Thank you, I need all the help I can get to make this tournament take off.
http://www.printyourbrackets.com/12teamdoubleelimination.html
this is the bracket I used. good? Bad? I will read your links. Thanks a bunch
I checked the 13-player bracket and it looks fine. It seems they have done the seeding and cross-placement correctly.
You should check the cross-placement yourself. The idea is that losers in the upper bracket shouldn't all go to the upper half of the one-loss bracket because that way they will have to play someone they have played before. Instead alternating rounds of losers should go to the upper and lower halves. In addition for large brackets you have to worry about whether they go to the upper half or lower half of the one-loss bracket. They probably got all of that right, but it's good to check.
Here's an alternative format that you might call mini-qualifier with buybacks. It's all played single elimination, but you can get back in:
You draw into groups of four as soon as you have 6 players present. Each group plays straight through to make one winner for the "final bracket". You continue to start mini groups of four until you run out of signups. If a player is eliminated, he can get back in for another entry fee. The only limit on re-tries is whether you have other people who want to get in.
Draw four spots for a mini each time you have 6 people on the list. After the first draw, put the two "leftovers" into the next mini, and when there are four more signups, draw two of them to match up with the two leftovers to form a new mini. This way the new signups won't know that they are going to be in "Big Willie's" group, which might cause them to hang back. The two new leftovers go for sure into the next mini.
The last mini can be just two players if that's all you can get at the end of the minis. If at the end you have only five on the list, you have to let the odd person (last signup) go. Maybe one of the others will volunteer to step out.
After you have run out of mini entrants, you start the finals. With 12 players present, I'd go for 6 finalists, so a max of 24 entries. The earliest qualifiers should get the byes, I think, because that encourages people to get there early, or you could just draw randomly.
This should work OK for two tables. Play race to one with a small entry fee -- maybe half of what you charge for double elimination. You will still get the same prize fund.
I think this format has a lot of advantages. If your game just is not there, you can stop after one match. If you arrive late, it's OK, you can still get in. If you win an early mini, you probably have time to go get dinner as long as you get back by 10 or whatever the announced finals time is. You can start earlier because you need only 6 players to show up before you start. If you arrive early and have a couple of bad games, you can try a third time, clock permitting.
This format is discussed in the links I posted earlier.
I'm pretty organized and the tourney ran smoothly. Thanks for the link.
