WBC Middle Earth
Pre-Con 2012 War of the Ring Tournament
Last Update 4/11/2012
As the event listing indicates, the format this year will be single elimination with a mulligan round on Saturday at 9am, and the full tournament starts on Sunday at 7pm with Round 1. The logistics of how that works will be anyone who wins their heat on Saturday morning will be able to skip the first round on Sunday night and start playing again at the 2nd round on Monday morning at 9am. Please confirm that you will be playing in the single elimination tournament if you win in the Mulligan round. The first round of the single elimination starts Sunday night at 7pm, arrive early to setup and get signed in. Anyone who does not play in the mulligan round or who lost in the mulligan round would be required to start in Round 1 on Sunday night at 7pm to be in the tournament.
The tournament will be a continuous bracket single elimination format. So once games are completed and the next pair of opponents have won, they can start their next game for the next round right away so hopefully less waiting. My goal is to aim for 4 hours to complete each game and plan to get in 3-4 rounds on Monday depending on the amount of players who sign up for the tournament. So the rough schedule of start times each round will be:
Mulligan: Saturday 9am
Round 1: Sunday 7pm
Round 2: Monday 9am
Round 3: Monday 1pm-ish ( varies due to lunch break )
Round 4: Monday 5pm-ish ( varies due to dinner break )
Round 5: Monday Night ( if 8+ undefeated players still exist or interest is
there )
The final will then be played Tuesday at some point, assuming only 2 participants are left by Monday night. If 4 are left, then the semi-final round will start at 9am Tuesday and the Final would be Tuesday at approximately 1pm. Obviously is some games run long, the tournament will only be able to progress as quick as the slowest result, so some games for next rounds might start sooner than others and some varying delays between rounds might happen if other games run quick and their upcoming opponent games run long. Please check in with the GM if you plan on leaving the area for dinner or a break so you know when to be back for the next round so additional delays are not incurred.
4 hours 50 minutes after the round start times will be a hard adjudication time. So if you want more time to play your game, arrive earlier with a copy and have it setup before the round start time. Due to the single elimination format, ultra slow play could cause the whole tournament to shift out of balance, so I will be adjudicating at the 4 hours 50 minute mark. From previous history, only 1 or 2 games have actually dragged on that long and mostly due to lack of familiarity with rules of play that caused rules lookup delays and circular strategies. The vast majority of games have completed in less than 4 hours.
The expansion game is the default version that will be used, but due to the single elimination format, if two individuals want to play the base game or 2nd edition game instead they can. However if one person wants to play the expansion, then that is the game which will be played.
Logistics of pairings:
Saturday morning stand alone Mulligan 9am: Any family members, team members or noted frequent yearly opponents will be not playing against each other in the mulligan round. Just make sure to inform me during sign up of such situations and I will split up the piles of signees appropriate. Other than that, the round will be completely random because it is a mulligan round.
Round 1 Single Elimination Starts Sunday 7pm: Any family members, team members or noted frequent yearly opponents will be not playing against each other in the 1st round. Just make sure to inform me during sign up of such situations and I will split up the piles of signees appropriate.
Round 2 Monday 9am: I think I will go with a twist. Starting in the 2nd round I will have a list of all the winners from the Mulligan and winners from round 1. So I believe to start Round 2 I will have a bracket available for the amount of winners to start off the continuous single elimination. So I am thinking it will be a draft your bracket spot. Each winner will be randomly selected and when selected they can seed themselves into a bracket location. Once everyone is seeded, the games begin till there is only one winner left!
Eliminators will be used in the final rounds to avoid byes if necessary. 1st. Gm. 2nd. An Asst. Gm. 3rd. Most wins who lost but is willing to play an additional game.
See everyone at the end of July!
Kevin Wojtaszczyk
WoTR GM