs of the division.
ISBT's have grown rapidly in popularity over the last few years, with the Great North ISBT in Newcastle 2005 being over subscribed within minutes of the online entry opening. One of the biggest ISBT of the year takes place from the December 28 to January 1 in Enschede, Netherlands. In 2006 over 229 players from all over Europe entered. New year celebrations are repeated 3 or 4 times to account for all of the different time zones represented by the different nationalities at the tournament. Every year some funny guys collect all the gossip of the tournament and make a nice daily journal.
