7 Wonders Duel Tournament Format

7 Wonders Duel BPA PBeM Tournament Format

GM: Chris Wildes (chriswildes@gmail.com)

Assistant GMs: TBD

Boardgame Players Association:

All players must have at least a PBEM-level membership for 2023.   The cost of this is $10 and you can apply for membership on their website: http://www.boardgamers.org/

Tournament Format:

This tournament will follow a double elimination format with Swiss style pairings. The winner of the tournament will be the last and only player with fewer than two losses. Positions 2 through 6 will be determined using the tiebreaker formula listed below in the Standings section.

The tournament will consist of the number rounds needed to produce a winner, likely 8-10 rounds. For each round, players will play one game against an opponent with the same record (as much as possible).

Approximate Schedule:

  • Registration will be open via email (chriswildes@gmail.com) until May 1, 2023 at 11:59pm EDT
  • Games will start approximately one week later (May 8) pending BPA membership confirmation.
  • Round limits will be somewhat flexible, although players will be penalized for repeated slow play.  I am hoping for each round to take around two weeks.
  • Depending on the total number of participants, the tournament is expected to take between 8-10 rounds to complete, though over half of the field will be eliminated within 3 rounds.

NOTE:  A minimum of 16 players are required for this to be run as a BPA sponsored tournament.

Website:

We will be using Board Game Arena for game play: https://boardgamearena.com/. Players must register on Board Game Arena and notify the GM of their usernames.

7 Wonders Duel is a Premium game on BGA which requires a Premium account to create a table for the game. Players with non-Premium accounts may join the tournament, but if a table has only non-Premium users, either a) one player will need to upgrade their account, or b) the game will count as a loss for all players. I will attempt to ensure that all tables have at least one premium player as much as possible.

I recommend playing a pickup game to get a feel for the mechanics of how the game interface works. We will be using the standard setup with no optional variants or expansions. If there is a difference between how something works in the online implementation, and how it is typically implemented in person, we must abide by the online implementation.

The unfortunate nature of online board games is that sometimes mistakes are made that would not be made in person, but cannot be taken back. There is no way of resetting or rolling back a move once it has been committed, and I will not restart a game because of a mistake or misclick. That said, if you encounter an actual bug in the software, please let me know.

Players should try to check the site at least once daily when not on vacation.

Reporting Games:

We will use a Google Sheet for reporting game results:

Rounds:

For each round, all remaining players (all players with fewer than 2 losses) will play one game against an opponent with the same record. For more details on round match-ups, please see the Pairings section below.

Ties within games will be broken by the following:

  1. Most victory points on Civilian buildings (Blue)
  2. Most coins remaining after spending coins for points (remainder after dividing by 3)
  3. Strongest Military
  4. Most Science symbols (this would include the Law progress token)
  5. Most Wonders built
  6. The player who went 2nd to start the game

Round Length:

A game of 7 Wonders Duel which does not end due to Military or Scientific Superiority consists of roughly 30 turns per player.  Assuming 2-3 actions a day, the round length should be just under one month. In previous years, rounds rarely lasted longer than two weeks.

If players will be on vacation without internet access, they must let the GM know and post a message within their current game(s).  If you plan to take more than one week of vacation, please alert the GM before the event begins.

If a player is NOT on vacation and fails to take a move within 72 hours, please alert the GM.   If a player has more than two complaints for the game, that player may be penalized points (tournament points) after consultation with the Assistant GMs.

Pairings:

There will be no formal seeding of players. All players with the same number of losses hold equivalent rank. Pairing will be carried out by the following rules:

  1. Rematches between players that have faced each other previously in the tournament will be avoided if at all possible.
  2. Players within each given “loss group” will be paired randomly, with revisions as needed to comply with rule #1.
  3. If there are an odd number of players in the 0-loss group, a random player from the 1-loss group will be selected to play in the 0-loss group.  
  4. If there is an odd number of players in the 1-loss group, a volunteer (called an “Eliminator”) will be randomly solicited to play an additional game. The Eliminator will be selected from players already eliminated, favoring the group most recently eliminated. This game does not affect the tournament record of the Eliminator and serves only to provide a win or a loss for a person in the 1-loss group.  An Eliminator will never be paired against another player whom they have played in a previous round.
  5. If no such Eliminator can be found, the GM or an assistant GM may serve as an Eliminator, provided they have already been eliminated from the tournament.
  6. If no suitable Eliminator can be found, then a random person in the group with the most losses who has not previously received a bye will receive a bye. 
  7. Unless it is impossible to avoid no person will receive more than one bye.
  8. I will avoid pairing family members together as much as possible without altering the criteria outlined in 1-4 above.
  9. I will avoid pairing BGA non-premium members together as much as possible without altering the criteria outlined in 1-4 above.

Standings:

The winner of the tournament will be the last and only player to avoid reaching 2 losses. Positions 2 through 6 (for BPA laurel purposes) will be determined among the players with 2 losses as follows:

  1. Most wins accrued at the time of 2nd loss. Byes count as neither a win nor a loss.
  2. Among players with an equal number of wins, players will be ranked according to total opponent’s winning percentage. This will be determined at the conclusion of all games.

Standings will be updated after each round.

Drop Outs:

Players are expected to complete all games they are invited to. Any player may drop from the event between rounds if they do not wish to continue.

If a player drops out DURING a game (or doesn’t take a move for at least 1 week with no vacation or other notice), the current game will awarded to the opponent and the player will be removed from the event. This player may also be barred from playing in events run by me in the future.