According to the Tournaments page (and also the FAQ), the 2nd round of a Monthly Cup should have 4 to 7 players per section.
But go9.mc.2002.jul.2.1 has just started and it has 8 players -
I would have expected this to be divided into two 4-player sections.
On the other hand, the 2nd round of the July Monthly Cup for Golem's Word Game has also just started, and this has been divided into three sections, even though two 7-player sections would have sufficed.
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So what exactly are the rules determining the sizes of sections in the 2nd round of a Monthly Cup?
No one answered this, probably because no one other than Richard knows the answer.
In any case, in the eight weeks since I wrote it some more Monthly Cup second rounds have started, and it's now possible to say what happens if there are not too many (fewer than 15) players in the second round.
It is considerably different than the FAQ would have us believe.
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If there are 0 or 1 players then obviously there is no second round.
If there are from 2 to 9 players then the second round has just one section.
If there are from 10 to 14 players then the second round has three sections, with the players split as evenly as possible between them.
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Note that a second round never has just two sections.
Little Golem