Tournament Regulations

Rules, Regulations, and Other Crucial Points

The primary function of this page is to outline the regulations of judging for the sixteen people who will fill that roll. As I said before, judging necessitates participation in the round of nomination, which has now concluded. In other words, no new judges will be added to the roster I have already accumulated.

Information as to the structure and time frame of the tournament can also be found here, though. In that spirit, I recommend that you read at least those portions of the listing so as to familiarize yourself with the way in which this tournament will elapse.

The rules are broken down by subject heading.

-Rules Specific to Judging-

I am a judge, just to give fair warning.

The judges for each match will be chosen at random (I literally draw names out of a hat.) The only provision of this is that I will keep those names already selected for a certain round out of said receptacle until everybody has been chosen. If after that point more judges are still necessary for the voting period, I will begin the cycle again.

For each assigned match, the task of the judge is to choose which of the two games he considers superior. Neither seeding, the views of parties other than the judge, nor chance-based factors (e.g. flipping a coin) should influence this decision making process.

No single judge is required to vote on every match in a given period. Rather, judges will be notified via e-mail of the matches they have been assigned. These messages will be BCCed to prevent open-forum discussions on the topic (I want this to be an individual, secret decision.)

Once you have voted, your selection may not be changed.

Tim Connolly's analyses are not intended to be resources. Rather, they are here for entertainment purposes.

I will not release the names of the judges of a given match, even after it has concluded. I do, however, plan to thank each of the judges by name at the close of the tournament. Any judge not wishing to have his name/e-mail address divulged should notify me beforehand.

Judges are encouraged not to vote if they are unfamiliar with one of the games they are chosen to judge, but I must be notified of that unfamiliarity so as to assign the match to another judge.

In the event that a selected judge does not vote in a given match, a new one will be appointed. This measure, however, will not be employed if the new judge's vote would not influence the outcome of the match (i.e. if a simple majority has already been reached.)

Absence from three successive assigned matches will result in the judge in question's removal from the list. These individuals may be reinstated at any time by simply mailing me and requesting such an action.

Judges who wish to be removed from the list may request that of me at any time.

-Time Frame and Match Format-

Each voting period lasts three days. Exceptions will be made in response to sudden changes in my schedule, but I will endeavor to make such occurences as infrequent as possible.

The first voting period begins Monday, June 21st.

In each match, the game receiving a majority vote will win, but matches will not conclude upon reception of that majority if there remain judges who have not voted.

For the opening round, each region will be voted upon separately. In the second round, regions will be paired, resulting in the same number of matches per each period. Thereafter, each voting period will encompass the entire competition.

In order to allow time for the preparation of Tim's analyses, I will not begin a voting period immediately after the closure of its predecessor. Exceptions to this rule are made during the first two rounds, when the matches will be apparent well in advance of their voting periods.

The field of competitors is divided into four groups -- in the manner of the NCAA Tournament. I have elected not to call them "regions", as it is difficult to divide video games along geographical lines.

The number of judges for each match will increase as the rounds progres, but it will always be odd so as to prohibit ties. A table of these values is below.

Round	Number of Judges	Majority Vote
First & second rounds	3	2
Round of 16	5	3
Quarterfinals	7	4
Semifinals	9	5
Consolation Semifinals	7	4
7th Place Match	5	3
5th Place Match	7	4
3rd Place Match	9	5
Championship	15*	8

* Because sixteen judges are participating in this competition, I will, rather than draw names and slight one individual, merely exclude myself from the championship.

IMPORTANT: For those of you who might be puzzling over the 7th, 5th, and 3rd place matches, I'll explain the aberration that spawns them.

After the round of 16, the eight surviving teams will be re-seeded in accord with their performance in the previous 3 rounds and placed in another bracket (in other words, no regional champions will be crowned). That group will operate such that the ladder works both ways. That is, the four losers in the quarterfinals will compete in the "consolation semifinals" (these will be voted upon at the same time as the real semifinals). Thereafter, the two winners of those matches will compete for fifth place, the two losers will compete for seventh place, and the two losers in the semifinals will compete for third place. These three matches will be voted upon simultaneously. After they are completed, the championship will take place.

Tournament Options:
Intro | Nomination Round | Results of Nomination Round | Tournament | Analyses

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