No Twixt at the Mind Sport Olympiad

Since its foundation in 1997, Twixt was always present at the Mind Sport Olympiad in London. In the next August, for the first time, Twixt will be absent. I will not go to London.

Yes, I asked about this on the MSO Discord:

Jonathan Bush — 05/24/2023 12:59 PM
It's sad to see no Twixt and no Hex tournaments at the MSO. Was attendance in previous years so bad?

Mike — 05/24/2023 2:36 PM
Unfortunately yes, Twixt has never had great numbers but it fell to as few as 3 last year which simply isn't enough to justify a tournament. Hex has been tried in the past with no more success. I'm sure we'll try to bring one of these or something else in that mould back at some point in the future but with limited schedule spots and so many options to choose from, they missed out this year. Hex has been more successful online so expect that to continue to feature in the Grand Prix.

Mike is right. We were few people. However, I would like to add that the general participation was not high, because many players were still afraid of COVID. Moreover, Twixt was the only events that had 5 competing tournements (the final of Catan; Oware; Dominion; Poker 7 card stud; Chess blitz), that attracted many players. We were obliged to play in the testing room (where people used to test new games), because no other room was available. It is difficult to achieve high numbers within these conditions.

In my opinion this is not the problem in MSO.

The whole competition is organized with a stupid rule (snif) that creates a bias in the participation.
When you have a competition like TwixT without luck, and some strong players who are there, the other guys leave the event to play a game where they have a chance to win, like Catan or Monopoly.
In the end the winner of Monopoly will obtain more points for the GC than the winner of TwixT for this reason.
Even worse there is a moment where you have only 2-3 experts in a game like TwixT and all the other guys left to play Monopoly, so probably they arrive to the conclusion that they should remove the event, lol.

This is just ridiculous.
The only thing they should remove is their GC as long as it does not mean anything.
I actually cannot imagine a rule that could be worse, it's really like if I pick a random rule it will be better.

I completely agree with Florian. Mind Sport Olympiad is turning into the “medal hunt”, or how to gain a medal with a minimal effort. Thus, there is no room for Twixt, a complex game, that requires years of practice to get to play it decently.
But I want to add one more information. In 2019, the last edition before COVID, the tournament of Twixt had 7 (or 8? I do not remember) participants (and Florian, David Pearce, Mike Dixon, who participated in previous years, were absent). In short, good numbers for the MSO.
The tournament was broadcast on Facebook. There is also a video, that you can find on Youtube, but also on BoardGameGeek. Many people asked me about Twixt after that broadcast. Twixt deserved attention, and these were the consequences.
In 2022, first the organisers decided to pay no attention to Twixt. Later, they decided to remove it from the program. They are the organisers and they decide. I am free to go to the seaside.
However,if someone else wants to organise a tournament, I am in (and I can bring with me some boxes of game...).

Of course, you have more people in a tournament when strong players don't play :D

Back in 2011 we had a discussion here about meeting and playing somewhere in Europe.

I once ran a tournament under the auspices of the Boardgame Players Association here in the US, but I ran out of money to keep doing it. Twixt could use a wealthy patron. For that matter, so could several other cool abstracts. I wonder, how much money would it take to increase the duration of the MSO and persuade them to restructure their system to put the focus back on serious abstracts? More money than I have at the moment.