I’ve competed in Steamroller tournaments just a few times, and each time it’s struck me just how exhausting they are: Trying to fit in five matches, back to back, in a single weekend day, before the venue closes. You’re amped up the whole day, with barely time to grab lunch or bathroom breaks.
Now I’m organizing a group of my own, and I want to run a tournament to bring in some of the regional players. I want the new players who have joined for the first time to have a good time, not get put through the grinder.
So this is me spitballing ideas, and looking for thoughts, critiques, counter-points, and more ideas on how to make that work.
Both these ideas assume that we hard-cap the game day at 3 games. Meaning that if we get more than 8 players, there may be multiple undefeated players.
Idea #1: Anyone who’s still undefeated at the end of 3 rounds gets a spot in an “invitational” tournament at the end of the year. Hold these smaller “qualifier” tournaments every few months. Settle the final victor from among the undefeated qualifiers at the invitational tournament at year-end.
Idea #2: Have extra “strategic” objectives on the table that can be scored not to win that match, but for “Strategic Points”. These “strategic objectives” can only be scored once per game, each. Having the most “strategic points” is first tiebreaker at end of day.
Thoughts? Ideas?
Note: According the other TOs and such at my venue, they’ve found that having two-day tournaments is a non-starter. Whatever we do, it has to be one day. And it has to fit in 7 hours. So that’s one more argument for a 3 round limit.