Well something that I've been working on, as I discussed with a few people already, is an unofficial tournament organizers kit of sorts, in PDF format, for easy download. Part of my thinking is that not all TO's have a computer/laptop at their disposal when running games and I wanted to put something together that could be used for recording/tracking a tournament with a pencil and paper. If anyone wouldn't mind looking over what I've got for the tournament report/match list so far, and let me know if you think it's lacking anything/could be improved and let me know, I'd appreciate it.
You can find it right hereAs it is right now, it's setup to accommodate 20 players and 4 rounds. I intend to make an additional match list for up to 10 players and 6 rounds as well... but I'm wondering if accommodating 20 players is a bit of overkill. The way I see it, if you have 20 people in your playgroup,
someone should have access to a laptop, at least, and the TO should be able to run the tournaments using the DCI software. I know, however, that as soon as I make the decision to knock it down to 10 players (as an example) that someone will ask for a version that accommodates more.
Also, I wanted to put a single page guide with this document, explaining how to pair people off against one another, and how to determine placement in the event of a tie. So I tried it out this weekend and, while pairing people off against one another wasn't a problem, we ended up with a 3-way tie (3 players each having won 3 of 4 matches). So I used a sort of "strength of schedule" formula to determine placement. I assigned each person 1 point for each match won, then I chose each of the three tied players and came up with a score based on the players that they each faced. For example:
Player A - 3 wins - 3 points
Player B - 3 wins - 3 points
Player C - 3 wins - 3 points
Player D - 2 wins - 2 points
Player E - 1 wins - 1 points
Player F - 0 wins - 0 points
If player A faced off against players B, C, D, & E, player A would have a "strength of schedule" score of 9
If player B faced off against players A, C, D, & F, player B would have a "strength of schedule" score of 8
If player C faced off against players B, D, E, & F, player A would have a "strength of schedule" score of 6
Everyone was satisfied with those results, and placement was simple enough to determine. However, when I plugged the match results into the DCI software at home it gave a very different set of results. 1st place winded up in 3rd place while 2nd and 3rd place winded up in 1st and 2nd respectively.
I don't know what kind of voo-doo math the DCI software uses to determine placement, but my formula obviously isn't it. And you might have noticed that, had things gone slightly differently, we could
still have ended up with two players tied for 1st place.
So any input that anyone is willing to give, in determining placement in the event of a tie, would also be very much appreciated.
Dean, since I'm home all day every day, and I can whip together forms/cards/posters with relative ease, feel free to send me what you've got as well and I'll see what I can throw together for you.