The tournament will have 64 players minimum, split into 8 groups of 8 each.
Each group will play 4 rounds - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger - and each round will have 3 games, so everyone gets 12 games.
Players get points in each round, and those points are tallied up in a standard scoreboard.
The top 4 from each group will go to the next stage, making it 32 players.
We repeat this procedure again to get it down to 16, and once more to get it down to 8 - the final round.
The top 4 of the final round get premium prizes - 1st 12 months, 2nd 6 months, 3rd and 4th 3 months
Ties on the scoreboard are decided by a 5-game series of 1v1s - 2 maps chosen by each player (non-Freestyle), 1 map chosen by yours truly - Waterloo, Sequential, No Cards, Chained, Foggy.
Round 1 - Harder
Played on some of the hardest maps on CC, a round where strategists can shine!
- Maps - Waterloo, Rail Europe, Pearl Harbour
Standard, Sequential, Escalating, Foggy, Chained
The good ole 'who got knocked out when' method. Knocked out first means you finish 8th, win the game you finish 1st.
Round 2 - Better
Normal maps, normal rules, abnormal scoring. Win, or suffer at the hands of the winner!
- Maps - Europa, Soviet Union, Charleston
Standard, Sequential, Flat Rate, Sunny, Chained
Winner automatically comes first, and decides who comes second. Second place then decides who comes third, and so on all the way down to 6th place who decides the wooden spooners (they both get 1pt). That's right folks - favouritism can play a part in this round.
Round 3 - Faster
Do damage as quickly as you can, winning doesn't matter.
- Maps - Iceland, Malta, North America
Terminator, Sequential, Flat Rate, Sunny, Chained
First player to eliminate someone else comes first, and the eliminated player comes 8th. Next eliminated player comes 7th. As for the player making the elimination, if they are not yet placed (ie - not 1st), they come 2nd. If they are already placed, 2nd is still up for grabs. Wash rinse repeat.
Round 4 - Stronger
If you don't win, you'd better hope you have lots of armies left!
- Maps - Conquerman, Poker Club, King of the Mountains
Assassin, Sequential, Escalating, Sunny, Unlimited
Winner comes first. The 2nd through 8th place is worked out by totalling the number of armies each player has left at the end of the game. Loser with the highest amount of armies comes 2nd, next highest 3rd, and so on. The eliminated player obviously comes last with 1pt. (See below for ties)
SCORING
Each game has a clear structure of who came 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc with the exception of Round 4 games. If players are tied on armies at the end of those games, they both place the same, and the next player places one lower. eg - 2 players finish on 12 armies at 3rd place, the next highest player has 11 armies and finishes in 5th (as there are 2 on 3rd).
Points are distributed using Fibonacci numbers, that is, next number is both the previous added together. So 1st place gets the same amount of points as 2nd and 3rd added together. 5th place gets the same amount of points as 6th and 7th added together. You get the picture
1st - 21pts
2nd - 13pts
3rd - 8pts
4th - 5pts
5th - 3pts
6th - 2pts
7th - 1pt
8th - 1pt
Scoring range for a single player over the four rounds (ie 12 games) is 12 points minimum, 252 points maximum. An average score is about 81 points.
PRIZES, ENTRY, AND PLACEMENT
(Final group of 8 only!) Overall winner gets 12 months premium, second place gets 6 months, third and fourth place both get 3 months.
Freemiums welcome to join, but if you can't join a game within a 3 day window, you automatically come last in that game, and a 7 player game is made instead. Miss 2 games in a row, or 3 games all up, you get replaced. So try to keep 1 slot open at all times for the tournament.
All three games for a round will be mailed out at once, but if a freemie is low on slots, they need only join one game. The other games will be waiting there, but must be joined as soon as the first game is finished, in order to expediate the tournament.
If entries come flooding in (which they might being open to all and having premium prize) I will up the maximum entrants to 64 from 32, and have a 4 stage tournament. If they really come flooding in, I will increase to 128, and have a three stage tournament, with only the top two going through from each group each round.
Players will be assigned randomly into the groups. Yes folks, the same type of random that applies to the dice, so complain if you must, but I will have none of it
Foe lists of course must be switched off.
Shennanigans (excessive swearing, secret diplomacy, multis in the tournament or outside of it) will see you get the bottom end of my boot to your behind. The farmers that I loathe so dearly are indeed welcome to join, but I'm not going to rest until all of you are busted, and if you're busted while my tournament is ongoing, you're out
CAVEAT
Rules subject to change before tournament begins. Basically, if there is a problem / exploit with the scoring system (aside from the favouritism of Round 2) then I may have to fix it up. If a problem is discovered during play... well... too bad. Hell of a thing to say, but that's the way it's gonna roll folks, I can't change the rules halfway through, that wouldn't be fair.
But I'll try anyway 
In..If I can get past those first 3 maps then it'll be a Hail Mary pass like you won't believe. I may just have the WORST map rank on those maps but I'm all for trying.
