The weakest link in the chain is also the strongest. It can break the chain.
---Stanislaw Jerzy Lec
Notes:
1> This is what I came up with when I went to design a "Simple" tournament... yes, I'm a freak.
2> This tournament is open to Freemium players. There will never be more than one game at a time per player. Although they should all move moderately well, be prepared for some downtime.
3> You can sign up individually or in teams. Individuals will be assigned to teams on a first-come, first serve basis. If the final team is incomplete, and a full team attempts to join, I regret that the individuals making up the last team WILL be bumped for the complete team.
Format: 8 teams of 4, Competing in games varying in size.
To keep things moving, all games will be Standard, RANDOM MAP, Automatic Deploy, Escalating Spoils, Chained Fortifications, Casual, Sunny.
The 8 teams will be seeded by the total points of the team when I update the post, ONCE THE TOURNAMENT IS FULL. Standard bracket, 1v8, 2v7, 3v6, 4v5. Each round, after the prior round is COMPLETE, I will re-rank all remaining teams according to their THEN CURRENT point totals.
1> One game will be played in each match with the above settings.
2> The team that loses the game will have their HIGHEST-RANKING player IN THE GAME PLAYED eliminated for the remainder of the current round.
3> The two teams will meet again, in the highest-possible game size remaining between the teams (The highest-ranking players on the larger team, while not eliminated, will sit out the game... this tournament is about glorifying your WEAKEST links - Note that in such a case, those players could be eligible for future games as their second and third weakest players, then playing, are disqualified).
4> Repeat steps 2 and 3 until one team is entirely disqualified. That team loses the match and is eliminated from the tournament. The SUCCESSFUL team has all four of it's players restored to eligibility, and advances to the next round of the tournament.
NOTE: The game links I'll be sending out will have very specific directions. Should a game have eliminated or "sitting" players who have joined it in error, despite specific instructions to the contrary, that team will forfeit the game in question, with appropriate penalties. Further, at that time, I shall STOP including players violating that restriction who aren't in the games in PM, making it harder for them to find the games and cheer their teammates on. I'm trying to foster some team spirit here, try not to mess it up.
Players will have 4 days to join games. A reminder PM will be sent after approximately 36-48 hours, to players not joining. 96 hours after the initial PM, or 48 hours after the reminder, whichever is later, players not having joined a pending game will be disqualified from the round.
**Players who drop from the tournament or site will NOT be replaced... that team will just have to continue, starting each round with only 3 (or fewer) eligible players**
As such, Reserves will NOT be used in this tournament. A team is quite capable of continuing with only 1 member... They would just have to potentially win 4 1v1 matches to advance.
Questions will be gleefully accepted.
[spoiler=Example of eliminations]Team 1:
Abbie - 2350
Bert - 2250
Charlie - 1800
Dave - 1600
vs.
Team 8:
Eddie - 2200
Frank - 2100
Gabby - 1900
Harold - 1350
Game 1: Quads: Team 8 wins. Abbie Disqualified.
Game 2: Trips: Bert/Charlie/Dave vs Frank/Gabby/Harold, Eddie sits out. Team 8 wins. Bert Disqualified.
Game 3: Doubles: Charlie/Dave vs Gabby/Harold. Eddie and Frank sit out. Team 1 Wins. Gabby, highest ACTIVE player on team 8, disqualified.
Game 4: Doubles: Charlie/Dave vs. Frank/Harold. Eddie sits. Team 8 wins. Charlie Disqualified,
Game 5: 1v1: Dave vs Harold, Eddie and Frank sitting out. Team 1 wins, Harold Disqualified.
Game 6: 1v1: Dave vs Frank, Eddie sitting out. Team 8 wins. Dave Disqualified. Team 1 Eliminated, Team 8 advances, with all 4 members restored.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Rationale-Origin-Ramblings]I prefer league-style formats to bracket eliminations. However, I started toying with the idea of a quick-ish bracket tournament, and this resulted, when I started thinking about what kind of penalty a team might incur for losing a match, other than elimination. At first, the inclination was to allow the team to choose who to lose, or to 'lose' the weakest player... but that might actually STRENGTHEN some teams, which was contrary to what I wanted. That led to thoughts of "the Weakest Link", the Television show, and then the above quote, which fits the theme perfectly.
Also, this was conceived and written in about 20 minutes, further reinforcing my self-identification as a 'freak' above.
--Much credit to [player]amazzony[/player], for spotting a weakness in the elimination procedure, since fixed.[/spoiler]
