Qualification Rounds:
Players will be placed into four-player groups (occasionally three-player) to compete on an individual, randomly selected machine.
Points will be awarded based upon performance on that machine (4/2/1/0) and added to a running total for the tournament. Three-player groups will be scored (4/2/1).
There will be 7 rounds of qualifying. After the 7 rounds, the top 16 players will be seeded into the finals
Finals (2 Rounds):
Top 8 go to A-finals. Next 8 go into the B-Finals.
Four-player groups with the same scoring as the qualification rounds (4/2/1/0).
Seeding:
Players will be seeded according to their point total after 7 rounds. If there is a tie, then the players will play a 1 game tie-breaker on a machine picked at random.
Semi-final round:
Players seeded 1,4,5,8 will play in a 4 player group and players seeded 2,3,6,7 will play in a 4 player group. Each group will play three separate four-player games, each on a different machine.
The group that contains the highest-seeded player gets first choice of machine and order of play. The highest-seeded player within each group may choose either the machine to be played, or the order of play. If the highest-seeded player chooses order of play, the remaining players may choose their order, in descending order of seeding, and choice of machine then goes to the next highest-seeded player in the group. Conversely, if the highest-seeded player chooses the machine to be played, then the next highest-seeded player chooses the order of play, with the remaining players choosing order of play in decreasing order of seeding.
If at any point a high-seed player declines to make a choice, the choice is deferred to the next highest-seeded player, as appropriate. The affected group still retains its order of choice among groups, however. If no player in a group will make a choice, the choice(s) are determined by tournament officials, who may or may not choose randomly.
Note that the original seeding of players when entering the final rounds from qualifying is used in every round. At no time does a player’s seeding change from round to round; therefore the advantage of qualifying in first place can be significant.
No group may select a machine which has already been selected by a group in the same round, nor may they choose a machine on which they have already played in that round (unless machine malfunctions have made this unavoidable). If the machine selected is currently being played by another group in a previous round of play, the group may wait for that round of play to be completed. For example, if one group is playing a given machine as their first machine, a different group may choose to wait for it as their second machine.
When all three games have been completed by a group, each player will have a point total for the semifinal round. The top two players from each group will advance.
Significant ties between players at the end of the semifinal round will be resolved by one tiebreaking game on a machine selected randomly. Note that a tie is only significant if it affects whether or not a player will advance to the final round. Insignificant ties, such as between 1st and 2nd, do not require a tie breaking game, except, of course, in the final round.
In a tie breaking game, the highest-seeded player has choice of order of play, proceeding in descending order of seeding. If more players are tied in one group than the selected machine will support in a single game, players will play in groups (or singly, if the machine is single-play) arranged by their selected order of play. The resulting scores will be compared as if they had occurred in a single game on the same machine. Player groups in a tiebreaker will be arranged breadth-first so that each group is of similar, but descending, size. For example, five players will be arranged as a group of three and a group of two, rather than a group of four and a solo player. In every case, the highest-seeded player will have choice of group and order of play, proceeding in descending order of seeding.
If more than one group of players are tied, the machine is chosen for the group with the highest-ranking tie first, and that machine is not available for random selection in lower groups. All such tied groups will play their tie-breaking games in parallel. In the unlikely event of an exact scoring tie on the tiebreaking game, only those affected players will play another tiebreaking game, on another randomly selected game, under the same rules.
Championship round:
Top 4 players (2 from each group) from semifinal round advance to the Championship round. The Championship round is conducted in the same manner as the semifinal round. The total scores for this round will determine the ordering of winners. Tie-breaking in the Championship round will be determined in the same fashion as in the previous round, with the exception that all ties are considered significant.