Why not just simply run this like all the other events at GenCon?? 4 Rounds of Swiss, and then at the end of it, the top undefeated teams get a certain prize, and then the teams that are 3-1 get something lesser. There should be only 2 teams at 4-0 after 4 rounds. I know last year the prizes were really awesome and required the face-off between the two teams. If that's going to be the case again this year, then perhaps plan to do the team face-off on Saturday evening after the Championships?
I think changing the start time at this point is going to be tough to do. Right now, the 100 point tourney for the Jedi Challenge starts at 3pm, leaving only 5 hours between the start of that and the start of the Team Tournament. I know the 100 point tournies are supposed to go faster, but honestly, SOMEONE always drags them out to the time limits. Plus, the schedule has already been set.
Jason, the key is just going to be in getting things moving QUICK. People need to be signed up BEFORE the 8pm slot. Try to track down team members earlier in the day and get them to fill out their squad sheets. Or even have them fill out the sheets during the first round of gaming. Set a 60 minute time limit for the round, and let that include all of the team's setup time as well. When you announce the pairings, give people like a minute to find their spot at the tables, and then announce that time is starting and they will have 60 minutes. Then you leave it in the team's hands to figure out their matchups quickly, get set-up, etc.
With either the plan you had last year, or this new idea you've proposed, you're looking at 5 rounds of gaming for the last two teams. I kind of like the idea of the cut to top 4 in order to let some people go home to bed a bit earlier.
What if you have 4 divisions, with each one having up to 8 teams. That gives you enough space for 96 players total. Then you do 3 rounds of Swiss, which would allow each division to end up with 1 clear winner after 3 rounds. Take those top 4 teams and run your 2 rounds of single elimination to get a final winner.
If you have less players, you could go with 3 divisions of 8 teams each (72 players total), then the top 4 can be from the 3 undefeated teams, and then a 'wild card' slot for the team with the next team on the list with the best record (should be easy to make a composite of all the scores and see that sort of result). I could probably help put together something for you to use for score keeping that would allow you to do this.
The only trick with this sort of set up is making sure you don't end up with an odd number of teams in two different divisions. So it might be possible that one division would have 8 teams, while the other two only have 6. As with any event, obviously it could be possible to even have something like 8, 7, and 6, so that one division has a bye each round. But that kind of stuff you might have to deal with no matter what system you went with.
So, looking at last year's event, we had what, 21 teams, right? So you could break that down into divisions of 8 teams, 7 teams, and 6 teams. Or you could do 4, 5, 6, and 6, which is honestly not that much different from your original plan.
Honestly, I think this tournament SHOULD run a bit smoother and faster than last year as well, just simply because we've done it once before, so most everybody knows in general how it's going to work. There should be less confusion about how to figure out the matchups and stuff like that too.
_________________ -Aaron Mand'alor "You either die a hero, or you live to see yourself become the villain."
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