Announcement – Planet Kubb

YouTube No Longer Supporting RSS

Yesterday Planet Kubb’s feed aggregator (we use rawdog) started getting errors when retrieving data from YouTube.

Feed:        http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/base/users/wikubb/uploads?orderby=published&v=2
HTTP Status: 410
The feed has gone.
You should remove it from your config file.

YouTube deprecated v2 of their API and is forcing everyone to use v3. The new version of the API requires users to authenticate (no anonymous requests anymore) and only supports retrieval of JSON data. There is no RSS support. The Planet Kubb aggregator is an RSS aggregator, and without RSS support we can no longer retrieve new videos from YouTube. The FAQ for the new API says:

I rely on using the GData API (v1 or v2) for RSS/Atom feeds of YouTube videos. Do I have any alternative once they’re deprecated?

At this time, there is no direct alternative. We recommend providing your application’s users with the ability to manage and retrieve their YouTube subscriptions using the methods of the YouTube Data API v3’s subscriptions service.

This is disappointing. Not supporting RSS is not supporting a more open web. We have no intent to develop a workaround to use the v3 API’s. If a free service becomes available to turn the v3 APIs into RSS we would gladly use it to add YouTube back to Planet Kubb, but that doesn’t exist.

What now? How can you get Kubb videos online and syndicated through Planet Kubb? Use Vimeo! Vimeo supports RSS feeds for channels, and there is a Kubb channel. If you add a video to Vimeo, and put it in this channel we will get it share along. Vimeo has a nicer user experience and you can rid yourself of YouTube comment trolls at the same time.

Register for the 2014 Planet Kubb Club Championship

The Nyland Sack Trophy has been living in Chaska for a year. Will it move to Des Moines, Eau Claire, Minneapolis, or will it remain in Chaska?

In 18 days Kubb players from around the country will be converging on Eau Claire, Wisconsin to participate in the 2014 US National Kubb Championships! For the second year ever, we will also be awarding the Nylund Sack Trophy to the Kubb Club that wins the Planet Kubb US Kubb Club Championship! If you missed the details on how this works see the writeup on the points system.

Registering your club for the 2014 Planet Kubb Club Championship is as easy:

Just Pay Garrick: Register for the 2014 Planet Kubb Club Championship

In the description field, enter:

the name of your kubb club
the teams (minimum of 3) that will represent your club

The deadline to register and identify the three teams that are representing your Kubb Club is midnight July 11, 2014.

Planet Kubb Scoresheets Now Available as a Book

Ever since Jamie and I started working on the Planet Kubb Scoresheets we wanted a spiral bound book of them. In addition to keeping the scoresheets together, it’s a great way to document your team’s development and become a student of the game.

In addition to the current scoresheets (with stats), the book also includes the full Planet Kubb Notation and a guide to the game notation and an example from an actual U.S. Championship game.

Get 15% off by purchasing before the 2014 U.S. Championship is over – $8.50 ~~$10.00~~ plus shipping & tax.

If you’ll be attending the 2014 U.S. Championship, find Jamie and me – we’ll happily sign your copy.

Buy the 2104 Planet Kubb Scoresheet Book @ Lulu.com

New Planet Kubb Scoresheet Now With On-Pitch Stats

Back in the summer of 2012, Jamie and I developed the first Planet Kubb Scoresheet, we had just 1 competitive tournament under our belt and were walking into our first US Nationals. While we knew the rules of the game (this time!) and a primitive version of the Game Notation, we didn’t yet know what the important statistics were (sure, “wins” but those are still pretty scarce for us).

A year later, with the 2013 Nationals and a few more tournaments in the rearview mirror, Jamie and I were discussing the key metrics for a Kubb team as well as some revisions to the scoresheet. What numbers separate elite teams from backyard players? What numbers separate elite teams? How can a team measure improvement even if they’re not yet winning?

We identified 3 key metrics:

Efficiency %: What percentage of the field kubbs are toppled with the first baton throw? (High numbers indicate a strong Inkastare/Blaster relationship)
0B@T# (Zero Base Kubbs at Throw Number): How many batons are needed to clear the 8m baseline? (Low numbers indicate how aggressively a team clears the field. 5 is the lowest possible number).
Hit %: What percentage of the batons knock over something? (Elite teams are >50% ).

These 3 metrics effectively capture the significant elements of the game (inkast/blast, 8m, and overall accuracy). Each kubb team has a different mix of these skills. For example, here’s the numbers for 3 top teams from the 2013 Nationals Final rounds:

Team	Eff %	0B@T#	Hit %
Kubbiscles	49	17	61
King Pin	51	18	52
Team Knockerheads	58	18	62

From this you can see 3 very different kinds of play.

The Kubbsicles get to 0 Baselines slightly faster on average than the other 2 teams and they’ve a very strong Hit %. Their lower efficiency suggests a great blaster isn’t required to become National champs. Contrast that with second place finisher King Pin, their lower Hit % indicates that blasting is what took them deep into the bracket. The Knockerhead’s numbers really speak to how successful they were at all the 2013 tournaments and how a team this strong can still have an off match.

We’ve completely reworked the Planet Kubb Scoresheet (and turned it sideways!), moved team roster to it’s own section (which removes an always awkward start of match problem with who starts first), and added a section at the bottom to easily calculate these 3 metrics while on the pitch.

Earlier this week I field tested the Scoresheet+stats in a solitaire match. My performance in those 2 games:

Team	Eff %	0B@T#	Hit %
G1	33	26	68
G2	58		62

Check out these PDFs to see the stats section in action; Garrick’s Field Test #1.pdf and Garrick’s Field Test #2.pdf.

From this you can see the side that cleared baselines won despite not being as efficient at clearing field kubbs. Calculating theses stats provides a sense of completion lacking from the previous 9 versions of the Scoresheets. I’ve always discouraged scoring in practice matches. With this new Scoresheet, I’ll likely change my position.

Download the New Planet Kubb Scoresheet with Stats

Announcing the kubb-l mailing list

Using the just announced Planet Kubb Mailing List service Planet Kubb has setup a generic kubb player mailing list called kubb-l. This list is intended to be a general discussion mailing list amongst Kubb players around the world. You can sign up on the kubb-l mailing list page. Enjoy!

While you are at it, there is a PlanetKubb-l mailing list as well that is general discussion about Planet Kubb specifically. Sign up for that one while you are at it!

Chaska Kubb Club Wins 2013 Planet Kubb US Club Championship

Congratulations to Chaska Kubb Club, the winners of the inaugural 2013 Planet Kubb US Club Championship!

Chaska Kubb bested Berserker Kubb, Des Moines Kubb and Minnesota Kubb to win the 2013 Planet Kubb US Club Championship.

Des Moines Kubb and Minnesota Kubb hit hard times early in the club championship. Both clubs entered Sunday with only 4 points, and were mathematically out of the running. Both Des Moines and Minnesota had only one team of their three still in the bracket, and both had mirror records for their other teams with one collecting a single point, and the other collecting no points. To make matters worse, Des Moines’ Team Knockerheads would face Minnesota’s Tad Kubbler first thing, assuring that one of the clubs would be stopped at 4 points. (see Team Knockerheads v. Tad Kubbler match)

Meanwhile, the competition was intense between Berserker Kubb and Chaska Kubb Club. Berserker Kubb also only had a single team left, the Kubbsicles, but they got more support from the other two teams (Dark Side of the Kubb and Team Kubboom – The Fusilade) who contributed 3 points versus the 1 that DMK and Minnesota got. This put them only a single point behind Chaska Kubb, but they would need to win everything and Chaska would have to get the minimum number of points possible for them to win.

Chaska Kubb Club was the only club to have two teams playing on Sunday, unfortunately for them they were playing each other in a King Pin v. Pack of Snipers battle first thing. (see King Pin v. Pack of Snipers match)

Sunday morning started with Minnesota and DMK out, and Chaska needing to get 2 wins to clinch it while Kubbsicles would need to win it all and hope Chaska only got a single win. With King Pin facing the imposing Team Knockerheads in the semifinals it was anyone’s guess, but King Pin threw amazing batons and struck with deadly accuracy and prevailed. (see King Pin v. Team Knockerheads match)

Congratulations to Chaska Kubb Club who will now host the Nylund-Sack Trophy until it is up for grabs at the 2014 US National Championship!

The final standings for the 2013 Planet Kubb US Kubb Club Championship were: Chaska Kubb Club 10, Berserker Kubb 9, Des Moines Kubb 5 and Minnesota Kubb 4.

@PlanetKubbLive Tweeting Final USA Kubb Championship match!

This Sunday as the top two teams in the country take Pitch 1 in Eau Claire Planet Kubb will do a first-ever live play-by-play broadcast of the match using Twitter! You may already be following @PlanetKubb on Twitter to get updates from around the world about Kubb. We have now created a second @PlanetKubbLive account that we’ll be using for this, and possibly future live events. You’ll need to follow each one separately!

So, how will we be tweeting live play-by-play? We will be using the Planet Kubb Notation system. This is the same system we use to record games on the pitch and with videos. We will be transmitting the text of each turn in real-time from the pitch. Read up on the notation on the Planet Kubb Wiki. You’ll see tweets that look like

4. j:5i2r b:2f b:3f j:- j:b c:b c:-

That means it was turn 4. Player “j” is the inkastare and he threw in 5 kubbs and had to rethrow 2. Player “b” hit 2 fields on the first baton, then 3 fields on second baton. Player “j” missed and then hit a baseline. Player “c” hit a baseline and then missed. Find more details on the notation page.

To our knowledge this will be the first live broadcast of the play-by-play of a game on Twitter. The notation, and these tweets, will be intended for a global audience so commentary will be kept low so people can follow the game regardless of language.

Register for 2013 Club Championship Now!

In approximately a month Kubb players from around the country will be converging on Eau Claire, Wisconsin to participate in the 2013 US National Kubb Championships! For the first time ever, we will also be awarding the Nylund Sack Trophy to the Kubb Club that wins the Planet Kubb US Kubb Club Championship! If you missed the details on how this works see the writeup on the points system.

Entering your club in the Club Championship is as easy as sending an email! Send an email to

register@planetkubb.com

and in it indicate the name of your club, the person who will represent the club and the team names of the three Kubb teams that will represent your club in the championship. There is a $45 fee for the club to enter (easily dividable into $15 per team) that is payable in-person at the National Championship (check-in with Garrick or Jamie at the championship). The deadline to register and identify the three teams that are representing your Kubb Club is July 7, 2013.

We can’t wait to see you all on the pitch and to see who will be the first Kubb Club to host the Nylund Sack Trophy! They will display it with pride, until next year, when it will be up for grabs again!

Introducing the Nylund Sack Trophy

The first kubb set I played on was handcrafted by Garry Sack over in Wausau, Wisconsin. He’s been working and turning wood for the multiple decades I’ve know him. I’ve long admired his work and have 2 of his gorgeous wooden bowls in my house.

He was the first person I asked to create the traveling trophy for the Planet Kubb Club Championship. He brought in Lonnie Nylund to assist and they created custom tools to get some of the detailing.

The stunning result, the Nylund Sack Trophy, is a loving cup comprised of cherry, walnut, and maple atop three miniature kubbs representing the three teams from the winning club.

The trophy is perfectly proportioned with Kubb King.

It is a phenomenal piece with details that you continue to discover long after looking at it. Notice the three bands echoing the three teams of the winning club.

Supported by three miniature Kubbs. The Kubb Club that wins the Planet Kubb US Kubb Club Championship will get to take this trophy home for the year. It will return each year to the pitches of Eau Claire to be defended, or leave to spend the next year with the new top club. Will your club host the Nyland Sack Trophy for the next year? Register for the 2013 Planet Kubb US Kubb Club Championship!

Scoring Details for Planet Kubb US Kubb Club Championship

Several months ago we announced the Planet Kubb US Kubb Club Championship. Just to reiterate the basics of how this will work:

Kubb club captains will register with Planet Kubb to participate in the championship. You must register to be eligible to win.
Kubb club captains will identify three Kubb teams that will collect points for the Kubb club. Kubb clubs must have exactly three teams that represent them.
The Kubb team captains must agree to represent the Kubb club that picked them (club picks the teams, teams confirm the pick).
A Kubb team can only represent one Kubb club.
The Kubb club’s captains and the Kubb team’s captain must be in the same state (Minnesota Clubs represented by Minnesota Teams, Iowa Clubs represented by Iowa Teams). It is fine if there are members of a team that are not in the same sate, as long as the captain is.

So, how will the scoring work? Let’s dive in a bit.

Clubs will accumulate points through the teams that represent them. A club will get one point for each match win, or bye, that a team receives in the championship stage of the tournament. There will be no points rewarded during the round robin, and no points will be awarded in the consolation bracket.

Let’s take an example. The Kubbanoids go 3-0 in the round robin, they get a bye into the round of 32 teams in the championship bracket (+1 point). They win the match in the round of 32 (+1 point, total 2 points). They win again in the round of 16 (+1 point, total 3 points). They lose in the round of 8 ending their dreams. The Kubbanoids will deliver 3 points for their club.

The Kubbaddicts are playing for the same club as the Kubbanoids. They go 1-2 in the round robin and have to play into the championship bracket. They win that match (+1 point, 1 total point) and proceed to the round of 32 where they lose. They bring 1 point to their club, taking the club to a total of 4 points.

Then the final team for the club, the Kubbicks, win it all! They get a bye (+1 point), win in the round of 32 (+1 point), win in round of 16 (+1 point). They blow away the team in the quarterfinals (+1 point), win the semifinals (+1 point) and win the championship (+1 point)! 6 points for their club.

Club Metropolis has 10 points in the competition.

If at the end of the competition multiple clubs have the same number of points, the club with any single team that has gone the furthest in the tournament will receive the win. In the unlikely scenario that a tie remains, the club who’s teams had the fewest losses will win.

The trophy will be awarded on Sunday at the US Championship. The trophy will be awarded to the club captain and that club will keep the US Kubb Club Championship trophy until the following US Championship when it is up for grabs again!