Belgian Carcassonne League 2026
Introduction
When
Two times a year
Spring season: start 02/03 end 31/05 (Registration has ended)
Autumn season: start 31/08 end 30/11
Spring season: start 02/03 end 31/05 (Registration has ended)
Autumn season: start 31/08 end 30/11
Tournament
- 2 seasons per year
- one duel each 2 weeks
- Each league is played in a round-robin format: every player plays every other player once.
Master league will be 2 leagues of 6 participants, winner will be decided by cross finals.
Gold contender league between 6-8 participants (estimated ELO +400)
Silver surfer league between 6-8 participants
Possible a bronze League when enough participants
- All matches are: 1vs1, Best of 3 games (2 wins), Basic game of Carcassonne, In real time.
In case of a tie in a game, the player who did NOT start the game will be designated the winner.
- A full match schedule is generated after the draw.
- Results will be published at carcassonne.gg
- Players must agree on match time during each round and submit it.
Rescheduling is always allowed by mutual agreement.
This tournament will be played on boardgamearena.com and is organised by Carcassonne Belgium.
- one duel each 2 weeks
- Each league is played in a round-robin format: every player plays every other player once.
Master league will be 2 leagues of 6 participants, winner will be decided by cross finals.
Gold contender league between 6-8 participants (estimated ELO +400)
Silver surfer league between 6-8 participants
Possible a bronze League when enough participants
- All matches are: 1vs1, Best of 3 games (2 wins), Basic game of Carcassonne, In real time.
In case of a tie in a game, the player who did NOT start the game will be designated the winner.
- A full match schedule is generated after the draw.
- Results will be published at carcassonne.gg
- Players must agree on match time during each round and submit it.
Rescheduling is always allowed by mutual agreement.
This tournament will be played on boardgamearena.com and is organised by Carcassonne Belgium.
Eligibility and Requirements
- Each player must have the Belgian nationality or reside in Belgium and may not have participated in a National Carcassonne Online Championship, League or comparable tournament from another country during the same year.
- Each player must have an account on boardgamearena.com (premium or not). A player may only use 1 account for the BCOC and BCL (the player's main Carcassonne 2-player account).
- Each player must join the group Carcassonne Belgium on BGA
- Each player must register by filling in the registration form on our website or by sending an e-mail to [email protected] containing their:
- Each player must have an account on boardgamearena.com (premium or not). A player may only use 1 account for the BCOC and BCL (the player's main Carcassonne 2-player account).
- Each player must join the group Carcassonne Belgium on BGA
- Each player must register by filling in the registration form on our website or by sending an e-mail to [email protected] containing their:
- BGA-name (with indication of premium membership or not)
- Real name
- Mail address (the players’ e-mail addresses will only be used to keep the players informed about the championship and other Belgian Carcassonne tournaments).
- Nationality /Postal code + municipality/city
- Each player agrees that their games can be live-streamed and commented on
- Each player agrees that their real name can be mentioned by game-streamers and that the name of the winner will be published on the website
- Each player is expected to play all of their duels
- Each player agrees that their real name can be mentioned by game-streamers and that the name of the winner will be published on the website
- Each player is expected to play all of their duels
League placement for Season 2026
The league placement in the first season will be decided by the organisational committee, based on peak ELO in 2025 till 15/02/2026.
If you don’t agree with this initial setup and want to play in a higher or lower league, you can always send a mail to [email protected] to convince them, in case of doubt we can organise some qualification duels.
Final decision will be taken by the Belgian Carcassonne League organisation.
Once the competition has started, no further changes are allowed.
In the following seasons, the leagues will be determined by the promotion and relegation rules.
Players that didn't participate in the previous season will start in the lowest division with following exception. Players with a peak ELO of 600+ in the previous year (spring season) or current year (autumn season) can start directly in the gold division, same applies for 500+ ELO players, they can start in the silver division.
If you don’t agree with this initial setup and want to play in a higher or lower league, you can always send a mail to [email protected] to convince them, in case of doubt we can organise some qualification duels.
Final decision will be taken by the Belgian Carcassonne League organisation.
Once the competition has started, no further changes are allowed.
In the following seasons, the leagues will be determined by the promotion and relegation rules.
Players that didn't participate in the previous season will start in the lowest division with following exception. Players with a peak ELO of 600+ in the previous year (spring season) or current year (autumn season) can start directly in the gold division, same applies for 500+ ELO players, they can start in the silver division.
Match Scheduling & Reporting Results
All players will play one duel each 2 weeks. A round-robin format is used: every player plays every other player once. The standard setting for a duel is a 3-game real time swiss-tournament with a 15-minute clock for each player.
Shared document: Shared Agenda & Results (Google Sheet)
Scheduling your duel: (Date & Time) As soon as both players agree on a date and time (via BGA chat), one of the two players must enter the duel schedule in the shared Google Sheet.
You need to add the date/time in the corresponding column in this format : DD/MM HH:MM (02/03 19:00), look at the Belgium time to see if it is correct (UTC correction)
Shared document: Shared Agenda & Results (Google Sheet)
Scheduling your duel: (Date & Time) As soon as both players agree on a date and time (via BGA chat), one of the two players must enter the duel schedule in the shared Google Sheet.
You need to add the date/time in the corresponding column in this format : DD/MM HH:MM (02/03 19:00), look at the Belgium time to see if it is correct (UTC correction)
Reporting the result: When date time is correctly added, the results will be picked up automatically.
When you are not able to fill in the scheduled date or you notice a wrong result send an e-mail to carcassonnebelgium@hotmail.com with the results and the BGA tournament URL link.
When you are not able to fill in the scheduled date or you notice a wrong result send an e-mail to carcassonnebelgium@hotmail.com with the results and the BGA tournament URL link.
Group Classification
Players will be ranked according to the following parameters in the following order:
- Number of duels won
- Difference between games won and games lost.
- Result of direct confrontation(s)
Group standings can be found and will be updated regularly on this website. Rules on this website are always leading!
- Number of duels won
- Difference between games won and games lost.
- Result of direct confrontation(s)
- Number of duels won
- Difference between games won and games lost
- Games won
Group standings can be found and will be updated regularly on this website. Rules on this website are always leading!
The Winner
Each season the two master league group winners will play a duel with the normal tournament settings (bo3, swiss) to determine who becomes the 'Belgian Carcassonne League Season Champion'. Both finalist are rewarded with a spot in team Belgium for the next World Team Carcassonne Online Championship (WTCOC).
Starting from BCL 2027, the BCL Season Champions will also be rewarded with possible spots 2 and 3 for Belgium in (the qualification round) in the next Carcassonne Champions League. Rank for these spots will be decided in the following order:
Result of direct confrontation(s)
Starting from BCL 2027, the BCL Season Champions will also be rewarded with possible spots 2 and 3 for Belgium in (the qualification round) in the next Carcassonne Champions League. Rank for these spots will be decided in the following order:
Result of direct confrontation(s)
- Number of duels won
- Difference between games won and games lost
- Result of the last confrontation
Promotion & Relegation
After each season :
- Promotion: 2 first players of their league promote to the higher league.
- The last 2 players of a league are demoted to the lower league. Regarding the master league, this means the last player from each group.
- Depending on how many new players enter the division in a new season, the number of players that promote/demote can be higher than two. This will be announced at the beginning of the season.
Duels setup with premium player(s) involved
It is allowed to start a duel immediately after contact if both players agree to this (you will have to put in a starting time though). If both players are premium one of them sets-up the game. If only one player is premium, that player will have to set-up the game.
Duel set-up:
The standard setting for a duel is a 3-game real time swiss-tournament with a 15-minute clock for each player.
In tournament mode, the initial player does not necessarily change for each match of the duel, therefore it is possible that the same player starts the 2 or 3 matches of a duel.
If the duel is decided after 2 games, the 3rd one doesn’t have to be played (and will not be considered if played).
Players can both abandon that game.
The option to abandon a game is available by pressing the menu icon (three horizontal bars) near the top right corner of the game window. If one player selects this option and the other agrees, the game is abandoned.
In tournament mode, the initial player does not necessarily change for each match of the duel, therefore it is possible that the same player starts the 2 or 3 matches of a duel.
If the duel is decided after 2 games, the 3rd one doesn’t have to be played (and will not be considered if played).
Players can both abandon that game.
The option to abandon a game is available by pressing the menu icon (three horizontal bars) near the top right corner of the game window. If one player selects this option and the other agrees, the game is abandoned.
Create a tournament
Go to play now, and tournaments
At the bottom of that page select Carcassonne and push the button create tournament.
Select Swiss system in the next screen.
Select Swiss system in the next screen.
Adjust general settings:
- Choose Closed tournament
- Open to players of the group: Only invitation
- Change Number of players to 2
- Change Number of games to 3
- Real Times setting / 30 minutes (15 min per player)
- Set registration opens: as soon as possible
- Set the date begin
- Name Tournament: Name of Player 1 – Name of Player 2
- Name championship: BCL 2026 spring season
Finish by clicking on Publish
Press the incription button in the next screen , you are added to the tournament
send the tournament invitation link to the other player, using the bga chat so he can also join.
Press the incription button in the next screen , you are added to the tournament
send the tournament invitation link to the other player, using the bga chat so he can also join.
*Very important: Both players have to register before the starting time of the tournament!!!
If a duel starts with a wrong tournament set-up, it must be cancelled and a new tournament will have to be set up. Both players have to check if the settings are correct! Duels not played according to the right set-up will have to be replayed.
If you are having problems with setting up a tournament, see “Duels with no premium players involved”.
If a duel starts with a wrong tournament set-up, it must be cancelled and a new tournament will have to be set up. Both players have to check if the settings are correct! Duels not played according to the right set-up will have to be replayed.
If you are having problems with setting up a tournament, see “Duels with no premium players involved”.
Duels with no premium players involved
If none of the 2 players has a premium account, they will have to contact tournament organiser N2xU through boardgamearena.com or send an e-mail at least 24h before the start of their duel.
A private tournament will be set up for both players involved, starting at their agreed date and time.
*Very important: Both players have to register before the starting time of the tournament!!!
A private tournament will be set up for both players involved, starting at their agreed date and time.
*Very important: Both players have to register before the starting time of the tournament!!!
Additional tournament rules
The help of any kind of tool is not allowed!!! (No scripts, no computer applications, no taking notes on paper…). Help through hints or in any other way from other people during the match is also forbidden. All players have to play their games on their own. A player caught using tools, will be expelled from the competition. If still in the group stage, all results of matches already played by that player will be disregarded.
Discarded Tiles. During a game, if a player can’t legally play their tile, the BGA platform automatically discards it at the beginning of their turn, and the player receives a new tile. The other player, however, does not see this. Although a subtle note is added to the game log, it is not part of the game play, so we ask that you inform your opponent (via the chat window) whenever you discard a tile.
If a player exceeds the allowed game time, the player who runs out of time should concede and loses the game. If that player does not concede the game he must be reminded to do so. (Note that each player’s clock sometimes differs slightly from the server/log clock during a turn, but the time remaining is re-sync’d after each turn.) If there is any doubt, or players do not follow the procedure described above, a player is considered to have run out of time if there is a red “time penalty” clock visible below their name when viewing the results after the game. If both players run out of time during a game, then the first player to run out of time loses the game.
For fair play reasons, we request that all games are finished except in the case described above.
Note that if a player runs out of time during a game, it’s a loss for the game (not the entire duel.)
If players do not reach an agreement about date + hour.
- Please send an e-mail if you don’t get a response from the other player.
If a duel cannot be played due to the absence of one of the two players, the player that has not shown up will lose the duel. Once a tournament starts, there’s about a 5-minute window in which player have to enter before it is automatically finished.
There are no real pauses in between games. There’s about a 5-minute window to enter a next game before the tournament is automatically finished!
Sanctions
Players who fail to show up for a duel or who are not respectful to their opponents (harassment, taunting, abusive language in chat or private messages) will get a warning. After the second warning you will be expelled from the competition. All results of matches already played by that player will be disregarded, this with the following exception: if the annullement of the results of his matches have an impact on the order in the group and the expelled player has played his duels against all these players involved, the results of these matches will be nonetheless taken into account to determine the order.
Expelled players or players that abandon the competition during a season may be suspended to play in later editions.
The tournament organisation may investigate, warn, penalize, or disqualify players.
The tournament organisation reserves the right to revise, clarify, or adjust the above tournament rules during the tournament, but this only after approval of the independent referee.
Who do I contact if I have any concerns or questions regarding the tournament?
For any questions, please send a mail to [email protected]
Finding your tournament game once it has started.
If you don’t see the game invitation bar as expected, first try refreshing your screen. Note that the invitation bar is never visible when you are at a game table (i.e. spectating or playing a game), and will not reappear if you are disconnected from BGA after the invitation bar has appeared and before following the link. There are several ways to find your game if you believe it has started but cannot find the invitation:
1. If your opponent has already joined the game, you can navigate to your opponent’s profile page and find their status: “Online Playing now at:” with a link to the Carcassonne game table (indicated with a blue arrow in the figure below). A similar link appears on your own profile page once you have joined the table.
If you don’t see the game invitation bar as expected, first try refreshing your screen. Note that the invitation bar is never visible when you are at a game table (i.e. spectating or playing a game), and will not reappear if you are disconnected from BGA after the invitation bar has appeared and before following the link. There are several ways to find your game if you believe it has started but cannot find the invitation:
1. If your opponent has already joined the game, you can navigate to your opponent’s profile page and find their status: “Online Playing now at:” with a link to the Carcassonne game table (indicated with a blue arrow in the figure below). A similar link appears on your own profile page once you have joined the table.
2. Send a personal message to your opponent and ask them for the link (if they have already joined the game)
3. Find the game listed at the bottom of the tournament page.
4. Sometimes you can find a link to your game in your list of ‘Games in progress’ available via an icon near the the top right corner of your window, or from your profile page.
3. Find the game listed at the bottom of the tournament page.
4. Sometimes you can find a link to your game in your list of ‘Games in progress’ available via an icon near the the top right corner of your window, or from your profile page.
