For a gathering of old friends, there's Heroic Fishing, the St. Petersburg M-200, the Siberian Championship, and so on. But the CIS Championship is primarily a sporting event. If it continues to be turned into an alcohol-fueled party, in a year or two, when real-life allows, I will organize the CIS Championship in a format of "only players + no alcohol + no poker." Let's not let it come to that. The method of counting votes – for example, the one Van suggested – seems fine to me. With multiple choices, of course. The desire of non-playing "old friends" to lobby for a significant weight to their vote is understandable, but it shouldn't be taken into account.