I believe it might start on the 17th of June.

I was thinking that the last tournement had about 52 players and took almost 3 months to finish.

As of this post, there are 95 players waiting. 100 is possible. Probable maybe even.

I am not sure I have 4 or 5 or 6 months to invest in a championship I can not win. The reason I, and 85 other players can't win is because we will be seeded in some lesser league.

One can be sure that with this bigger tournament each player will be extra carefull, and more thoughtful than in the past, thus the 6 month tourney is a real possibility.

I suggest a single elimination pyramid tourney. after the first round, 1/2 the players are gone. Probably not exatctly half, cause the highest rated players will by necessity get byes in the first round. But it wont take 3 months to finish.

The whole idea of the championship is on a league structure, you aim to win your league whether it is the 2nd, 3rd or 4th division then in the next championship you qualify to play in a higher league.

If you want a shorter style competition you can get that through the monthly cup's.

I like the idea of a knockout cup though in addiction to the championship, if 100 people entered you would have 7 rounds, with people playing either a single game or best of 3 games against an oponent, with the winner progresing to the next round.

I really don't see what's the problem with the championship. You compete in a certain league, which you can win. THAT is what you compete for - winning your league. The only thing special about the championship, is that if you do very well or very bad, you play in another league next time. Playing in the first league is, and should be, reserved for those who have qualified for it (by winning or become 2nd in the 2nd league).

To me, this is a perfect system. And as Taral has pointed out, increasing the number of players in the first league might decrease the quality of the games. If you insist on playing against better players, play monthly cups, or, indeed, rated tournaments. The rated tournaments should be decided within a month, usually.

So, let me try to get this straight. The Ratings Tourneys should be over in about a month. The Monthly Tourneys are over in a season, maybe there should only be one Championship a year?

Perhaps entrance to THE Championship should be predicated on winning at least one Monthly Tournement? Or one round of a Monthly Tournement?

Add in the lookie loo's, who sign up, join a tourney, then dissappear. I dont mean to sound too impatient. Probably am though.

Ok, hows this? The ratings tourneys are shortened to 100 hours plus a few vacation days. Monthly Tourneys stay the same. The Championship is renamed the Seasonal Tourney, and once a year, a real Championship is played. The winner would get the LittleGolem Cup. For a year.

Perhaps restrict Monthly, Seasonal, and THE Championship to players who have at least completed one ratings tourney, regaredless of placement. This would likely eliminate those 'lookie loo's'

Actually, I think the monthly cups usually take longer to finish than the championship. Every tournament is as long as the longest game. So despite the fact that there are played hundreds of games in the championship, the time it takes to finish is dependent on the longest game only (and those who just sign up and vanish will lose in 30 days - that won't slow things down at all).

The monthly cups, however, are different. Here there are several rounds. And the first round takes a month plus the time of the longest game in one of the last groups. Then, the second round takes as long as the longest time there. And then again, the same for the third (and eventually forth) round.

I've not checked this, but I believe the theoretical maximum time for a hex game is 120x1,5 + 2*10 + 2*20 = 240 days. This is also the theoretical limit for a championship. The theoretical limit for a monthly cup of 3 rounds is 30 + 3*240 = 750 days - more than 2 years! However, I don't think we'll ecer see this happen :-)

My point is that even though the time of a tournament will probably increase a little with an increasing number of participants, it will not increase fast. I believe that it will take about the same abount of time with 50 or 100 participants - it takes as long as the slowest game.

Marius says

The monthly cups, however, are different. Here there are several rounds. And the first round takes a month plus the time of the longest game in one of the last groups. Then, the second round takes as long as the longest time there. And then again, the same for the third (and eventually forth) round.

Why are you saying the first round takes a month plus the time for the longest game? Isn't it just the time for the longest game? And so far at least, Little Golem Montly Cups usually have only two rounds. Three is not that uncommon, but OTOH there are MCs where one person wins every first-round tourney so the MC has only one round.

The reason I say this, is that if a group starts on the 30. or 31. of a month, and includes the longest game, then for a player playing and winning the first group of that month, the time for the first round will be 30 days plus the time of that game.

I doubt we'll be seeing any more of one player winning all of the first rounds. I also believe at most future cups will have at least 3 rounds - we are that many players now…

I see you're right about the 1st round. And I think you're about 3rounds regarding Hex, but other games have less active Monthly Cups with the same player winning many of the 1st round tourneys.