Dear Sean,
A few friends and I are putting together a tournament in our high school,there's plenty of interest and we're looking from anywheres from 48 to 64,maybe even a few more people. for scoring we're planning on give 3pts for each time a person holds the king spot, 2 for each queen, and 1 for each jack. How do you suggest widdling down to just 1 from either of those 2 numbers in one day? for a field of 48 i was thinking of four games of 12, top 8 from each advance, then continue to take the top for from each 8 until theres one final match of just 4 individuals. so basically, what do you think would be best? thanks for your time. - Philly0two, 4/2/2008
Phil, I don't know what to say. There are so many ways to tackle scoring a tournament that your guess is as good as mine. I say that the way you are planning to score points for each square on the court sounds like craziness. You would need tons of people keeping score on each court (I assume you would do more than one court open) and then you would have to crunch numbers at the end of each round before you can move on. 64 people waiting around for scores does not bode well... !
See, if I were you, I would do single, double, or triple elimination tournament. Then you don't even need scorekeepers. I did this with some grade schoolers last year and basically we stuck three pieces of tape on their shoulders and as they got out we took away a piece of tape until there was only one kid with tape and he was the winner. Then the thing runs itself and you don't need officials to keep points and if you are doing this for the first time, and hope to play in the tourney too, thats a pretty good thing.
So if you have lots of helping hands for scoring and math, try your system out. If not, simplify it or take another approach so that you and your attendees enjoy themselves and want to come to your next four square thing.
