I ran a tournament yesterday, somewhat at the spur of the moment in response to a scheduled event being rescheduled. I ran it with 2 different colored pens, some paper, and a smartphone (RNG app). I wanted to share how I did it here, for a few reasons. I wanted to brainstorm an issue with byes and pairing so that maybe someone could help me find a better solution and I wanted to help anyone who wanted to do the same.
First the parameters:
Three strike tourney, head to head, SWISS pairing, byes (if necessary) to those with the most strikes who haven’t had a bye.
Pre tourney - assign each game a number. Assign each player a number.
Round 1. Generate pairings by using RNG (set to choose every number once without repeating numbers) two a time. First player chosen will go first, second will go second. If you have an odd number of participants, assign the final number chosen the bye. Put a (B) next to a person that receives a bye and carry that forward. We did not have a bye as we had 18 players to start. Once all the pairings are set change the parameters and move to arena selection. Assign each pairing a machine. The first round doesn’t need to utilize the different pens.
Post round 1 - each group should have one strike between the two players. Make 2 columns - 0 strike and 1 strike. Assign each player a number within each column - in our case we had 9 in each column at this point - so each was 1-9.
Pre Round 2 and beyond. BLUE INK. Use RNG to generate the 0-strike groups first. If you have an odd number of people with 0 strikes, the final player will play the first player with 1 strike. Pair the 1-strikes, again if there is an odd number the remainder a)gets a bye or b)plays people with 2-strikes. Pair the 2-strikes - remainder assigned bye. Carry the (B) notation forward. Place appropriate strikes next to each player in BLUE PEN. Then assign the arena.
Post round - BLACK PEN When players report scores - record the new strikes in BLACK PEN. When all groups have one player with a BLACK PEN strike - the round is over. Lather, rinse, repeat.
How I dealt with players that received byes. Unfortunately - I couldn’t think of a way to include bye players in the pool of similarly situated players (people with the same amount of strikes). They became a separate category and were paired as if they had .5 less strikes in a separate RNG group. In other words - when I had a player with 2 strikes that had just received a bye, they ended up playing the carryover 1 strike player, because they were the only player in a group that sat between players with 1 strike and players with 2 strikes. This was the way I ensured that we didn’t have people get multiple byes before everyone had one. I wish I could have thought of a better way to work around this issue, but I couldn’t. I am looking for some feedback on this issue.
Time constraints caused us to suspend play with three players remaining. Each player was assigned one share per unused strike. Prize pool was distributed according to share.
Let me know what you all think - help me with my BYE issue - I would like to be able to pair players in a more inclusive swiss format than what I did.
