For example, I don't think I've ever been to one which does elimination rounds, no matter how many players are there. Swiss ordering wins it.

There's actually a good argument to be made for running Swiss-only, although I do sort of prefer the Swiss-plus-cut format for pacing and tempo reasons.

What is sort of indefensible, to me, is taking a relatively well-ordered set of players and then saying (as the current guidance from FFG's Organized Play apparently does) "eh, screw it, you also have to run three more rounds of single-elimination". The point of those extra rounds isn't to identify a champion, since five rounds of Swiss for 32 or fewer players will have already produced at most one undefeated player. The point also can't be to confirm that the leading Swiss player is the "real" best player, since single-elimination is the worst possible format for doing so.

To be fair the only tournament format I have ever experienced (it was Yugioh, I love the game but I just fell out of it as it's not balanced like X-Wing is) was 6 rounds of Swiss and then top 8 playoffs. So it's fairly standard.

start at 1030 end at 1900, awards 1910, store close at 1930

ok with 90 min for each round they have time for 5 rounds of swiss, this is enough to get 32 ppl down to 1 undefeated player with plenty of time to spare, I honestly dont see a problem at all

Theres actually even time for an hour food break in there to

The problem with not having a top cut, is that you are effectively one and done. Lose one and you have no chance of winning the event so you may as well play single elimination. At least with a well structured cut (it should realistically be top 25%), you can have one loss (and sometimes two) and still win the event.

Who closes at 7:30? My kids don't even go to bed that early on a school night.

A lot of stores close at 730 in my area, especially game stores. The reality is that most people play during the day, but at night, on a friday or saturday, most people just vacate the stores. at least thats the way it is here, YMMV

The store I game at closes at 9, and another store in the area .. an icon... closes at 6.. but they dont do tourneys..

I'm at the the store on Tuesdays and fridays, and depending on the people there, I'm there until close or possibly 5 or 6..

The expectation is that the rules are meant to be standardized across all events, as they have the function of providing Byes for the next events. So on and so forth. Venues that deviate shouldn't get further events, without prior approval.

Now mind you that is how it should work but there is a logistical issue with SCs reaching certain levels of attendance. And adhering to the event guidlines.

Wow,

Well I am/was the TO for this event.

We had 26 entrants (which means that 4 rounds swiss cut to top 8 was FFG legal) from 3 states (7 cities/areas), would've been 4 but one guy got delayed and missed out.

We started registration at 0900, paired off around 0937, and time started at 0945-1045 rd.1, rd.2 went from 1105-1205, rd. 3 went from 1225-1325. Lunch until 1410. Paired off, and time started again at 1420-1520. Then we made the cut, got them paired up and time started at 1535-1645, semi-finals began at 1705-1805, (both matches were over in around 40 min) so we started the final at 1800, and I told both players we would play for as long as we could (No time limit on the finals, but still had to leave at 1930 store close).

The game went until around 1917hrs (if it would have ended in 60 mins. player B would have won, but because we were playing "until", the other player fought back and won it.).

A few thoughts/ suggestions/ replys:

***This is a Store Championship, and as I want as many as we can squeeze in the store, I also have the thought that it should be someone "from" the store/area who wins it. That is why next year, we will cap the event (probably at 26-32players), and post it in the store only' for the first week. Then I will post it to the facebook page, and other facebook pages in the area to fill out the remaining spots. I travel a bit to other areas for competitions too, and know that I "brought this upon myself" for recruiting from other areas, but I think this will at least put my mind at ease about that part. This also goes for the time. Most of our tournaments start at 1100, but this one we had to start early, as there was no one to stay late. Usually one of the guys from the store, will clear his schedule a bit, and stay open a "little" latter. They could not do that this time, so WE could not do that this time.

***As a player there are thing that you can do to make my job easier in the future:

* At the beginning of the tourney, turn in your squad list, receive whatever papers I need to give to you, then go and assemble your squadrons with every thing you need to play.

* When I pair you off, find a table, swap list, determine who has initiative, set up asteroids, set up ships. After that you can discuss anything else you want. (movie trailers, ship builds, the smell of that one guy....whatever you want)

* At the end of the match, the winner should turn in his match report sheet, then both players should clean up your table, have everything ready to move. Then, if there is time left , you can walk around to other tables, or anything else you want to do.

* During this time I will be entering in the data from said sheets, and getting the pairings from the next round, and announcing those pairings.

***Note that in the above description it says that "time started" not "the round began". As the TO, I yelled out the pairings, let them get to a table, and gave them 7 or so minutes to "set up". I would also give a "two-minute " warning saying that time was about to start. Then I would tell them "x-wingers, you have one hour, Begin". I can't/won't give you all the time in the world to set up, if there is a situation bring it to my attention (stalling, broken parts, ect. then we will deal with it.).

All in all, I think everyone had a good/fun time, and after all isn't that what we are really playing for.

They are opening at 9:30. They're expecting 30+ people, so I'm guessing start time around 10:30.

Ya that's cutting it very close. It's going to cause some sort of tom foolery with the final matches. Assuming it even starts at 10:30 and not say, 11:00 and if its all 60 mins, and food break, and time for parings etc, and with that many people there will always be games going to time (especially at 60 mins) there's just no way. And that's with the 5 swiss top 8 of below 33.

Our store championship yesterday, with 60 min rounds, 20 players (about 4 dropped by the 3rd or 4th round or so), no actual food break just ordered pizza, and a very well run event with quick turn arounds between rounds took just under 12 hours from literrally the first die roll to the final one.

The tournament this thread was started over did actually finish in the time available. 26 players showed up, and were registered in less than 40 minutes. 4 rounds of Swiss produced a very nice break down of players for the cut to top 8:

1. 4-0 20 TP(lost 1st round of the cut to 8th seeded player who went on to finish 2nd)
2. 3-1 15 TP (went on to become champion, only loss was to 8th seed in 1st round of swiss)
3. 3-1 15 TP (lost to 6th seed)
4. 3-1 15 TP (lost to 5th seed)
5. 3-1 15 TP (lost to 8th seed in Top 4)
6. 3-1 15 TP (lost to 2nd seed in Top 4)
7. 3-1 13 TP (lost to 2nd seed)
8. 3-1 13 TP (ended up 2nd, and if the final match had been timed to 60 mins would have won it all
9. 3-1 13 TP (missed the cut, in only loss was tabled by eventual champion, which really hurt his MoV)
10. Everyone else had two or more losses, including myself who basically lost my first 3 matches by 1 hp (Deci, Deci, YT) :-(

Any lists we can see from this?

The lists will be added to the List Juggler eventually (i.e. in the week or so). Almost every player had a large ship of some variety in their list (lots of YTs & Decis, some shuttles & firesprays), and I was one of the exceptions with a "tanky" swarm (4x Scimitar Squad & 3x Academy Pilots). Champion was double YT-1300 (Chewy & Han), second place was Han & Z's. I think both of them beat YT-2400 builds in the Top 4 games.