Art. 1 – Definition
The Swiss Gamers Award (hereafter SGA) and the Swiss Gamers Award Family (hereafter SGA Family) and the The Swiss Gamers Award Expert (hereafter SGA Expert) are distinctions awarded by the Ludesco association in partnership with the Swiss Federation of Toy and Board Games Libraries.
The SGA and the SGA Family and the SGA Expert are awarded to the board games that have been declared « Best Game of the Year » following a consultation procedure conducted with Swiss players that participated in the nomination via clubs, gaming associations and game and toy libraries established in Switzerland.
The SGA Family aims at rewarding games that can be played with children.
The Swiss Gamers Award Expert aims at distinguishing the best new games offering strategic depth and complexity particularly suited to a knowledgeable audience.
The names and logos “Swiss Gamers Award”, “Swiss Gamers Award Family”, and “Swiss Gamers Award Expert” are the exclusive property of the Ludesco association.
Art. 2 – SGA/SGA Family / SGA Expert Participants
Any club, gaming association, or game and toy library established in Switzerland may participate in the nomination of the SGA and of the SGA Family and of the SGA Expert by addressing a request to the Ludesco association.
Provided it has regular activities and a significant number of members, a gamers’ group may ask to participate in the appointment of the SGA, the SGA Family and the SGA Expert even if it is not formally constituted as an association.
The Ludesco association may refuse the participation of a club, of a gaming association or of a game and toy library to the nomination of the SGA, the SGA Family and the SGA Expert by sending written reasons for this refusal.
A club, a gaming association or a game and toy library participating in the SGA vote, the SGA Family vote or the SGA Expert vote is called « SGA participant ».
The SGA list of participants is published on the Swiss Gamers Award website (www.swissgamersaward.ch).
If the total amount of votes registered for the SGA, the SGA Family or the SGA Expert election is inferior to 8, the award is not assigned.
Art. 3 – Functioning
The consultation led by the Ludesco association and the Swiss Federation of Toy and Board Games Libraries of the SGA Participants ends on January 15th following the year in which it began. The Ludesco association may decide to extend this consultation period.
Each SGA participant ranks from one to three of its players’ favorite games for each category (SGA, SGA Family and SGA Expert). These games must be the favorite games of their players among all eligible games as defined in Article 5 of this regulation.
An SGA participant may choose to participate in one, two or all three categories.
Each SGA participant is free to use any method and criteria it wishes to establish its rankings. Ideally, SGA participants should establish their rankings by taking into account the opinions of as many members as possible.
Each SGA participant appoints a contact person responsible for providing its rankings to the Ludesco association through an online form.
Only one ranking per category (SGA/SGA Family/SGA Expert) per SGA participant is accepted.
Art. 4 – Attribution of points
Each game on an SGA participant’s ranking receives points according to the following scale:
Best game: 3 points
2nd best game: 2 points
3rd best game: 1 point
SGA participants may choose to nominate less than three games in their ranking for each category.
An SGA Participant may elect the same game in different categories.
Art. 5 – Eligible games
Only games that can be played autonomously (without purchasing additional equipment) can receive points. A game extension is not eligible unless it can also be played autonomously.
Any game is eligible, as long as its first edition in German, English, French or Italian is referenced on the websites www.boardgamegeek.com as having been published during the current calendar year. Moreover, any game that appears on the official novelties list of the international games festival of Essen (Internationale Spieltage SPIEL) in the edition previous to the calendar year during which the consultation has begun, may be selected. A revised edition of a game that has already been nominated at the SGA in the past is not eligible.
The Ludesco association is responsible for controlling that the games nominated by the SGA participants are eligible in compliance with the present regulations. If a SGA participant mentioned a non-eligible game, the vote given to that game is canceled. The other games mentioned by the SGA participant receive the number of points corresponding to their placement in the ranking.
Art. 6 – Attribution of the Swiss Gamers Award, the Swiss Gamers Award Family and the Swiss Gamers Award Expert
The game with the highest total number of points in its category receives the Swiss Gamers Award, the Swiss Gamers Award Family and the Swiss Gamers Award Expert.
In the event of a tie between several games within the same category, the game that was nominated by the highest amount of SGA participants in that category receives the Swiss Gamers Award, the Swiss Gamers Award Family or the Swiss Gamers Award Expert. In the event of a new tie, the game with the highest number of first places within the same category receives the distinction.
A game may appear in both the Swiss Gamers Award, the Swiss Gamers Award Family and the Swiss Gamers Award Expert.
The Swiss Gamers Award, the Swiss Gamers Award Family and the Swiss Gamers Award Expert are purely honorary distinctions.
The authors, publishers and distributors of the winning and nominated games may freely refer to the distinctions, particularly in their advertising campaigns, by using the name and logo of the Swiss Gamers Award, the Swiss Gamers Award Family and the Swiss Gamers Award Expert.
Art. 7 – Contest for the SGA Participants
During each edition of the Swiss Gamers Award, the Swiss Gamers Award Family and the Swiss Gamers Award Expert, the Ludesco association draws three SGA participants in a raffle who will receive a complimentary game from the Ludesco association.
Any appeal concerning this draw is excluded.
Art. 8 – Litigation
In case of any difference between the French, German and English versions of these regulations, the French version prevails.
Any appeals concerning the attribution of the Swiss Gamers Award, the Swiss Gamers Award Family and the Swiss Gamers Award Expert are excluded.