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The Adult Elite Provincial Championship Program is one of the longest standing Darts Alberta programs.
The objective of the program is to host competitions starting at the Zone Level to establish a team to represent Alberta at the NDFC Canadian Adult National Championship.
Zone Qualifiers (held between September and November each year)
Members begin competing in this program at the zone level in Zone Qualifier Playoffs. Although it is likely more convenient to compete within your own zone, members do not have to compete in the zone where they reside. A series of 3 zone qualifier playoffs are held each year in each participating zone, typically during the months of November and December (annual deadline December 31), to qualify to compete at the Darts Alberta Elite Provincial Championship. Members may compete in one, two or all three rounds of the zone qualifier events, but all must be in the same zone. The format of the event consists of Round Robin play advancing to a double knockout. Players are issued points based on their finishing position each round. At the end of the three rounds, the points are tallied to determine the finishing position of each competitor in that zone. Individuals must be a member of DA/NDFC member in order to participate at any level of this program.
Zone Qualifier Registration Fees:
$40.00 per person (whether playing in 1, 2 or all 3 rounds)
Provincial Championship
The Provincial Championship is always held on the Saturday, Sunday and Monday of the Family Day Long Weekend.
A maximum of 80 men and 64 women are eligible to compete in the Elite Provincial Championship. Eligibility is determined by:
- Earning participation through Invitational Qualification, or
- Earning participation through Zone Qualification, or
- Entering by exercising the Individual Buy-In option.
Once all of the Invitational Qualifiers have been confirmed, the remaining provincial spots are allocated to Zone Qualifiers based on a percentage of their zone qualifier participation in comparison to all other zone participation, in accordance with Darts Alberta Policy 09. If maximum participation is not reached, individuals that have not participated in zone qualifiers may enter into the draw as an independent Buy-In Competitor.
The format of the Provincials consists of Round Robin play advancing to a double knockout. Players are issued points based on their finishing position each day. At the end of the three days, the points are tallied to determine the finishing position of each competitor.
Provincial Championship Registration Fees:
- $90.00 per person (if qualified through Invitation or Zones)
- $300.00 per person (for those wishing to buy directly into Provincials)
From the final results of the Provincial Championship, the top 8 men and the top 8 women form Team Alberta to represent our province at the NDFC Canadian National Championship, accompanied by the Provincial Director and two coaches.
Principles of Seeding
Organizers of the provincials are often asked to explain how the seeding works. It is most often easier to explain it visually. This article has been put together to better explain how the placing of seeds are determined.
If everyone came out of section in the order of their seeding and the higher seed always wins in the knockout, the #1 seed and the #2 seed would face each other in the final. If there are any upsets, this can completely skew the seeding.
How Seeds are Placed in the Round Robin
To determine where to place seeds in the round robin, so that they are properly seeded into the knockout based on finishing in the right order, you need to start at the final and work your way backwards. The two seeds playing against each other must always add up to 1 more than the number of players still left in the knockout. This ensures that the highest seed is playing the lowest seed.
As you will see in the seed numbers listed on the two sample knockout sheets (both a 64 draw, one with 8 sections, one with 16 sections), the 2 competitors' seed numbers add up to 3, 5, 9, 17, 33 or 65.
If there are more than 32 players going through to the knockout, you still need to use the applicable 64-person draw sheets.
Seeding in the Provincials
Each competitor earns seeding points from the DA Seeding Points Chart, based on the number of participants that competed in the zone qualifiers and their finishing position. Initial ties are broken based on each person's current DA Ranking (February 1 issue). From those seeding points and the tie breaker, each competitor is issued an Initial Seed Number going into the provincials.
- For Day 1 of the provincials, competitors are seeded into the round robin draw based on their initial seed number.
- For Day 2, competitors will be seeded into the round robin draw based on the number of points achieved from Day 1. All ties are broken based on their initial seed number.
- For Day 3, competitors will be seeded into the round robin draw based on the accumulative number of points achieved from Day 1 and Day 2. Again, all ties will be broken based on their initial seed number.Team Alberta
Nationals Championship
The National Championship is held in early June in a different province each year. Often a pre-tournament warm-up is held the weekend prior to the National Championships and the WDF Ranked Canadian Open is typically held on the weekend following the Nationals.
This initiative is funded in part by Alberta Sport and Team Alberta travel to the Nationals is funded in a great part through Alberta Gaming proceeds.
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