Laurels are the brain child of BPA’s own Happy Handicapper, Stuart Tucker, who introduced the concept in 2002 as a scoring mechanism for BPA’s highest award…the Caesar—the crowning of its annual champion based on overall performance “across the board” in all BPA-sanctioned tournaments. Basically, the idea is to provide a common denominator for gaming achievements regardless of the games you play—be they long or short, simple or complex, historical or abstract.

Every BPA member is automatically entered into this championship hunt. The more you play, the more chances you have to score. Scoring is automatic and requires no extra effort by either GM or player. For each event, laurels are awarded by multiplying the Event prize level times the rank to yield laurels earned. Laurels are earned for placing in the top six places of any BPA tournament with the caveat that no laurels will be earned for an event that fails to classify as an official tournament due to lack of sufficient players (currently a minimum of eight), and players must rank in the top half of the field to earn laurels. Consequently, laurels would not extend beyond 4th place for an 8-player event.

Otherwise, laurels are earned for each of the top six places in every event offered. Up until 2003, the level of points earned for a given event was directly related to the event’s prize level rating. Thus, the bigger and longer events offered more laurels to the top players. Naturally, Century events offered more laurels than Trial events but they all counted in determining the BPA’s top annual competitor. Email tournaments were considered a 1 Prize Level event as shown in the following chart.

A player earned laurels equal to his rank times the prize level rating. Examples:

a) 1776 was worth two prizes. The 4th place player would earn 3x2= 6 laurels.
b) The winner of ASL (six prizes) earned 10x6 = 60 laurels.
c) The 6th place player of History of the World (six prizes) earned 1x6= 6 laurels.
d) The 4th place player of We The People (four prizes) earned 3x4= 12 laurels.

2003: Commencing with the 2003 WBC, this system was upgraded to award laurels based on the prize level that would have been earned based solely on the number of players and thei events total accumulated player hours regardless of Century status or actual plaques awarded. Thus, a Trial event that was worth only one plaque in 2003 would nonetheless earn laurels based on the prize level it would have earned in the following year’s Century based on it’s current field. PBeM tournaments earned laurels based on the equivalent player hours such an event would require if played “live” with that number of players. Failure to actually make the Century list in the following year does not diminish the laurels earned and events with a minimum of 16 entrants earn at least level 2 laurel status regardless of player hours.

USES: Besides determining our Caesar, laurels can be used as a fun way to mark your progress in your boardgaming hobby. WBC badges include a laurel count for every pre-registrant that lists his/her laurel count for the previous year in BPA tournaments as well as a lifetime total. But laurels can have a practical side too. BPA keeps a separate list of laurels earned for each event on its event reports page which can be used by a GM as a basis for seeding or byes.

Our laurel history dates back to 1999—the advent of WBC—and does not include Avaloncon results.

So now you know what a laurel is. Don’t rest on yours. When is your next BPA tournament appearance?