The Comdirect Beach Tour 2020 is the German tournament series in beach volleyball . It comprised qualification tournaments for the German Beach Volleyball Championship 2020 in Timmendorfer Strand (“Road to Timmendorf”) and invitation tournaments for teams that were already entered or qualified for the German championship (“Top Team Tournaments”). The qualification and invitation tournaments were held in parallel on three weekends, alternating between women and men weekly.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany , the Techniker Beach Tour was canceled in March 2020 . As a result, the players could not, as usual, collect points in the German tournament series to qualify for the German championship. In June, the DVV announced that the championship in Timmendorfer Strand will take place anyway and that three tournaments per gender will be held beforehand. On the first day of the tournament in Düsseldorf, the DVV announced that the tournament series will be held as the Comdirect Beach Tour because of the sponsor .
mode
The participating teams were divided into two groups. The best teams in the German rankings, which were automatically qualified for the German championship, played the tournaments in preparation to get match practice ("top teams tournaments"). International teams could also take part. The teams with a lower ranking in the ranking list and participants with a wildcard determined the other DM participants (“Road to Timmendorf”). In every qualifying tournament, the finalists and the third placed won a starting place for Timmendorf. One of the nine teams served as a successor ("back-up duo").
The winners of the first qualifying tournament took part in the second top teams tournament. Therefore, the top team competition has been expanded since the second tournament and played in different systems.
Tournaments
The tournaments of the Comdirect Beach Tour were held from July 17th to August 23rd with a weekly change between women and men. Initially two tournaments were held in Düsseldorf. For this purpose, the DVV used the facility next to the Merkur Spiel-Arena , where the Beach League previously took place. The last tournaments were held at the federal base in Hamburg.
Georg and Peter Wolf have been confirmed as the first successors for the German championship, who will compete in Timmendorfer Strand if another team is canceled.
After the release of the qualifying mode, there was an open conflict between the association and some players. These players described the mode with some seeded teams as unfair and particularly criticized the association's poor communication. An alternative proposal by the players for a mode in which all teams have to qualify has been rejected. Eric Stadie , Matti Binder and Dirk Westphal therefore announced that they would not take part in the qualification. The DVS managing director Volker Braun and the DVV athletes spokesman Jaromir Zachrich reacted to the criticism in an interview. Braun said the mode is not arbitrary and offers an attractive package for television and sponsors. Zachrich admitted errors in communication, but emphasized "the sporting responsibility [...] to find a mode that is reasonably fair for everyone, but where everyone also has to make compromises". He also pointed out that the seeded top teams would forego prize money.
media
The games were broadcast on Sport1 on free TV and in several live streams . 21 hours of the German championship and the Comdirect Beach Tour that took place beforehand will be shown on television. Sport1 broadcast one game on Saturdays and two games on Sundays on free TV. Dirk Berscheidt was there as a commentator, while Julius Brink acted as a moderator and expert, as with the Techniker Beach Tour.
Live streams were seen on various platforms. Sport1.de broadcast on Saturdays and Sundays. All games were shown on Sportdeutschland.TV . On the first three weekends, all games on the center court were also broadcast in interactive form with chat on the free Twitch channel Trops4 (the Beach League was shown here before ) and commented on by Alexander Walkenhorst , Dirk Funk and Martin Stuber, among others . Shortly before the fourth tournament in Düsseldorf, the DVV banned further broadcasts on Trops4 after Walkenhorst had expressed criticism.
Organization and spectators
This year's concept was developed by the DVV marketing agency DVS. Alexander Walkenhorst as the organizer of the Beach League provided the basis for this, as DVS Managing Director Volker Braun confirmed. According to its own statement, Walkenhorst also passed on the hygiene concept developed for the Beach League to the association.
In view of the hygiene measures to combat the pandemic, the tournaments in Düsseldorf and Hamburg took place without spectators on site.
Michaela Kubíčková / Michala Kvapilová
Joana Heidrich / Anouk Vergé-Dépré
Julian Hörl / Sven Winter
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Dries Koekelkoren / Tom van Walle.jpg)
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Agata Ceynowa / Katarzyna Kociołek
Matteo Ingrosso / Paolo Ingrosso
