I haven't opened our kit yet, but the FFG OP Guide is very clear that the store gets to decide the tournament format. Swiss is the recommended format, but even that is only up to the point where the organizer decides to start running elimination rounds.

FWIW, our tournament will be Swiss.

Is this the OP Guide to which you refer? Regardless, this document does clear state the although Swiss style is preferred, the TO is free to choose the tournament format.

Yep, that's it.

The Store Championship kit just has a single sheet that basically refers you to the OP rules on their site. The tournament doesn't have to be Swiss.

I ran 4 rounds of Swiss at my FLGS, and it turned out great! We had 24 players (double what the store employees told me to expect), so I had to do some quick shuffling around. I was greatly aided by one player who had just moved out here from Texas, and brought 4 of the GF9 mats. Combined with the 4 mats my brother and I brought, we had most players playing on some purty surfaces (thanks for the help Kevin!). After 4 rounds of Swiss, we only had one player with 4 wins (all full Wins). Places 2-4 were all 3 Win players, with order determined by Strength of Schedule. Worked great, and we had lots of players swapping emails at the end of the event, so I think that's a win for everyone!

I almost wonder what's the difference between running a full single-elimination tournament vs. running a few rounds of swiss before cutting to a top 4 or 8 and then having single elimination from there.

I know the BIG difference is the "LUCK" factor is ratcheted all the way up as there is no recovering from one bad game. How to seed the tournament could also be debated.

See below

I haven't opened our kit yet, but the FFG OP Guide is very clear that the store gets to decide the tournament format. Swiss is the recommended format, but even that is only up to the point where the organizer decides to start running elimination rounds.

FWIW, our tournament will be Swiss.

Is this the OP Guide to which you refer? Regardless, this document does clear state the although Swiss style is preferred, the TO is free to choose the tournament format.

Yep, that's it.

The Store Championship kit just has a single sheet that basically refers you to the OP rules on their site. The tournament doesn't have to be Swiss.

I ran 4 rounds of Swiss at my FLGS, and it turned out great! We had 24 players (double what the store employees told me to expect), so I had to do some quick shuffling around. I was greatly aided by one player who had just moved out here from Texas, and brought 4 of the GF9 mats. Combined with the 4 mats my brother and I brought, we had most players playing on some purty surfaces (thanks for the help Kevin!). After 4 rounds of Swiss, we only had one player with 4 wins (all full Wins). Places 2-4 were all 3 Win players, with order determined by Strength of Schedule. Worked great, and we had lots of players swapping emails at the end of the event, so I think that's a win for everyone!

As written by elfholme one major difference is the experience you are offering to the participants: instead ofpossibly/likely only getting to play 1 match before being eliminated, all players are guaranteed at least X numbers of Swiss Rounds. Granted, some players will likely end up way down in the standings after a couple of games, but beside 1 incident I/we here in Copenhagen haven't experienced anyone dropping out even though their winning chances had long gone. Instead most people take it as a learning experience and actually enjoy the buzzing atmosphere