We’ve added a new automatic check in pair tournaments to help avoid last-minute no-shows. Five minutes before the game starts, the BBO system will check if both players in each registered pair are online. If one partner is offline, the online partner will get an on-screen alert so they have time to call their partner or find a replacement before the game begins.

This helps players avoid being left out of the tournament and reduces the need for TDs to manually track down missing partners.

Who this is for: BBO tournament organizers running pair events.
What it solves: Last-minute no-shows/disconnects that leave a single player stranded at start time and cause seating headaches.

What it does (default behavior)

• 5 minutes before start, BBO checks whether each registered pair is fully online.
• If one partner is offline and the other is online, the online player sees a modal, informing them that their partner is not connected (see screenshot above).
• The warning is sent only once.
• This reduces the need for TDs to manually scan entries and message the players about absent partners.

If you are happy with the 5-minute warning, you don’t need to do anything. The feature is active on virtual club and some other pair tournaments by default.

Customizing the warning (optional)

If you wish to change the timing of the warning or turn it off for a specific tournament, add this flag to the tournament description:

+warnpartner=X+

• X = minutes before start to trigger the warning.
• X = 0 disables the warning for that tournament.
• The warning is still sent only once.

Examples

• Default (no need to write anything in your tournament description): 5-minute warning.
• Trigger the warning 10 minutes before start: +warnpartner=10+
  • If you change the default time, the warning is sent only once, at the time you defined.
• Turn off the warning for this game: +warnpartner=0+

Sending another warning

Because the warning is sent only once, if you want a second reminder closer to start time, you can manually add another setting to re-issue it:

Example: A first warning has been snt at 5 minutes (default), and you want to add another one at 2 minutes if needed. After the first warning has triggered, add this to your tournament description:

+warnpartner=2+

Additional notes

• Works with +allavail+.
• Applies to human pair tournaments only (no warning if it's a human+robot partnership).
• The warning is shown only to the online member of the pair whose partner is offline.

We hope you enjoy this new feature and find it useful for your games. For comments, questions, or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact us at tournaments@bridgebase.com.