World of Card Games

In my introduction to creating Spades tournaments for MyLeague Tournament Directors, I focused on running tournaments for 8 players.

What happens if you get more than 8 players signing up for your tournaments?

You may choose to drop all but 8 players. However, if you do not do this proactively, before you start the tournament, MyLeague will include all players, and only drop one player if there are an odd number of players.

For example, if 11 players are signed up, then MyLeague will drop the last registered one, and leave 10 players in the tourney. However, you may find the pairings confusing. Think about it: how do you run simultaneous matches with 10 Spades players when there are 4 players per table? The answer is that you don't.

The screenshot below shows what happens with 10 players in the tourney. England & Finland are pitted against "bye" in the first Round. So are Denmark & Germany, Brazil & Belgium. Austria & Australia face off against China & France in the first round. So you can start the tournament by creating a match for them... In addition, Denmark & Germany are paired up against Brazil & Belgium in the second round, so they can start playing immediately, as well. But notice that England & Finland do not have an opponent. Those two players are going to have to sit around waiting until those other initial tables are finished. This can be annoying! It depends on the patience of your players, and whether they are available for longer than they might have expected.

10 players in a Spades tournament, so 2 players have to wait

Below is a screenshot of the final results for this same tournament. Once Austria & Australia won their match, they were paired against England & Finland.

10 players in a Spades tournament, notice 3 byes

Here's another example where there are 12 players in a tournament:

12 players in a Spades tournament: 4 players have to wait

As you can see, we have four players sitting around while eight players play in the first round. Here are the final results just for the record:

12 players in a Spades tournament, notice 2 byes

Finally, here's a fun case: 16 players! In this scenario, no one is waiting. Instead all 16 players get to play simultaneously:

16 players in a Spades tournament

In summary: if you create a MyLeague tournament, and you have a large number of players in your league, be prepared to get more than 8 players in the tourney. Figure out in advance what you want to do. If you decide to run with more than 8 players, alert players to the fact that the tournament may run on longer than expected, and that a wait may be required for some players.