Any suggestions on how to run a tournament?

[tatoolo]

Well, I've committed myself to running a SW tournament in September at TABScon in Toronto...it's a while away, but the TABScon head dude wants people to commit to running tournaments early, so I said I'd do it. He wants some details soon regarding how I'll run it, and I figured I'd ask you all on input.

I anticipate allowing decks as per the rules, with reinforcements for those factions which have them (as opposed to free build). How long should I allow for matches? What should I do if two players aren't done at the end of that time? How many matches do you think is reasonable to declare a winner? Has anyone considered having "sideboards" for players' decks, so that they can swap in different commons and champions in different matches based on the matchup, or should players use the same deck the whole tournament? Does anyone know if PHG provides prizes, promos, boards and the like for prizes?

Thanks for any feedback and suggestions.

[Sauam]

Tatoolo, this is awesome, where will this tourney be?

I will sure join if its local and I am sure I have a few friend ready to compete by then, I am training them hard as of late. Will master set be out by then?

ps: we need to play at meeple soon time

[tatoolo]

The September TABScon will be on the 17th of September, held at the Agricola Finnish Lutheran church at 25 Old York Mills Rd, at the York Mills subway station. It will run from 9AM until 9PM. I would have run it at this June's TABScon, but if I wait until September, then the Master set and cloak/jungle elves reinforcements will be out.

[killercactus]

I really like the Swiss format for tournaments. For 8 or fewer players, you can do a 3-round Swiss tourney with each round being the best of 3 games. For more than 8, I'd suggest a 4 or 5 round Swiss tourney with 1-game rounds.

Swiss just randomly pairs players in the first round, and then pairs players with the same record for each subsequent round. Usually, one player is left undefeated, though it can vary based on the number of players and rounds you have.

If you do a best of 3 games per round tourney, I think sideboards are a decent idea. I'm not really a fan of them otherwise, and I think you should have to start with your standard deck at the beginning of each round. However, the cool thing about tournaments is you can vary the format of each one. One of my personal favorite variants is the GenCon tournament where you have to play a different faction each round.

As for the time limit, I think Colby nailed it with Chess Clocks. If a couple of people have smart-phones or iPads, there are free Chess Clock apps out there that we used for our last tournament. I found 25 minutes per person to be a good time limit, though you could probably do 20.

[Codeman]

How long should I allow for matches? .

An hour was a good limit .... if all your players have experience at this game the round will probably end in 40-45 min on there own.

What should I do if two players aren't done at the end of that time? .

If you can do the chess clock thing that worked well. person who uses the least amount of time wins the tie-breaker.

How many matches do you think is reasonable to declare a winner? .

If you only 5 or 6 people you could do round robin. That would be one round less than the number of people have. If you have at least 8 then I like swiss however 8 people would only be 3 rounds but with a few more it could push it 4 rounds... at 16 players you would have at least 4 rounds, 32 or more that would be at least 5 rounds.