Art. 1 – Definition
The Swiss Gamers Award (hereafter SGA) and the Swiss Gamers Award Family (hereafter SGA Family) are distinctions awarded by the Ludesco association in partnership with the Swiss Federation of Toy and Board Games Libraries and the Swiss Game Museum.
The SGA and the SGA Family 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 names and logos “Swiss Gamers Award” and “Swiss Gamers Award Family” are the exclusive property of the Ludesco association.
Art. 2 – SGA/SGA Family 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 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 and SGA Family 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 and of the SGA Family by sending written reasons for this refusal.
A club, a gaming association or a game and toy library participating in the SGA vote or the SGA Family 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 is inferior to 8, the Swiss Gamers Award is not awarded. The same applies to the SGA Family.
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 the 31st of December of each year. 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 and SGA Family). 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 only in one of the two 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, in writing, its rankings to the Ludesco association.
Only one ranking per category (SGA/SGA Family) 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 points
SGA participants may choose to indicate less than three games in their ranking for each category.
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 it referenced on the websites www.boardgamegeek.com or www.trictrac.net as having been published in German, English, French, or Italian during the current calendar year. Moreover, any game that appears on the novelties list of the international games festival of Essen (Internationale Spieltage SPIEL) in the edition previous to the current calendar year, may be selected. A revised edition of a game that has already been nominated at the SGA in the past is not eligible. In the event that the Ludesco association decides to extend the consultation period beyond the calendar year, the games eligible remain exclusively those that were eligible during the initial consultation period.
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 and of the Swiss Gamers Award Family
The game with the highest total number of points in its category receives the Swiss Gamers Award or the Swiss Gamers Award Family.
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 or the Swiss Gamers Award Family. 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 and the Swiss Gamers Award Family.
The Swiss Gamers Award and the Swiss Gamers Award Family 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 and the Swiss Gamers Award Family.
Art. 7 – Contest for the participating clubs
During each edition of the Swiss Gamers Award and of the Swiss Gamers Award Family, the Ludesco association draws three SGA participants in a raffle who will receive a copy of one of the six nominated games.
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 and the Swiss Gamers Award Family are excluded.