Here's the short summary of how tournaments work:
- Join the league (see info below)
- When a tournament has been scheduled, all league members are sent an email a day or so in advance with details
- If you want to play and are available, register at MyLeague for the tournament
- Check in for the tournament one hour in advance
- Make sure to be logged in at World of Card Games before the tournament starts
- When you see the red and black T icon appear at World of Card Games, click it to get to your tourney table (details below). If you are currently playing a game, leave your seat before clicking the icon.
- Verify that you are seated with the correct teammate and opponents
- Once your tourney match is over, if you are the loser, report your loss at MyLeague.
- If you are the winner, wait for the next red and black T icon to appear. Check at MyLeague to see if you are still scheduled to play
How to join the League
Anyone may join, but a reference is required unless I know you personally. If someone invites you to join, tell them to send me an email with their name, and I will then send you an invitation.
When registering at MyLeague, you will be asked to choose a "ladder name". Please use the same name that you registered with at World of Card Games.
How to find tournaments
You can see all the upcoming tournaments at the MyLeague site:
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| Tournament Events at MyLeague |
Emails are sent out to all League members when a tournament is scheduled.
How tournaments work
The minimum number of players required to run a tournament is 8. In that case, 2 tables, with 4 players each, will play at the same time in Round 1. The winners at each table go on to face off against each other in Round 2.
When a match is finished, the losers should immediately go to the MyLeague tournament web page, and "report their loss". There will be a "REPORT" link to report your loss, and a "reporting" password should have been sent to you in an email.
If you did not receive a reporting password so that you cannot use MyLeague to report, make sure to report the loss to the Tournament Director.
Team tournaments
Some tournaments are set up so that teams are assigned randomly. In that case, it's very simple to register at MyLeague. You just register for the tournament with your MyLeague user name and password.
Other tournaments require that two players sign up as a team. In the latter case, one player needs to register with a team name and team password, in addition to their individual user password. The team password is shared with their teammate, who then registers at the MyLeague tournament site onto their partner's team.
Who can play, and "bye" rounds
If you register after the 8th player registers, there is a possibility that you will not be allowed to play in the tournament because some tournaments are limited strictly to 8, due to time constraints. Contact the Tournament Director (TD) if you want to know if this is true for your tournament.
If an odd number of players register, one player will definitely be dropped from the tournament.
If the number of players is not an even multiple of 8 (i.e. 8, 16, 24 ...), then there will be "bye" rounds. These are rounds in which 1 or more team(s) does not play in a match, but has to wait for another match to finish. Hopefully it is clear that with 10 players, for example, and 4 players per table, not everyone can play at once.
How long does a tournament take?
Usually if there is a "bye" round, the tournament takes longer. Such tournaments can sometimes run over 2 hours. I do not recall any tournament taking as long as 3 hours, however. Most tournaments run between 1.5 and 2 hours. Usually 8-player tournaments taken between 1 and 1.5 hours.
Check in before the tournament starts
Once you are registered, be cognizant of the "check-in" time, which is usually 1 hour in advance of the tournament. In order to play in the tournament, you must "check in" before it starts. The "check-in" link is available from your tournament's web page at MyLeague. Please check in as early as you can, so that everyone knows that you are available to play. If you do not check in, you will be dropped from the tournament. In order to check in, you will need to know your MyLeague username and password, so make sure you have these handy prior to the tournament.
Log in at World of Card Games after you check in at MyLeague
Once you have checked in, make sure that you are logged on with your registered user name at World of Card Games (make sure you are not playing as a Guest). This registered user name should be the one closest to your MyLeague "ladder name".
At the time when the tournament starts, the Tournament Director will take about a minute or two to set up the tables for the tournament. Once they are ready, you will see a red T icon appear in the upper right corner of your screen at World of Card Games, next to your user name. It looks like this:
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| the big red T - click it to get to your seat |
The red T is a convenient way to get to your seat. The seats were arranged by your Tournament Director, who is a fallible human being... so it is always your responsibility to check the MyLeague tournament page to see who is your assigned teammate, and who your opponents are, and to make sure that when you click that T you wind up seated with those players. If something goes wrong with the seating, pause the game, and contact the TD.
Snafus
If a player drops off the site during a tournament, players at the table should notify the TD. The TD will wait a reasonable amount of time for them to return. If the player does not return, then a substitute player can be allowed to play in their place. This is done at the discretion of the TD. Any player is allowed to sub, even a player who is not in the League.
There have been one or two cases where a tournament had problems and had to be cancelled after the fact. Tournament Directors do their best to avoid such problems, but be aware that it can happen.
Remember
Always be polite! Don't take tournaments too seriously. First and foremost, the tournaments are held to have competitive fun. Be good sports!