haha
stuck you down Brian.
We"ve now 12, so I"ve increased max players to 16.
The format I"m thinking of is:
4 leagues of 4 players, everyone plays each other in their league in a round-robin format. The top 2 of each league (so 8 players) go through to the knockout stages.
8 players (Quarter Final) > 4 players (Semi Final) > 2 players (Final).
For the Round-Robin/QF/SF stages we"ll play "Best of 3", then moving to "Best of 5" for the final. Note: It"s first to 11 points wins a game, and you can win on your or your opponents serve (you each get 2 serves, then swap). To make it easier to remember, whoever loses the first game serves first in the second game and so on. (we"ll toss a coin for initial server and starting end, and swap ends after each game).
Right, time to do the math...
Based on 16 players, we"ll be playing:
6 matches in each of 4 leagues = 24 matches * "best of 3" matches = (average of 2.5 games a match) 60 games.
A game takes 4 minutes on average, so 60 x 4 = 4 hours(!). However, if we can commandeer 2 tables, that means 2 hours.
The rest of the tourney will take a maximum of:
4 x QF (12 games = 48 mins / 2 tables = 24 mins)
2 x SF (6 games = 24 min / 2 tables = 12 mins)
1 x F (5 games = 20 min / 1 table = 20 min)
24+12+20 = 56 mins.
Total tourney time = 2hrs 56mins. Start at 10am, finish at 1pm. (that"s cutting it a bit fine with any inevitable delays, so I suggest a disgustingly early "first game" time of 9.30am!!, to ensure everyone gets back to day2 of the APAT Team Champs in time).
Note: This is just an initial format idea, so is subject to change.