9
« on: September 06, 2012, 04:12:12 am »
Thanks for all these comments and contributions. I live in the UK and have not seen much about Dominion Tournaments here, and certainly not much in the South-West [perhaps we have been disctracted by the Olympics and Paralympics this year]. However, on a recent holiday to the Netherlands [where we managed, incidently, to buy Intrigue and SeaSide [both Dutch versions] and Prosperity in German, adding to our French Hinterlands and our English all the other sets] I took a notebook and started working out how a tournament with 9, 10, 11, 12 and so on competitors might work. I agree with several of you that a good tournament needs a mix of 3, 4 and even 2 player competitions. One of the nicest is to have a number of players divisible by 9 ... then you get the first three rounds randomly allocated and no-one need play another player twice in those three rounds. I wasn't sure if 5,3,1 or 6,3,0 should be used. I like the 6.3.0 then you can use 6.4.2.0 for 4 player games and have the same winning score. Good for a mix of 3 and 4 in the same round.
If you are playing with multiples of 9 you can pre-select cross fertilsation across the groups of 9 ... I must admit that it can get very addictive ... working it out ... it's good fun.
After those 3 rounds ... continue with a sort of Swiss round [it helps to balance the results across the board when the randomness didn't quite get it right in the first 3 rounds]. Swiss in this context would play the top 4 [so far] against each other ... then the next 4 and next 4 and so on. Yes ... moving to 4 player games. If the numbers don't add up ... then adjust with a subtle mix of 4 and 3 [but concentrate on the 4 at the higher end of the rankings].
For the 5th round ... seed the players ... as mentioned before [by whatever means ... ] but on 4 players per table.
After this round you have a set of results from which to pick your semi-final table and so on down the listings.
The top 4 after this 5th round ... play against each other and the top 2 then play a final for overall 1st and 2nd. The next 2 play for 3rd and 4th place ... and you may wish to continue to the 5th and 6th play off ... Perhaps you are running a sequence of tournaments and the lower positions matter [cf F1 racing pts].
Then I thought ... but above all, what is important in all this is, that the players enjoy their playing and that it doesn't just get to be a set of tournament rules being enacted [this was part of our sermon at church on Sunday just gone ... Mark 7 vv6-8] ... it sort of rang true.
So I wrote down some ground rules.
- Enjoyment of the players
- the opportunity for the best overall player on the day to be the winner
- to play Dominion largely as it was designed [ie for 2 - 4 players] ... I know you can play with 5-6 but I'm keeping it simpler for my mind to cope with.
- Enjoyment of the organisers and without too much hassle [not sure of spelling ... or is it hastle].
So 5 rounds then semis and then finals ... or cut it shorter if need be. With only 12 players ... I would do a round of 3x4p then a round of 4x3p then a Swiss and then seeded ... then into Semis [4p] and Final [2p]
Just a thought ... but above all Enjoy.