In case "inquiring minds want to know," here is the breakdown from 6/30:

Field: 20

House Breakdown:

- Baratheon x2

• Maester's Path; Val
• Knights of the Hollow Hill; Val

- Greyjoy x 5

• Kings of Winter; Fear of Winter x2
• None; Fear of Winter
• None; Fury of the Kraken x2

- Lannister x4

• Power Behind the Throne; Fear of Winter
• Power Behind the Throne; Castellan of the Rock
• None; Castellan of the Rock x2

- Martell x1

• Knights of the Hollow Hill; None

- Stark x 2

• Knights of the Realm; Narrow Escape x2

- Targaryen x6

• Knights of the Hollow Hill; Fury of the Dragon
• Knights of the Hollow Hill; None x2
• Maester's Path; Narrow Escape x2
• Heir to the Iron Throne; Fear of Winter

With 20 players, a cut to Top 8 is too much (40% of the field makes the finals? really?), but a cut to Top 4 seemed lacking. So, we cut to Top 6 cut - with 1 & 2 getting a "buy" in the first elimination round - which was announced and agreed upon by all players before starting Swiss.

After 5 rounds of Swiss, the Top 6 standings were:

1. Zach Bunn (Targ, KotHH, Fury of the Dragon)
2. Ben Terpstra (Targ, KotHH, None)
3. Brett Stefanski (Bara, KotHH, Val)
4. Kevin Thatcher (Targ, Maester's, Narrow Escape)
5. Brian Gerken (Bara, Maester's, Val)
6. Kevin Tomczyk (Lanni, None, Castellan)

Elimination round #1: Brett beats Kevin Tomczyk; Kevin Thatcher beats Brian

Elimination round #2 (semi-finals): Kevin Thatcher beats Zach, Brett beats Ben

Final round: Kevin Thatcher beats Brett

Thanks to all who came out to play. It was a great day of gaming.

Yup that's right, 1 Martell and 2 Stark. Chi-town bucks the norm!

Ok, before this trend becomes official I have to say something…

It's a "Bye", not a "Buy"!

Seems I get yelled at, no matter which spelling i use for that….

These are probably confused with each other more often through haste than through actual ignorance, but “by” is the common preposition in phrases like “you should know by now.” It can also serve a number of other functions, but the main point here is not to confuse “by” with the other two spellings: “’bye” is an abbreviated form of “goodbye”(preferably with an apostrophe before it to indicate the missing syllable), and “buy” is the verb meaning “purchase.” “Buy” can also be a noun, as in “that was a great buy.” T he term for the position of a competitor who advances to the next level of a tournament without playing is a “bye.” All others are “by.”

Fieras said:

I always used "bye," until someone on these boards scoffed and said "buy." I didn't care enough to look it up, said "whatever," and switched on the boards - the only place I ever use the term in this context. If those with more bracket/playoff knowledge than I say the correct term is "bye," cool. I'll take your word for it and switch back to what I assumed was correct to begin with.

That makes sense since getting a bye is good. (Ok it's Friday morning and I don't want to be at work)

-Goshdarnstud

Da Wolf Pack said:

ktom said:

~ Well, what the vendor failed to mention was that the buy would totally shoot up your SOS, so I'd say you got screwed over. Caveat Emptor!

Eh, all I ever post is complaints. Might as well keep up the trend!

That and I don't want some snobby M:TG players being like, "Oh AGoT, what's that? Wtf, 'Buy'?!?!?! Those guys are morons…"

mdc273 said:

Nah, that's fine. Myself, I'm totally OCD about things like that. If I had noticed this earlier, I'd have been all over ktom for this.

Not all byes are good, remember. If you get a bye in a tourney that has an odd number of people, it usually destroys your SoS.

But if you win enough, your strength of schedule doesn't matter.

I find it funny that the only thing there is to talk about coming out of this regional is the correct spelling of the word "bye." No controversy or drama at all! I guess that means we either run a really smooth, or really dull, tourney in Chi-town.