FIVB World Tour
The FIVB World Tour is an intercontinental tournament series for beach volleyball players . At the beginning of the 1990s, individual tournaments developed into the world series, which until 2016 consisted of majors, grand slams, open, the World Tour finals and the biennial world championships . 1 to 5-star tournaments have been replacing the major, grand slam and open categories since 2017.
history
The first beach volleyball tournament under the auspices of the FIVB took place in 1987 on Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro . It was a total of $ 22,000 in prize money. The winners of the event were the Americans Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos . In 1988 Karch Kiraly and Pat Powers , who had lost to their compatriots in the final in the previous year, won the tournament in the city of Sugar Loaf . In February 1989 there was the last individual tournament again in Brazil's second largest city; Smith and Stoklos won the title for the second time. In July of the same year the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Series was created. The first of three tournaments took place in Jesi . The winners were again Smith and Stoklos, who were also able to secure the overall victory of the first tour in 1989/90. In 1990/91 there were already four tournaments; France was added as the host country to Italy, Japan and Brazil. In 1991/92 new venues were presented in Spain and Australia, the tour had grown to seven tournaments. In August 1992 the FIVB held a women's competition for the first time. In Almería were Karolyn Kirby and Nancy Reno successful.
Until the beginning of 1996, a tour season always lasted two years and ended in February or March. From 1996 up to and including 2014, the FIVB tour winners were chosen at the end of the calendar year, so that in 1996 this title was won twice (the first for the 1995/96 season, which ended in February, the second title for the overall winners of the tournaments from March onwards until December of the year). In 1997 there were already 20 events. This also included the first official beach volleyball world championship in Los Angeles , where the Brazilian Olympic champions Pires / Silva and their compatriots Pará / Guilherme won the titles. In 2003 the World Series became the Swatch FIVB World Tour because the FIVB won the Swiss watchmaker as title sponsor. The contract was extended from 2008 to 2012 inclusive.
The 2015 season ended with the final in Fort Lauderdale , which took place from September 29th to October 4th. Then three more events took place, which were counted for the 2015/16 season. This reintroduced the two-year cycle from the beginning of the tour.
In 2009 Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann became the first German beach volleyball world champions in Stavanger . This year the tour consisted of sixteen women's and fourteen men's competitions, including the world championships.
FIVB Tour Champions
Tournaments
Open
The game was played in a double knock-out up to and including 2012 . Only the semi-finals and the final as well as the game for third place were played in the knockout system . Since 2013, the entire process has been identical to the Grand Slam. At the Open, which are only held as a men's or women's competition, there is a total of 75,000 US dollars in prize money to be won. In the case of double events, the sum also doubles. The winning teams will receive $ 11,000 and 500 world ranking points. Since 2017, the open tournaments have been replaced by the tournament classifications "1-star", "2-star" and "3-star".
Grand Slam
The 32 pairs qualified for the main draw first complete a preliminary round in eight groups of four teams each. The first of this pool round qualify directly for the round of 16, where they meet the winners of the pairings between the second and third. These as well as the following encounters will be played in the knockout system. After the semi-finals, both the title and third place will be played out. In the Grand Slams, the prize money is $ 800,000 per event. Of this, $ 400,000 each will be paid out in the women's and men's competitions. The winners will receive $ 57,000 and 800 world ranking points. Since 2017 the Grand Slam tournaments have been replaced by the tournament classification "4-star".
major
Since the 2015 season there is a new tournament category, the Major Series, which has just as much prize money as the Grand Slam tournaments. Since 2017 the major tournaments have been classified as "5-star" tournaments.
World Tour Final
The World Tour Final has also been new since 2015. For this event, the best 8 teams from the current season qualify for each gender, whereby all points earned to date on major , grand slam and open events are taken into account.
World Championship
The main field consists of 48 teams that contest the preliminary round in twelve pools of four teams each. The group winners, second and eight best third qualify for the round of the best 32 teams, which is played in the knockout system. From the round of 16, the process is the same as for the Grand Slam and Open. A world championship pays $ 500,000 for both women's and men's competitions, of which the winning teams receive $ 60,000 plus 1,000 points for the world rankings.
Regulations
Main Draw
32 couples take part in the main competition of a Grand Slam or an open tournament. 22 pairs qualify through the points awarded by the FIVB for national associations. Among the 22 teams there are at least two duos from the host country, who are placed in positions one and at least eight (a lower position if the national score is higher). In addition, the FIVB and the organizer each award a wildcard to teams worthy of funding. The remaining eight teams will be determined through a qualification. Only three teams per nation excluding the wild cards may be among the 24 pairs that are directly entitled to start in the main draw.
Pool system
In the pool, each duo plays against each other team, so there are a total of six games. Every winner of a game receives two points, the loser one point, even if he or she gives up due to injury or is unable to play. A couple who do not compete for other reasons will not receive a point. In the event of a team's cancellation due to injury, the distribution of points is as follows: The winner receives two points, 2: 0 sets, 0: 0 ball points for each set. The rejecting team receives one point, 0: 2 sets and 0:21 ball points for each set. In the case of a task, the same rule applies with the difference that the ball points and sets achieved so far count. An example: Team A leads 21:17, 4: 3 when Team B has to retire due to injury. Team A receives 2 points, 2: 0 sets and 21:17, 4: 3 ball points. Team B receives one point, 0: 2 sets and 17:21, 3:21 ball points.
There are special regulations for the ranking. Up to and including 2015, a direct comparison decided the better placement in two teams with the same number of points. In 2016, the quotient of the ball points of all teams in the pool with equal points of two beach pairs is decisive for the rank in the table. This prevents the last preliminary round match between two duos from becoming meaningless in certain constellations, as was often the case in the past.
If three teams are tied, the ball point quotient of the encounters between these three teams decides on the order. This can lead to results that are incomprehensible in the final table of the preliminary round group. Pool F of the men's Fuzhou Open in April 2013 serves as an example. The Latvians have both a better set and a better ball point ratio than the Chinese, but still lie behind the Asian team in the table because they compare the three matches best teams with equal points have the worst ratio for ball points.
qualification
There is no qualification at the World Cup. In the Open and Grand Slam competitions, up to 32 teams determine the remaining eight participants in the main competition in two rounds.
Country quota
In the country quota, several teams from one nation determine the number of participants who are allowed to take part in the qualification. For example, at the Grand Slam in Gstaad 2010, two German women's teams were seeded for the main draw, and four more had registered to participate. Since only two teams could be admitted for the main qualification, the four other teams had to play two winners in the country quota in the simple knockout system in order not to make more than four German participants in the main competition possible. If the same Grand Slam had taken place in Berlin, all four other teams would have been allowed to take part in the qualification, since up to six couples can take part in the main competition for the host country. No country quota was played in 2013 and 2014.
Web links
- Official homepage of the FIVB (English)
- Information from the DVV
- World Tour information at beach-volleyball.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c FIVB announces pre-calendar for 2015 World Tour. FIVB, November 28, 2014, accessed on March 18, 2015 .
- ↑ Biography of Beach Volleyball 2009. FIVB, accessed on July 10, 2010 (English).
- ↑ FIVB-BVB-Handbook 2013, chapter 10, Prize Money and Bonus Pool. FIVB, accessed on July 17, 2013 .
- ↑ a b FIVB-BVB-Handbook 2013, chapter 9, Competition Regulations. FIVB, November 28, 2014, accessed on March 18, 2015 .
- ↑ a b 2015 FIVB Beach Volleyball TS Regulations, page 37. FIVB, accessed on June 4, 2016 (English).
- ↑ a b 2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball Sport Regulations, page 34. FIVB, accessed on May 16, 2016 (English).
- ↑ Men - POOL STANDINGS ( English ) FIVB. Retrieved April 4, 2019.
- ↑ "Country Quota for the first time". beach-volleyball.de, February 6, 2015, accessed April 25, 2015 .
