SFR, Inc.

[cliffwiggs]

so... we have a constructed multi-player event at Gencon this year. the games will all be either 3, 4, 5 player based on how many people show up.

I want to set expectations on the pairings and scoring...

I assume we would do something like what I suggested before:
- last man standing (ie michigan) gives you 2 pts.
- two 8ths give you 2 pts.
- one 8th but lost gives you 1 pt.
- no 8th, gives you 0 pt.
- being eliminated gives you 0pt.

then each round we just pair the top players into the groups that chuck had suggested, tending towards more groups of smaller players.
(http://sfr-inc.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=2652&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=20)

so the best play the best.

The only thing I don't know how to do is resolve two people playing each other multiple times. Obviously you don't have the same 3 people play each other again and again, but do you force no one to be in a group with the same person more than once?

Pi, since you will likely be the organizer for this event what is your opinion?
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Multiplayer Champion Gencon11/Battlefest Champion(tied) GenCon10/World Champion GenCon07/National Champion Origins05/Intermediate Champion GenCon02/Novice Champion Origins99

[marwyn_blackstar]

At our local shop we did a 8 player tournament and did it like this.

Round 1
Table 1 four players > Winner goes on to finals table
Table 2 four players > winner goes on to finals table

Round 2
Table 1 three players > winner to table
Table 2 three players > winner to table

Semi Finals
Table 1 four players > first player eliminated/or lowest remaining health removed

Finals
Three remaining players for the win.

[cliffwiggs]

that is certainly a valid format and similar to what we used to do when we had 20 people playing in worlds.

Unfortunately Gencon requires me to indicate if we are playing an elimination style event and I had to tell them that players get to play in every round for the duration of the event.
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Multiplayer Champion Gencon11/Battlefest Champion(tied) GenCon10/World Champion GenCon07/National Champion Origins05/Intermediate Champion GenCon02/Novice Champion Origins99

[piMaster]

I don't know if five-player games would work well at GenCon.

1- Space issues: You'd have three people on one side and two people across from them. Say the third person has an army at the first person's home terrain. That's a long reach to get to your army, you can't walk around the table to get it, and we don't like to have people touching other people's dice.

2- Time issues: Each player you add increases the amount of time you need to get in x rounds of play. We've played five player games regularly at our meetings. If each person takes four to five minutes for their turn, then that's two or three rounds an hour. In a tournament, each game would be what, an hour? I don't think anyone would win in three turns.

If there were five players, then I think a 2/3 split would be better. With less than six players, it would basically be round robin anyway. Or were you thinking that if less than six, then just do best two out of three?

[cliffwiggs]

As the head judge for the event, its your call once you see how many people show up. I just wanted to get everyone thinking about it in advance.

5 minutes per turn sounds like a lot... three maybe if you had a big magic action and just couldn't make up your mind.

We said that every round would be multiplayer, but I guess you could either play or not play to bump it from 5 to 4 or 5 to 6(3+3)

In the head2head events we force people to never play the same person twice. I guess in this case you just can't do that.
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Multiplayer Champion Gencon11/Battlefest Champion(tied) GenCon10/World Champion GenCon07/National Champion Origins05/Intermediate Champion GenCon02/Novice Champion Origins99

[piMaster]

[cliffwiggs]

[dburkley]

If you are concerned about time being a factor for your multi-player event, you could consider these options:
1. Limit magician dice, such as 25% or even no magician dice. That can minimize heavy magic actions, which often require time to calculate the spell combinations desired.
2. Limit players per 'table' to 4. Less time to complete a full round.
3. Restrict 3 and 4-health dice to either "Constructed Starter" format, or a "Sealed Starter" format, or 25% of the army's health, or no 3 and 4-health dice at all. Minimizes or eliminates SAIs (and the time to look them up and decide what order they will resolve).
4. Change the game a little bit, such as with Victory Conditions (or Loss Conditions). One example could be if a player loses his Home (an opponent claimed the 8th Face), the player has one turn to change the Home terrain off the 8th Face or they are out of the game. A second example could be whoever claims the Frontier 8th Face wins automatically. Got to be careful with this, or unintended side effects may occur - so I would consider this as a last resort.
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Daniel Burkley
US National Champion (DEXCON 2007, 2009, 2010)
World Champion (GENCON 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014)
Battlefest Champion: DEXCON 2008, 2011, GENCON 2009, 2010 (co-champion), 2011, 2017)
"No Magicians": GENCON 2008
"Single Race": DEXCON 2008, GENCON 2010, 2011, 2014 (co-champion), 2017