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2015 witnessed a further series of Intervilles International which had
been running since 2005.
This year, five national teams competed over two rounds of six heats, with
national winners declared after Heats 6 and 12, with an International Final,
after which the year's biggest prize was awarded to the national team with the
highest aggregate score across all 13 events. Teams from France and Hungary,
fresh from their participation in the 2014 series, were welcomed back, along
with China and Kazakhstan, who had both last competed in Intervilles
International in 2013. The line-up was completed by competitors
representing Algeria, a country brand new to Jeux Sans Frontières-related
events. Teams were each composed of 30 players, and the team captains could
choose which competitors played which games.
The events were staged in China's Hainan Island, a
territory nicknamed the Chinese Hawaii. As in the 2014 series, the International Referee was Olivier Grandjean,
who again also presented the winners' trophy in each edition and the final.
The programmes were originally planned to be staged in the
period Saturday 18th April to Friday 8th May 2015, but plans were changed and
the recordings actually took place between Mondays 8th and 22nd June 2015. No
recordings took place on Sundays.
One welcome revision compared to previous seasons was that in
2015, the Champions' Wall event was altered to a points-scoring event rather
than a 'winner takes it all' game. This was a decision almost certainly
arrived at due to the Russian teams' almost complete domination of the
Champions' Wall in the 2014 regardless of the points totals they had amassed.
Scoring was, however, harsh, with no points awarded for teams
finishing in 4th and 5th place on any game. This was ameliorated very slightly
by an unusual approach to awarding points in the event of a tied placing on a
game, with the teams finishing below a tied
placing being designated as finishing in the position directly below, with the
points for that position awarded (e.g. a team finishing below a tied 1st place
was given as 2nd rather than the expected 3rd place).
Teams missed one game each, either Game 2, 3, 4, 5
or 6. In another diversion from the norm, it was possible for teams to choose
which game to avoid, and this choice would be made by teams after Game 1, with
the 1st place team getting the first choice, 2nd place second choice, and so
on. Consequently, Game 1 was a very important game, with its winners able to
absent themselves from the game they were least good at. |
