Super Simple System (SSS) for tourney management
The following is a proposed system for running a fair and simple Heroscape tourney without the need for a computer or other expensive supplies. The mechanics of this system are the result of an extraordinary discussion which was brought on by our need as a community to have a standard that is fair and easy.
It is my hope that folks adopt or barrow from these ideas and that more homegrown tourneys pop up around the globe because folks no longer feel intimidated by the details of running a fair tourney.
This system is based upon a Swiss style format which just basically states that players play a certain pre-determined set of rounds (games). As much as possible, players of comparable strength are paired up with no player playing the same opponent twice.
After the required number of rounds (Usually 5 rounds) There will be enough criteria formed to allow for winners to be announced in a friendly setting, or to advance a set of top players (usually 8 ) to a single elimination final.
How to Conduct a SSS tourney.
First off print as many copies of the SSS tourney cards (coming soon) as needed for the event. There are 2 cards per sheet so these will need to be cut in half. Make sure to have a good supply of pencils handy
Each player fills out his personal info on the top of the card , writes his army details on the back, and turns the card back in to the person conducting the tourney (we will call him the tourney director or TD)
The cards are shuffled and then used to randomly assign 2 players to each map. The clock is started and the players play a game.
Filling in your results
Once seated at a table with an opponent players will need to fill in the name of the opponent in the space marked with the number of the current round. Once a game is over players place a check mark in the box marked Win if they won and Loss if they lost. If a player loses a game he must also write in the number of points of his opponent’s army that he destroyed in that game in the spot titled Losing Points. If this is not the players first loss he will add his Losing points to the previous losing points total so that his sum of losing points is obvious.
Each time a player is paired with another and a game is played repeat the above process, so that at the end of the tourney you should have a clear understanding of:
Your W/L ratio
Your total of Losing Points
A list of all the players you played
After The last game of the tourney, locate the players whom you played and add up all of their wins. Place these wins in your SoS box and turn your card in to the TD
So at this point you have established three sets of values: Your W/L ratio, your SoS, and a number representing your Losing Points.
A New Round
After the first game in the tourney there will only be 2 ranks: Winners and Losers. All winners are shuffled together and all losers are also shuffled together. Place the winning stack on top of the losing stack and go from map to map drawing the top two cards off of the stack and assigning those players to those maps until all players have been assigned an opponent and a map. Players conduct the round as noted above
The next round all the cards will be sorted into piles of equal W/L rankings and shuffled within the pile. The best W/L records on top, then the next all the way to the bottom which are the lowest rank records. Again go around the room pulling the top two records and assigning them to a map and so on.
Each round keep repeating the above until all rounds have been played.
If two players ae randomly placed and yet have already played each other previously, then simply switch one player with the next card on the stack so that players are able to play new opponents each round.
Final Tabulations
The TD organizes the cards first by W/L. Any players with the same W/L are then ranked by SoS points with the higher SoS points getting ranked higher. If there are still any ties, then the player with the higher amount of Losing Points will be ranked higher. If by some random freak occurance there are still any ties to be broken, roll a D20 with the higher roller being ranked higher.
Byes
If there are an uneven number of players then one player will be chosen and awarded a bye each round. The first round, this player will be randomly chosen, the second and subsequent rounds, the player with the lowest ranking (judged by W/L and Losing Points) will be awarded the bye
Instead of an opponent, write the word Bye in the space provided and a check mark in the win box
When calculating SoS points at the end of the tourney, the Win points of your Bye opponent, is your own win number, as if you had played against yourself and won.
Game Ties
If a game goes to time, and both players have the same amount of points left, the game ends in a draw. Neither player is considered a losing player so no losing points are scored. Place a check in the tie column. Ties count as .5 points when figuring SoS. So at the end of the tourney when figuring your SoS, if you played a game against an opponent who had 3 wins, 1 tie, and 1 loss, you would add 3.5 to your SoS score.
Drop outs
If you are going to figure your SoS and you discover an opponent you won against has dropped out, consider his win number to be the greater of either "2" or the actual number of wins that player obtained prior to dropping out
Losing Score Notes
Undropped Airborne Elite / Unsummoned Rechets of Bogdan
If you lose the game and your opponent has undropped AE, points for the AE are NOT added to your Losing Score since you did not destroy them. Same treatment for unsummoned Rechets.
Mindshackle
A.) If you Mindshackle an opposing unit but you lose the game, the Mindshackled unit (whether finally destroyed or still alive at time expiration) DOES count toward your Losing Score, since you "effectively destroyed" your opponent's unit by turning it against him.
B.) If your own unit is Mindshackled by the opponent and you lose the game, you do NOT get credit to your Losing Score if during the game you destroy your own Mindshackled unit. It was not your opponent's to begin with, so your destroying it does not count as damage to your opponent's army.
Soul Devour (Shades of Bleakewoode)
A.) Units whose Souls are Devoured are treated like Mindshackled units, above.
B.) A Shade itself is destroyed when it succeeds with Soul Devour. If you lose the game, but a unit of enemy Shades was destroyed, you DO count the Shades toward your Losing Score (regardless of HOW they were destroyed).
Additional Options for Tourney Directors
1. "Relative Losing Score"
The tournament rules above utilize "Absolute Losing Score," (ALS) meaning that a defeated player's Losing Score is tabulated only using the points earned for destroying enemy units. ALS = Enemy Units Destroyed. If time expires and the defeated player has units left on the board, these survivors are irrelevant to ALS. It is thought that this will encourage faster and more aggressive play in a close game.
"Relative Losing Score" (RLS) is an alternative method of tabulating Losing Score, to be used instead of ALS throughout the tournament, if the Director desires. RLS = Enemy Units Destroyed + Your Remaining Units. RLS will therefore yield a different total than ALS if time expires on an unfinished game. RLS is thought to be scrupulously fair to all playstyles and playspeeds, but at the cost of ALS's supposed motivation to play fast and aggressive.
RLS Note on Mindshackle / Soul Devour / Airborne Elite / Rechets: If you Mindshackle or Soul Devour an opponent's unit, and when time expires you lose the game, then if the Mindshackled or Soul Devoured unit is still alive and on your side, you only score RLS points for the unit ONCE, not TWICE. You do not receive RLS credit for both having effectively destroyed the enemy unit AND having it as "part of your army" at time expiration. If you lose a game in which your AE or Rechets never arrived on the battlefield, you DO NOT get RLS credit for them as a "remaining unit" in your army.
2. "Fractional Scoring"
The tournament rules above utilize Hasbro's official scoring method (commonly referred to as "All-or-Nothing" or "Whole Card" scoring) for two purposes: (1) to determine the winner of a game cut short by time expiration, and (2) to tabulate Losing Score.
"Fractional Scoring" is an alternative method for scoring units. It can be used throughout the tourney for both above-listed purposes instead of the official scoring method, if the Director desires. "Fractional Scoring" is defined as follows:
Score sheets are now available in the downloads secion:
http://www.heroscapers.com/download/?dlid=881
The following is a proposed system for running a fair and simple Heroscape tourney without the need for a computer or other expensive supplies. The mechanics of this system are the result of an extraordinary discussion which was brought on by our need as a community to have a standard that is fair and easy.
It is my hope that folks adopt or barrow from these ideas and that more homegrown tourneys pop up around the globe because folks no longer feel intimidated by the details of running a fair tourney.
This system is based upon a Swiss style format which just basically states that players play a certain pre-determined set of rounds (games). As much as possible, players of comparable strength are paired up with no player playing the same opponent twice.
After the required number of rounds (Usually 5 rounds) There will be enough criteria formed to allow for winners to be announced in a friendly setting, or to advance a set of top players (usually 8 ) to a single elimination final.
How to Conduct a SSS tourney.
First off print as many copies of the SSS tourney cards (coming soon) as needed for the event. There are 2 cards per sheet so these will need to be cut in half. Make sure to have a good supply of pencils handy
Each player fills out his personal info on the top of the card , writes his army details on the back, and turns the card back in to the person conducting the tourney (we will call him the tourney director or TD)
The cards are shuffled and then used to randomly assign 2 players to each map. The clock is started and the players play a game.
Filling in your results
Once seated at a table with an opponent players will need to fill in the name of the opponent in the space marked with the number of the current round. Once a game is over players place a check mark in the box marked Win if they won and Loss if they lost. If a player loses a game he must also write in the number of points of his opponent’s army that he destroyed in that game in the spot titled Losing Points. If this is not the players first loss he will add his Losing points to the previous losing points total so that his sum of losing points is obvious.
Each time a player is paired with another and a game is played repeat the above process, so that at the end of the tourney you should have a clear understanding of:
Your W/L ratio
Your total of Losing Points
A list of all the players you played
After The last game of the tourney, locate the players whom you played and add up all of their wins. Place these wins in your SoS box and turn your card in to the TD
So at this point you have established three sets of values: Your W/L ratio, your SoS, and a number representing your Losing Points.
A New Round
After the first game in the tourney there will only be 2 ranks: Winners and Losers. All winners are shuffled together and all losers are also shuffled together. Place the winning stack on top of the losing stack and go from map to map drawing the top two cards off of the stack and assigning those players to those maps until all players have been assigned an opponent and a map. Players conduct the round as noted above
The next round all the cards will be sorted into piles of equal W/L rankings and shuffled within the pile. The best W/L records on top, then the next all the way to the bottom which are the lowest rank records. Again go around the room pulling the top two records and assigning them to a map and so on.
Each round keep repeating the above until all rounds have been played.
If two players ae randomly placed and yet have already played each other previously, then simply switch one player with the next card on the stack so that players are able to play new opponents each round.
Final Tabulations
The TD organizes the cards first by W/L. Any players with the same W/L are then ranked by SoS points with the higher SoS points getting ranked higher. If there are still any ties, then the player with the higher amount of Losing Points will be ranked higher. If by some random freak occurance there are still any ties to be broken, roll a D20 with the higher roller being ranked higher.
Byes
If there are an uneven number of players then one player will be chosen and awarded a bye each round. The first round, this player will be randomly chosen, the second and subsequent rounds, the player with the lowest ranking (judged by W/L and Losing Points) will be awarded the bye
Instead of an opponent, write the word Bye in the space provided and a check mark in the win box
When calculating SoS points at the end of the tourney, the Win points of your Bye opponent, is your own win number, as if you had played against yourself and won.
Game Ties
If a game goes to time, and both players have the same amount of points left, the game ends in a draw. Neither player is considered a losing player so no losing points are scored. Place a check in the tie column. Ties count as .5 points when figuring SoS. So at the end of the tourney when figuring your SoS, if you played a game against an opponent who had 3 wins, 1 tie, and 1 loss, you would add 3.5 to your SoS score.
Drop outs
If you are going to figure your SoS and you discover an opponent you won against has dropped out, consider his win number to be the greater of either "2" or the actual number of wins that player obtained prior to dropping out
Losing Score Notes
Undropped Airborne Elite / Unsummoned Rechets of Bogdan
If you lose the game and your opponent has undropped AE, points for the AE are NOT added to your Losing Score since you did not destroy them. Same treatment for unsummoned Rechets.
Mindshackle
A.) If you Mindshackle an opposing unit but you lose the game, the Mindshackled unit (whether finally destroyed or still alive at time expiration) DOES count toward your Losing Score, since you "effectively destroyed" your opponent's unit by turning it against him.
B.) If your own unit is Mindshackled by the opponent and you lose the game, you do NOT get credit to your Losing Score if during the game you destroy your own Mindshackled unit. It was not your opponent's to begin with, so your destroying it does not count as damage to your opponent's army.
Soul Devour (Shades of Bleakewoode)
A.) Units whose Souls are Devoured are treated like Mindshackled units, above.
B.) A Shade itself is destroyed when it succeeds with Soul Devour. If you lose the game, but a unit of enemy Shades was destroyed, you DO count the Shades toward your Losing Score (regardless of HOW they were destroyed).
Additional Options for Tourney Directors
1. "Relative Losing Score"
The tournament rules above utilize "Absolute Losing Score," (ALS) meaning that a defeated player's Losing Score is tabulated only using the points earned for destroying enemy units. ALS = Enemy Units Destroyed. If time expires and the defeated player has units left on the board, these survivors are irrelevant to ALS. It is thought that this will encourage faster and more aggressive play in a close game.
"Relative Losing Score" (RLS) is an alternative method of tabulating Losing Score, to be used instead of ALS throughout the tournament, if the Director desires. RLS = Enemy Units Destroyed + Your Remaining Units. RLS will therefore yield a different total than ALS if time expires on an unfinished game. RLS is thought to be scrupulously fair to all playstyles and playspeeds, but at the cost of ALS's supposed motivation to play fast and aggressive.
RLS Note on Mindshackle / Soul Devour / Airborne Elite / Rechets: If you Mindshackle or Soul Devour an opponent's unit, and when time expires you lose the game, then if the Mindshackled or Soul Devoured unit is still alive and on your side, you only score RLS points for the unit ONCE, not TWICE. You do not receive RLS credit for both having effectively destroyed the enemy unit AND having it as "part of your army" at time expiration. If you lose a game in which your AE or Rechets never arrived on the battlefield, you DO NOT get RLS credit for them as a "remaining unit" in your army.
2. "Fractional Scoring"
The tournament rules above utilize Hasbro's official scoring method (commonly referred to as "All-or-Nothing" or "Whole Card" scoring) for two purposes: (1) to determine the winner of a game cut short by time expiration, and (2) to tabulate Losing Score.
"Fractional Scoring" is an alternative method for scoring units. It can be used throughout the tourney for both above-listed purposes instead of the official scoring method, if the Director desires. "Fractional Scoring" is defined as follows:
- (i) For each unique squad left on the field, score the squad in proportion to its remaining figures. Example: 2 remaining Nakitia Agents would be worth 80 points.
(ii) For each full common squad remaining score full points, and for a remaining partial common squad, score the partial squad proportionally as above. Example: 6 remaining 4TH MASS LINE figures would be worth 70+35 = 105 pts.
(iii) For each hero* left on the battlefield, score him in proportion to his remaining life. Example: 80 pt / 4 life Thorgrim, if having only 1 life remaining at time-expiration, would be worth 20 points. *Directors may opt to use "Squads-Only Fractional Scoring," awarding full points for heroes regardless of remaining life.
(iv) Any time a fraction is encountered in a partial squad's (or wounded hero's) unit value, round to the nearest whole number (round .5 down). Never use decimals in a final unit value. Example: 2 remaining Krav Maga Agents = 33.33+33.33 = 66.66 = 67 points. Example: 3 remaining 4TH MASS = 17.5 + 17.5 + 17.5 = 52.5 = 52 points.
Score sheets are now available in the downloads secion:
http://www.heroscapers.com/download/?dlid=881
I will definitely be volunteering next year and like I said I will give some more feedback and ideas hopefully today and or tommorow.
I still can't believe you got ripped off. That is the single lamest thing to happen at Gen Con. It's beyond belief. Next year I suggest we actually assign one volunteer to be the security detail. The computer will simply be chained to them for the event until the next security person comes in.
) via a ranking system, is completely unfair. If the biggest concern is people taking too long during their turn, I certainly wish there was a way to incorporate one of those "Chess" time keepers to limit each player to only a certain amount of time per game for "thinking".
I might be able to help out a bit next year. 
.
) I agree that if turtling/stalling is a problem that has been brought to light, it certainly needs to be addressed, but I completely disagree with the means of limiting it (Point Differential). I also agree that the notion of Keep It Simple, Stupid should be applied whenever and wherever possible, but I think that there has got to be a better way to limit stalling than to punish other people's playing styles.