International Student Badminton Tournament (ISBT) is a badminton tournament organised for students, by students. They take place all over Europe, in countries including Austria, England, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia and Scotland. 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 2-0 win, 0-2 loss or 1-1 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. A good example of such a wake up song is 'Guten Morgen Sonnenschein' by Nana Mouskouri. 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 almost always themed, with a fancy dress party on the last night. Past themes include
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. Players do not enter with a set partner. Each player will be allocated a partner at random from the same section they have entered. This is to even out each section and also highlight the social aspects of these tournaments.
ISBT's have grown rapidly in popularity over the last few years. One of the largest ISBTs on record was the 2008 Irish ISBT that took place in Limerick, Republic of Ireland, at which over 250 players from all over Europe participated.
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