Friday 30 August 2013

Ups and downs of the WASPA season

There is much to learn from the subbuteo season and there is much to say about how WASPA can be positive for the development of the game. Some nations definately took advantage of the WASPA circuit to grow.

CANADA has definately been the nation with the most amazing development over the last 12 months. The country had not had any tournament for years but 27 tournaments in 5 different cities(Calgary, Hamilton, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver) have been organized under WASPA banner and 48 different players are ranked. Hopefully the development will continue next season and of Canada is ready to host a tournament of the FISTF circuit in the future, it will be a great honor for WASPA to have contributed to reach the next level.

AUSTRALIA also anaged to have tournaments again. Five tournaments were held in Penrith (near Sydney) and two events were held in Melbourne. There are also contacts in a few different places (Perth, Brisbane). With the relaunch of Subbuteo over there, there will be some possible new players and clubs. Hopefully more events will take place next season.

SINGAPORE is continueing their development. They now have more small events, which is very positive for the game. With the local distributor of Subbuteo for South-Eastern Asia, there will hopeflly be some more players in the country but also in MALAYSIA and possibly BRUNEI. WASPA had a few contacts in Malaysia but it's difficult to organize things over there.

The UNITED STATES have had a difficult time last year but it seems the ASA is now back on the right track with more local events, some new players and clubs and a great national championship. WASPA was very proud to have tournaments in Michigan, California, Delaware, Maryland, Florida, Colorado, Connecticut and South Carolina.

We can certainly not forget ITALY. They are the number 1 nation in the world of subbuteo but this season, many clubs decided to have WASPA tournaments. There were events in Rome first but since December, many cities joined the movement to organize a total of 39 events (including 7 with the old ETF rules). This is simply fantastic.

ENGLAND has had a huge development in the lest 8 months with events held in differents cities (London, Manchester, Thornaby, Lincoln...) and with certainly many more events to come soon.

CYPRUS has also trusted the WASPA circuit with 11 tournaments over the year. The Famagusta players had many good event but they also continue to host FISTF tournaments. Well done! Hopefully there will be developments this year, maybe with the creation of a new club in Nicosia.

Congratulations to SOUTH AFRICA. After Johannesburg, Pretoria is now also on the map. There are some good developments over there.

BELGIUM has had tournaments in Templeuve and Jambes and there will be events in Hofstade-Zemst and Velaine next season so the interest for WASPA is growing there.

MALTA is still on of the strong nations with events held byt the clubs of Attard and Bormla. It is also good to see some top players attending their events.

IRELAND and NORTHERN IRELAND had their first tournaments under WASPA banner this year. It was good to see them in action. Donegal Subbuteo Club in Ireland will also host their first events next season.

It was good also to have some tournaments in CHILE, FINLAND, GERMANY and WALES.

SPAIN had a few small events in the Barcelona area.

JAPAN, HONG KONG and DENMARK have not hosted any tournament this season but hopefully they will be back in the circuit soon. With a bit of luck WASPA will have their first events in SCOTLAND, SWITZERLAND, NORWAY, PORTUGAL, GREECE, the NETHERLANDS,... next season.

Thanks to WASPA, we have had some new nationalities in the ranking: ZIMBABWE, PORTUGAL, AUSTRIA, FRANCE, GREECE, SWITZERLAND, PAKISTAN, JAMAICA, SCOTLAND, BOLIVIA and... the ISLE OF MAN. We even had a player from SWEDEN winning a tournament in CHILE. Well done!

Thanks for everyone who made things happen. Please keep in mind WASPA is a totally free circuit with no tax to pay and easy rules. You only need 3 players to have a tournament and different sets of rules can be used (FISTF rules, advanced rules, ETF rules, Finnish rules).

We had 177 tournaments in total this season. Hopefully we can reach the magic number of 200 next season.

Any tournament request can be sent by e-mail at vincent.Cop@rsca.com

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