Ok so if we have 10-12 people minimum attending our Armory it is supposed to be a 4 round swiss, top 4 cut. For the time constraints the store owner wants us to run at we are only able to play 4, possibly 5 rounds if everything moves quickly. However, this is creating issues with placements during prizing as multiple people tie for 2nd or 3rd. Going based on how he currently runs Magic everyone that ties gets equal prize packs but not the placement prizes. This is leaving both placement attendees and nonplacement players frustrated. Any ideas on what we could do better to make this smoother so we can all still play the game we love and not have people leaving feeling frustrated?
#Attendance vs Cutting
wheat jackal
stiff willow
for starters, the top cut is suggestion for an Armory is incredibly optional, and with 10-12 players shouldn't be necessary to determine who has 1st place, especially if you play 4 rounds of swiss
I'm not sure what you mean by placement prizes, especially as relates to a standing that's not 1st place. 1st place each week should get the cold foil, and otherwise there's typically 8 rainbow foil extended art cards per week "to be distributed to top-placed players and/or as participation prizes (at your discretion)."
The retailer has some latitude on how to distribute the rainbow foil extended art cards, but they should be fully distributed each week and the manner of distribution should theoretically be public and constant
real inlet
Ok so if we have 10-12 people minimum attending our Armory it is supposed to be ...
After 4 rounds you have a clear single winner that have 4-0. The rest is going from standing after swiss. Doing top4 in armory is overwork. That is a casual tier tournament. I woudl suggest playing swiss without round time limit to prevent draws.
winged glen
First I’d like to say congratulations sounds like you have an awesome community at that store. The store I work for, we occasionally have the nights of 5 rounds of swiss. It makes a long night for the store but it’s just how it has to be to run the armory event correctly. If you ever need to reference the needed number of rounds of Swiss based on attendance you can find them in the Tournament Rules and Policy. But as said above doing a top cut can be a little excessive for an armory, based on the chart the indicated rounds of Swiss based on attendance will yield a singular winner of the armory and placement based upon Swiss records via gem.
My recommendation, if you find your play group is consistently at the 12 player mark, respectfully talk with your LGS owner about your concerns, and based on the attendance of the event there is a minimum rounds of Swiss needed to properly determine a winner. So the store can budget “X” hours in order to run the event as it was intended.
And just to state it one last time, as said above the cut to top 4 for armories is not a common practice in my experience. We do however not time the rounds (provided games move along at a steady pace) so that way no games end in a draw and a winner can be determined. At the end of the day armories are supposed to be fun and a place to get some practice. Hope all of this helps you and your play group!
