‘Play at home’ Online Carrom Tournament Being Held Oct. 5-17, 2020

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North East United States Carrom Association (NEUSCA), which says it connects Carrom players across North America, held a ‘Play at Home’ Online  Carrom tournament during the Covid-19 pandemic,

Organizers said in a press release that it was done “by meticulously planning and organizing” in a situation like the pandemic which they had never experienced before.

The NEUSCA, which is affiliated with United States Carrom Association ( USCA ), has been conducting North East Carrom events since 2018, but had to suspend the one in march 2020 due to the lockdown.

In lieu of that, NEUSCA called a zoom meeting on Sunday, Oct. 4, 2020, and launched ‘Play at Home’ tournament starting Oct. 5, which will end on Oct. 17, 2020.

While one may wonder how this game can be played online from home, individually, and yet competitively, when it is traditionally played in an indoor hall, with players facing one another.

President of NEUSCA Shakeel Baig inaugurated the 2020 event by welcoming the Sponsors, Media Partners, USCA Committee members and players from North America, and gave an account of the event, it’s purpose and objective.

Shakeel, conveyed special thanks to the Sponsors for the event,

Karim Rayani, Mohammed Masood, Prabhu Raj, Pariwaar Delights Restaurant.

He also thanked the Review panel group composed of Atul Bhave, Vishal Karangutkar, and Sridhar Galipelli for all there support to verify all the matches.

The organizers gave special thanks to Subramanian Laxminarayanpuram who helped with the live commentary for the finals.

Shakeelalso fave special thanks to media partner Parikh World Media.

Arshad Shaik, secretary of NEUSCA provided details of the format, rules, timings,

prize money and Trophies for the winners.

Sandeep Dusa helped NEUSCA by coordinating with players and helping with the format.

An impressive 55 players signed up for the Sunday evening event where a ‘League’ format consisted was adopted for deciding the rankings and grouping of players.

In the League round, each player will play 3 sets of 4 boards each; At end of  League round, players ranked 1 thru 15 will go to Group A;Players ranked 16 thru 30 will go to Group B and players 31 and above will be in Group C.

The second round within each group will be of 5 Sets each of 4 boards. At the end of second round, the top 8 ranked players from each group will move on to Quarter finals.

In the quarter finals, players will be divided into 2 halfs –  odd and even ranked, the top half consisting of rank numbers 1,3,5,7, and the second half players ranked 2,4,6,8. Each player will play within their half 1 set of 4 boards against the other 3 players.

At the end of the quarters, the top 2 players from each half will move to the semi finals.

The winner form each group will move onto finals.

The event schdules dates, timings, rules, verification panels and other details are posted in the NEUSCA Whats App group.

All matches mandatorily must be played live in Facebook, scores to be updated in the comments section.

Group B and C finals are scheduled for October 16th;Group A finals will be live telecast on ITV Gold Parikh media on October 17th at 3:30 PM EST.;There are prizes for winners, Runners up, 3rd position and Slam hitters.

Also, an MVP will be selected by the organizing committee panel.

Prizes and trophies will be mailed to the winners.

President of USCA, Atul Bhave addressed the players, thanked the NEUSCA organizers for their initiative effort and keeping the game of Carrom alive in this unfortunate time of Pandemic period. Saravanan Babu, US National Champion has offered all help anytime to the organizers, the press release said.

A Q and A session followed on the Zoom meeting with individuals from Canada and U.S.