Tournament question

cwilmeth

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
If i'm putting on a 256 person 8 ball tournament. Race to 5, winner breaks dbl
elimination. I have 40 tables. How long should it take to complete this event?
Do I figure 1:15 per match on avg. or not that long and If I have 12hrs per day
can it finish in 4 days?
 
If i'm putting on a 256 person 8 ball tournament. Race to 5, winner breaks dbl
elimination. I have 40 tables. How long should it take to complete this event?
Do I figure 1:15 per match on avg. or not that long and If I have 12hrs per day
can it finish in 4 days?
Once you're down to fewer than 80 players you can't use all 40 tables. The average match will end with a score of 5-3 so figure 8 games per match on average. How fast are your players?

Are you using "first open table, continuous play" or are you going to schedule actual rounds?

On 40 tables you will have about 24 rounds total. In the final 10 rounds or so you can't figure by average time because the next round can't start until the current round mostly finishes. A single slow player in the loser's bracket can spoil everything.

I think running 12 hours on the final day is tough on everyone, but I think 4 days should be plenty. You need to start on time.
 
I will call matches as tables become available. I know that's a lot of tables to keep up with but I think I can do it.
 
I generally assume 8 minutes per game, for a barbox 8 ball tournament. For your case, I made the assumption of 8 racks per set (for a race to 5). Each set works out to 64 minutes, or 1:04.

Using these assumptions, you would have a total of approximately 4080 games played [(256 Winner's side matches + 254 Loser's side matches) x 8 games per match].

It gets tricky when you get down toward the end of the event, since you will not be using nearly as many tables. My spreadsheet is set up for much smaller tournaments, where the number of tables isn't reduced until we reach the final 8 players. Using this spreadsheet, I made adjustments to assume your tournament will not be affected until you are down to the final 32. I came up with an estimated time of approximately 640 minutes, or 10:40 for you to run your final 32. Keep in mind, these figures don't take into account additional time taken to run a calcutta, or any other breaks in play.

With 248 Winner's side matches, and 234 Loser's side matches, to get to the final 32, I have estimated 3856 games. Figuring 8 minutes per game, This nets 30,848 minutes. Divide that by 40 (number of tables), to get 771 minutes, or 12:51.

Add this time to your final 32 time, to get a total time estimate of 1411 minutes, or 23:31.

Again, these figures assume, first, that I didn't make any mistakes, and that you will run an efficient tournament, with minimal down time at each table. Also, the figures will change as you break the tournament up over a couple of days. You should accept these estimates as a 'best case', and plan additional time, as needed
 
If i'm putting on a 256 person 8 ball tournament. Race to 5, winner breaks dbl
elimination. I have 40 tables. How long should it take to complete this event?
Do I figure 1:15 per match on avg. or not that long and If I have 12hrs per day
can it finish in 4 days?
Seriously consider playing the first two or three rounds single elimination. Then do a redraw and play the final 32 as Double elimin.
 
Once you're down to fewer than 80 players you can't use all 40 tables. The average match will end with a score of 5-3 so figure 8 games per match on average. How fast are your players?

Are you using "first open table, continuous play" or are you going to schedule actual rounds?

On 40 tables you will have about 24 rounds total. In the final 10 rounds or so you can't figure by average time because the next round can't start until the current round mostly finishes. A single slow player in the loser's bracket can spoil everything.

I think running 12 hours on the final day is tough on everyone, but I think 4 days should be plenty. You need to start on time.

Great points
Better players way faster especially winner breaks
good luck hope you have a sucessful event
 
I'm sure your aware, but you will have matches running allot longer than 1:15. Are bathroom breaks allowed/one per match?
 
Here's a better format.

Have 16-player mini-tournaments, single elimination. Charge half the usual entry fee to get in these. The winners of the minis go onto a 32-player chart that plays the last day.

The runner-up in each mini gets twice his entry fee back and the 3rd/4th place players get their entry fees back. If you get knocked out, you can get back in for another entry fee, and you will be drawn into another mini.

You can start play as soon as you have 32 players in the room -- just draw them into two groups. Once you start playing, the group plays straight through with no waiting (except for an opponent to finish his match). You may want to reduce the match length to race to 3.

Players sign up when they want and get back in as many times as they want until you have had 32 minis. If the demand is there and you have the time, you could have more minis.
 
Hopefully this will help you out for a comparison of time:

There was an 8 ball tournament last month in my city:
-race to 5 winners side
-race to 4 losers side
-67 players entered
-10 diamond bar boxes
-started Calcutta at 12:00pm
-finished tournament at 9:00am (21 hours later)

The bigger question is how are you going to recruit that many people to play in your tournament?? You better have a lot of added money. That is a big commitment to sign up to play in a tournament for 4 straight days...Good Luck!
 
Are you imposing a match clock, and noting start times? A common problem I see with double elimination is multiple matches on the 1 loss side being held up by a slow match on the win side. These usually slip by if you don't have enough resources to monitor the matches. How people are you budgeting for your staff on this proposed event?
 
The longer between matches you can schedule, the less frustration you (and the players) will encounter.

You WILL have matches that last 2 hours. If you have 30% of your matches go even 15 minutes past the 1:15 allotted, your schedule is now thrown out the window.

And from my experience, the later rounds take longer, not shorter that most people think should happen due to better players lasting longer. Play slows down as there is more to play for later in the event.

Good luck. Hope you have a great event!
 
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