For years I've been judging Prereleases at a store. I don't know if the TO/Store Owner uses WER or WPN or what, but it IS a Wizards or DCI program. The thing is, he never knows at the start of the tournament, after all the registrations have been taken, how many rounds there will be or what time it will end. I'm never able to announce a number of rounds at the beginning of the tournament though judge courtesy says I should. And I always have people during the tournament asking me when it's going to be over. I never know the answer because the TO doesn't know. Where should he go in the software program to find the number of rounds? Should I just trust the MTR based on the number of entrants? Because people do drop and take their new product home, sometimes before the first round, reducing the final number of players.

“Roj”

Roj:

I'll speak only of my experience with WER. When the TO enrolls all the players and goes to “Begin Event”, it will pop up a prompt with the number of rounds. It will automatically generate the “recommended” number of rounds, but it can be changed. We tend to have our PRs be 4 rounds no matter what with prize payout based on record.

If in doubt, you are likely running it at the recommended number by default. If you know the number of enrolled players, you should be able to estimate the number of rounds.

From the MTR Appendix E:

Players (Rounds)

8 (3)
9-16 (4)
17-32 (5)
33-64 (6)
65-128 (7)
129-226 (8)
227-409 (9)
410+ (10)

Hi all,

Just chiming in. If for example you accidentally set the number of rounds to a different number from the beginning (let's say lower than the recommended number by the MTR), you can set the number of rounds manually in the events tab.

Also people leaving early should not change the number of rounds. Even folks that take their product and leave should be paired in round 1, given their loss and dropped.

On Fri, Sep 5, 2014 at 5:39 AM, Evan Cherry <
forum-12342-a31c@apps.magicjudges.org> wrote:

>
> From the MTR Appendix E:
>
> Players (Rounds)
>
> 8 (3)
> 9-16 (4)
> 17-32 (5)
> 33-64 (6)
> 65-128 (7)
> 129-226 (8)
> 227-409 (9)
> 410+ (10)


Pity as was pointed out to me by another judge these numbers are imperfect
and don't do what you think they should. 226 should be 224 and 409 should
be 385.

That is if you want to guarantee x-1 makes top8.

The number of rounds is linked very closely with the prize payout. You
don't necessarily have to follow the recommendations in the MTR. They will
make suggestions if you want to have a proper cut to the T8 or identify a
true winner. If you don't want to do that, you can run fewer rounds.

For example, many prereleases run 4 rounds, even with more than 16 people.
Then they award a set number of prizes depending on the number of match
points you have. This works much better for less competitive environments
(because who cares about the “winner of the tournament” at a prerelease?).


Kevin

Originally posted by Jim Shuman:

Also people leaving early should not change the number of rounds. Even folks that take their product and leave should be paired in round 1, given their loss and dropped.

The MTR does not agree with this statement.

MTR 2.10
… If a player drops from a tournament before the first round of play has started, he or she is considered to have not participated in the tournament and will not be listed in the finish order nor receive participation Planeswalker Points. …

Thanks, Vincent, you beat me to it - once upon a time, that's how we did things. Of course, back then, you weren't allowed to drop before the deck swap… times have changed, hopefully for the better!

d:^D

Thank you, everyone for your comments. Our prereleases are quite well-attended, and it's not unheard of to have 60 people STAY and play. I think four rounds is too few for that many people, but we also don't want to wear people out for the day.

Having never seen many dialogs in the program, can you tell me what menus to go to in order to change the number of rounds? Because, again, I'd like to announce that from the start, not as it gets closer to the end. I will then print this thread and hand it to my TO.

When you are in the “Event” tab in WER, the bottom-left corner has a text field where you can set the number of rounds. (Edit: Philip above has a good graphic illustrating this)

Normally, when you hit “Enrollment Complete” after entering players, a dialog appears asking you how many rounds the tournament should be, with a recommended number. That dialog can be disabled, which may mean that you haven't seen it in practice, for one reason or another.

Edited Jordan Baker (Sept. 8, 2014 05:53:23 PM)