Future tournament - I think 4 people are too much for two reasons:
1. It is much more difficult to arrange the match.
2. Only 12 Provinces is too small when there are 4 skilled players.
The divisions should be geographic (people from same time zone will likely has time in the same period). I think the best system would be a single-elimination tournament, where only 1 of 3 players advances. Two pointing systems comes to my mind:
1. Winner gets 2 points, the second 1 point and the third nothing (in case of tie, the points are divided). The first to reach x points advances to the next round. Main disatvantage: Can happen that one of the players loses even a theoretical chance to advance and may ruin the games after that (not playing them/not playing them seriously).
2. Winner gets a point, in case of tie, every player that won gets a point. The first one to win x games advances to the next round. Main disatvantage: 3rd place and 2nd place are the same (which doesn't seem right to me, so I would prefer the first system).
Not completely unrelated idea (I don't wanna start a new thread for this) - Who about we make a match "Big Money vs. Engine"? We choose a captain for both teams, players will sign up to one of the teams, captains will pick their rosters (maybe some conditions about level or country?) and let's see which philosophy wins!
Maybe there should be also a test for those who don't know which side to choose...