I searched through the tournament rules but I can't find any guidance on how to record the score when a player gets a "bye" in a tournament with an uneven number of players. For our inaugural event at Your Local Game Store in Matthews NC last night we had NINE players (a great turnout for a random Thursday night) and so we had a bye each of our three rounds.

In the absence of an official rule, I decided the bye was worth 6 prestige since you are considered to have won the match. But this ended up being a bit too strong, I think. Is there an official policy?

There is no official policy that I can find, that might be a good question to sling at the Rules Query Form.

Though, the question did come up and was/is being discussed at http://boardgamegeek.com/article/11445463#11445463

Thanks, I'll go ask in the rules forum as well.

Did you ever get an answer to this?

I had byes in my tournament that I ran a few weeks ago. I gave the 6 prestige, but there is nothing to add to 'strength of schedule' and no agenda points would be scored etc. As a matter of fact, I see a bye as hurtful for a strong player to get first round of a tournament, but it does but them in the 'winners' bracket.

Giving the bye to the lowest ranking player keeps them in the game a bit. Have you found a final/official ruling?

I know there is now an offical answer but they way I do it is. If I am the TO I will drop or play to make the numbers even. I have also played where everyone got the same number of byes. It added more rounds but it seemed more fair then giving someone 6 points.

Lindorm said:

Generally, byes are scored as the best possible win - 6 Prestige Points and 20 Match Points, because to do so otherwise cheats the player out of the opportunity to score 6 PP/20 MP.

I'm still surprised Lukas hasn't fixed the rule allowing the TO to play in his own tournament, though -- you need two secondary TOs in case the TO ends up playing against their backup.

when i emailed FFG they said give them 6 prestige