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104-609: The Players Tour ( PT ) is a competitive international league for the Magic: The Gathering collectible card game, culminating in the World Championship. It consists of a series of tournaments held throughout the world, each requiring an invitation to participate. The Players Tour permanently replaced the Pro Tour in the 2020 season. Every PT awards a total of $ 250,000 in cash prizes, with $ 50,000 going to

208-488: A 1–1 draw is possible and games are usually not extended after 21 is reached in order to maximise the number of played matches. The Swiss system is used in some bridge tournament events, either pairs events or team matches. For teams, in each round, one team plays against another for several hands with the North/South pairs playing against their opponent's East/West pairs. The same hands are played at each table and

312-555: A Top 4 team place is considered making a Top 8 for the individual team members.). Rankings are current as of August 1, 2023. The following table displays the amount of Pro and Players Tours won, broken down by country. With the retirement of the Pro Point system in 2019, the Player and Rookie of the year award system is no longer utilized. Thus, these statistics are not available for the current Players Tour seasons. The Pro Player of

416-404: A balance of playing with black pieces and white pieces, so too debate tournaments attempt to provide teams with a balance of places in the speaking order (i.e. Opening Government, Opening Opposition, Closing Government, and Closing Opposition). With four competitors rather than two, significantly greater compromise is required to balance the ideal requirements of, on the one hand, a team not meeting

520-458: A counter-suit claiming Lucasfilm had no basis for their claims and owed money to Gen Con. On February 15, 2008, Gen Con LLC announced that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection , citing "significant unforeseen expenses associated with ... externally licensed events". As a result of the bankruptcy filing, the Lucasfilm lawsuit was delayed until November 19, 2008. Gen Con Indy 2008

624-433: A game (ex: one point for a chess tournament). The player is reintroduced in the next round and will not receive another bye. Another advantage compared to knockout tournaments is that the final ranking gives some indication of the relative strengths of all contestants, not just of the tournament winner. By contrast, in a knockout tournament the second-best contestant is not necessarily the losing finalist; they could be any of

728-516: A game every week for several weeks. The advantages of the Keizer system are that all players do not have to be present for every round of the tournament: they can enter, leave and re-enter the tournament very easily. The Keizer system also maximises the interest of the games by seeking to pairing opponents of similar playing strength. This system is quite used in chess clubs in Belgium, but especially in

832-430: A games library was added from which attendees could borrow games. Appearing in 1994 was the first Magic: The Gathering World Championship , won by Zak Dolan, who defeated France's Bertrand Lestrée in the finals. Gen Con has featured a number of events that raise money for a variety of charities. These include Cardhalla , in which donated cards are used to build a large city. Attendees are then invited to throw coins at

936-557: A lawsuit brought against them by Lucasfilm in 2008. The organization emerged from bankruptcy protection a year later, while still holding its regularly scheduled events and became larger than ever. The International Federation of Wargaming (IFW) hosted a number of small regional conventions in the months following its foundation in 1967, including the first annual club convention in Malvern, Pennsylvania , in August. Some IFW gamers in

1040-508: A letter to Indiana Governor Mike Pence , asking the governor to reconsider his intent to sign SB 101 , the so-called "Religious Freedom" bill that already passed both state legislatures. The bill would allow businesses in the state to deny service to anyone on religious grounds, with opponents of the bill stating that it would allow businesses to unfairly single out and discriminate against the LGBT community and other groups. Swartout pointed out in

1144-469: A long period of time, such as a tournament with one round every week for three months, the Grand Prix system can be used. A player's final score is based on their best results (e.g. best ten results out of the twelve rounds). Players are not required to play in every round; they may enter or drop out of the tournament at any time. Indeed, they may decide to play only one game if they wish to, although once

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1248-478: A near total ban on abortions, Gen Con tweeted a statement in support of abortion rights, and Gen Con president David Hoppe made the following statement: "Passage of Senate Bill 1 will have an impact on our stakeholders and attendees and will make it more difficult for us to remain committed to Indiana for our long-term home. We are committed here through 2026. We do have to think about what that means beyond that and, of course, we would have to look at what that means for

1352-578: A player wants to get a prize they need to play more rounds to accumulate points. The tournament therefore includes players who want to go for a prize and play several rounds as well as players who only want to play an odd game. A variant known as the McMahon system tournament is the established way in which European Go tournaments are run. Professional sumo tournaments in Japan also closely approximate this system. This differs mainly in that players have

1456-571: A point system that granted tiered awards called the Pro Club. Points were earned based on performance in the Pro Tour events. The tiers were Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum, and provided players with bye-games in tournament play, automatic invitations to Pro Tour events, and complimentary travel expenses to the tournaments. Platinum level players received cash bonuses for participating in tournaments and were given custom Players cards. This program ended on December 22, 2019. In December 2018 Wizards of

1560-518: A relatively small number of rounds of competition, without a single bad result terminating participation. The system was first employed at a chess tournament in Zürich in 1895 by Julius Müller, hence the name "Swiss system", and is now used in many games including chess , go , bridge , Scrabble , Pokémon , and Rocket League . During all but the first round, competitors are paired based on approximately how they have performed so far. In

1664-436: A second time. Compared to a knockout tournament, a Swiss system has the advantage of not eliminating anyone; a player who enters the tournament knows that they can play in all the rounds, regardless of results. The only exception is that one player is left over when there is an odd number of players. The player left over receives a bye : they do not play that round but are usually awarded the same number of points as for winning

1768-515: A series of puzzles and scenarios designed to recreate a D&D environment. 2008 was a tumultuous year, legally, for Gen Con LLC. On January 10, Lucasfilm filed a lawsuit against them, claiming breach of contract, conversion, and unjust enrichment over Celebration IV , held in 2006. The suit also claims Gen Con failed to give the money raised at a charity auction held at the event to the Make-A-Wish Foundation . Gen Con filed

1872-404: A single match or eliminate and exhaust each other if they meet in early rounds. Unlike group format or other systems in which all pairings are known from the beginning of the competition, in a Swiss system the match pairing for each round is done after the previous round has ended and depends on its results. The Swiss system seeks to provide a clear winner with a large number of competitors and

1976-456: A skill ranking prior to the start of the tournament which determines their initial pairing in contrast to the basic Swiss-system approach where all players start at the same skill ranking. The McMahon system reduces the probability of a very strong team meeting a very weak team in the initial rounds. It is named for Lee E. McMahon (1931–1989) of Bell Labs . A tournament system in Italy. It

2080-447: A tournament with eight players, ranked #1 through #8. Assume that the higher-ranked player always wins. 1: 2-0 2: 2-0 3: 1-1 4: 1-1 5: 1-1 6: 1-1 7: 0-2 8: 0-2 1: 2-0 2: 1-1 3: 1-1 4: 1-1 5: 1-1 6: 1-1 7: 1-1 8: 0-2 Accelerated pairings do not guarantee that fewer players will have a perfect score. In round 2, if #5 and #6 score upset wins against #3 and #4, and there

2184-443: A trophy, a number of booster packs from expansions ranging from Arabian Nights to Ice Age , a deck of Magic: The Gathering poker cards, and a T-shirt. Another World Championship was organized in 1995. In 1995, Brand Manager Skaff Elias suggested that organized play needed to be expanded. He worked to create a yearly tournament structure to allow players a chance to compete for cash prizes. The Pro Tour debuted in 1996 under

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2288-599: Is Fight in the Skies , later renamed Dawn Patrol . The D&D Championship Series (formerly the D&;D Open) is a long-running series of Dungeons & Dragons games at Gen Con, beginning in 1977. The RPGA, beginning in 1981, has run large numbers of events at Gen Con, so extensive they have been given their own category. The RPGA events are primarily "Living" games where players create characters who persist between events. The RPGA first ran events in 1981. In 1987

2392-502: Is a decisive result between #1 and #2, there will be three players with a perfect 2–0 score. The Danish system works in principle like a Monrad system, only without the restriction that no players can meet for a second time, so it is always #1 vs. #2, #3 vs. #4 etc. Bridge team tournaments, if not played as "Round Robin", usually start with the Swiss system to make sure that the same teams would not play against each other frequently, but in

2496-406: Is a fixed number of rounds. After the last round, players are ranked by their score. If players remain tied, a tie-break score is used, such as the sum of all opponents' scores ( Buchholz chess rating ). Assuming no drawn games, determining a clear winner (and, incidentally, a clear loser) would require the same number of rounds as that of a knockout tournament , which is the binary logarithm of

2600-503: Is done so that matches can begin before all teams have finished the previous round. In later rounds, the pairings are slower but more exact. In the last one or two rounds there may be a switch to the Danish system to make sure that each team plays the final match according to its actual ranking, even if this results in some teams playing against an opponent a second time. At least in the US, this

2704-500: Is extremely rare, usually employed only in small club games with a large number of rounds relative to the number of teams. In chess, each player is paired against another player with an equivalent performance score. In "Round 1" of a chess tournament paired using the Swiss System, players usually are seeded according to their known playing strength, often a rating assigned to them by their local club, their national federation, or

2808-521: Is modified to accompany the fact that each PT utilizes constructed and limited formats, in which three rounds of a booster draft will be held followed by five rounds of constructed. The payout of the Players Tour is based on ranking at the conclusion of a tournament. Currently the prize pool amounts to $ 250,000 for each Players Tour event. The payout extends down to 64th place with the current payout structure being: Players on this list have achieved

2912-527: Is not run for charity. The EN World RPG Awards (the ENnies ) are an annual awards ceremony devoted to role-playing games. Established in 2001, the ENnies have been hosted at Gen Con Indy since 2002, and are organized and owned by EN World , a D&D / d20 System news website. True Dungeon is an immersive life-sized dungeon crawl live action role-playing game (LARP) run at Gen Con since 2003, featuring

3016-495: Is optional at Scrabble tournaments, as players at smaller tournaments may still have an incentive to win their last game to improve their overall rating. Players may also be "Gibsonized" if they have clinched a spot in the next round, and they may be paired with the highest-ranked player who cannot possibly qualify for the next round. The system is used for the selection of the English national pool team. Sixty-four players start

3120-414: Is similar to the Swiss System, but does not split players based on their score. Before pairing any round, players are listed for decreasing score / decreasing rating, and the opponent of the first player in the list is the player following them by a number of positions equal to the number of remaining rounds, and so on for the other players. As consequence of this, the difference in rating between opponents at

3224-492: Is used and is known either as Monrad or Swiss. Croquet tournaments are frequently run using a Swiss system, often flexibly so that the order of players is not strictly maintained, avoiding players waiting around for long games to finish. Variants include the Burridge Swiss, used as a qualifying stage for a subsequent elimination, in which there is a predetermined threshold of games. Once a player reaches that threshold,

Magic: The Gathering Players Tour - Misplaced Pages Continue

3328-468: Is used for competitions in which there are too many entrants for a full round-robin (all-play-all) to be feasible, and eliminating any competitors before the end of the tournament is undesirable. In contrast, all-play-all is suitable if there are a small number of competitors; whereas a single-elimination (knockout) tournament rapidly reduces the number of competitors, but the best competitor may not necessarily win, as good competitors might perform poorly in

3432-753: The Indiana Convention Center . Wizards of the Coast helped celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Dungeons & Dragons game at Gen Con Indy 2004. In 2005 Gen Con Indy generated the most direct visitor spending of any annual convention in Indianapolis. Adkison also restarted the convention in California, this time named Gen Con SoCal. Smaller than its mid-western counterpart, it drew approximately 6,300 attendees in 2005, making it

3536-702: The Lake Geneva Wargames Convention by Gary Gygax , who later co-created Dungeons & Dragons , Gen Con was first held in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin . The convention was moved to various locations in Wisconsin from 1972 to 1984 before becoming fixed in Milwaukee , Wisconsin , in 1985, where it remained until moving to Indianapolis , Indiana , in 2003. Other Gen Con conventions have been held sporadically in various locations around

3640-558: The World Universities Debating Championship , ranks teams by a modified form of Swiss tournament, usually called a tab . "Tab" also denotes to the software used for scheduling of rounds and tabulation of results. Teams are ranked from first to fourth in each debate and awarded from three down to zero points. Teams with similar points totals are grouped off for each successive round. Just as chess Swiss tournaments are arranged to ensure players have

3744-565: The " Geneva Conventions " are a set of important international treaties regarding war, the subject of many of the early games. Starting in 1971, Gen Con was cosponsored by the Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association. Beginning in 1975, Gen Con was managed and hosted by TSR, Inc. , original publisher of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game . During the following decade the event grew and

3848-469: The $ 50 Horticultural Hall fee to sponsor this first Gen Con. Almost 100 people attended. At the second Gen Con in August 1969, Gygax met Rob Kuntz and Dave Arneson . During these early conventions, the events centered around board games and miniature wargames. Gen Con's name is a derivation of "Geneva Convention", due to the convention's origins in Lake Geneva. It is also a play on words, as

3952-454: The 2010 season). In the best-of-7 single match playoff, Nelson won 4 games to 2 to achieve the title. The Rookie of the Year title, introduced in the 1997–1998 season, was awarded to the player who accumulated the most pro points over the course of a season and did not participate in a Pro Tour, World Championship, or World Magic Cup prior to that season. Gen Con Established in 1968 as

4056-512: The Booster Draft format. Rochester Draft can be used for Limited play, but due to time constraints rarely is. World Championships feature multiple formats, which usually include standard with a constructed format, and a limited format (either Booster Draft or Rochester Draft). All Players Tours are run using a modified Swiss system . Typical events are held over three days with 7 rounds (Limited) or 8 rounds (Constructed or Mixed) of Swiss

4160-653: The Chicago area could not make the journey to Malvern, so they had an informal gathering that same weekend at the Lake Geneva, Wisconsin home of Gary Gygax . Later this gathering would come to be referred to as "Gen Con 0". In 1968, Gygax rented Lake Geneva's Horticultural Hall to hold a follow-up IFW convention, the Lake Geneva Wargames Convention, later known as the Gen Con gaming convention . The IFW, which Gygax co-founded, put up $ 35 of

4264-489: The Coast announced that the Pro Tours would be renamed to Mythic Championship in 2019. This was done in an effort to include the digital MTG Arena in the competitive scene. Tabletop and online MTG had individual versions of Mythic Championship, and the prize pool was increased to $ 500,000 per event. Along with this restructure, a "Magic Pro League" (MPL) was created. The Mythic Championship was intended to feed players into

Magic: The Gathering Players Tour - Misplaced Pages Continue

4368-593: The MPL. This system was discontinued after the 2019 season. Beginning in 2020, the tabletop Mythic Championships were replaced by a new regional system called the Players Tour . This effectively makes the Players Tour the successor to what was once the tabletop Pro Tour. There are approximately 3600 invitations to compete in the Players Tours, and there are many ways to qualify. The most common are: In 2012 it

4472-736: The Netherlands in 1998 and re-occurred there in 2000. Gen Con Barcelona occurred five years, in 1994–1996, 1999, and 2004. Gen Con UK was held between 1998 and 2005. A Gen Con was held in Brisbane , Australia, in July 2008 and again in September 2009. A third Gen Con Australia was scheduled for 2010, but was cancelled. When the COVID-19 lockdown prompted Gen Con to cancel the in-person convention in 2020, it instead ran an online version. While

4576-535: The Netherlands. The system used in the "league phase" of the UEFA Champions League , UEFA Europa League , and UEFA Conference League starting from the 2024–25 season shares a core characteristic with the Swiss system: The competitors are ranked in a single league of 36 teams while only playing eight games against different opponents in the first two competitions, and six games in the third competition. However, pairings are not determined depending on

4680-676: The United States to use the Swiss system was in Corpus Christi, Texas in 1945; and the first Chess Olympiad using it was held in Haifa in 1976. In chess, the terms Swiss and Monrad are both used and denote systems with different pairing algorithms. The Monrad pairing system is commonly used in Denmark and Norway, while most of the rest of the world uses one of the Swiss systems defined by FIDE . In most other sports, only one format

4784-433: The United States, as well as internationally. In 1976, Gen Con became the property of TSR, Inc. , the gaming company co-founded by Gary Gygax. TSR (and Gen Con) were then acquired by Wizards of the Coast in 1997, which was subsequently acquired by Hasbro . Hasbro then sold Gen Con to the former CEO of Wizards of the Coast, Peter Adkison , in 2002. Gen Con spent a short time under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection , due to

4888-546: The United States, with more than 18,000 people. Gen Con briefly joined with its primary competitor, the Origins Game Fair , and the two were run as a single convention in 1988. Wizards of the Coast debuted Magic: The Gathering at Gen Con in August 1993; the game proved extremely popular, selling out its supply of 2.5 million cards, which had been scheduled to last until the end of the year. The ensuing collectible card game craze has been credited with generating

4992-552: The Year title was awarded to the individual who has accumulated the most pro points over the course of a season (with the exception of 2012 season, which was awarded to the winner of the Magic Players Championship, a tournament that replaced that year's Magic: The Gathering World Championship . Previously, the Player of the Year received invitations to several high-level tournaments throughout the following year, as well as travel and other accommodations to each of

5096-475: The best interest of our creditors". Gen Con rejected the hostile takeover bid, and the bankruptcy court allowed Gen Con to emerge from bankruptcy in January 2009, 11 months after it had entered Chapter 11. In 2008, Christian Children's Fund was reported to have turned down $ 17,398 from a GenCon Live Game Auction, during that year's Gen Con. The donation was made in honor of Gary Gygax, who died in 2008, and

5200-418: The bottom half play each other, and losers in the top half play winners in the bottom half (for the most part). After two rounds, about ⅛ of the players will have a perfect score, instead of ¼. After the second round, the standard pairing method is used (without the added point for the players who started in the top half). As a comparison between the standard Swiss system and the accelerated pairings, consider

5304-535: The city to destroy it. The coins are collected for charity. Cardhalla was first run in 1999. The gaming group NASCRAG has run Dungeons & Dragons events at Gen Con since 1980. NASCRAG events sometimes donate their ticket fees to charity. The games run tend to be humorous. The Gen Con Live Games Auction is another long-running event, though the majority of the Auction (including the Consignment Store)

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5408-408: The contestants defeated by the eventual tournament winner in earlier rounds. In a Swiss-system tournament, sometimes a player has such a great lead that by the last round they are assured of winning the tournament even if they lose the last game. This has some disadvantages. First, a Swiss-system tournament does not always end with the exciting climax of a knockout final. Second, while the outcome of

5512-491: The convention. The first show under Adkison's leadership took place that August in Milwaukee. The convention moved to Indianapolis in 2003. Peter Adkison attributed the move to the lack of hotel space, the convention center layout, and frequently broken escalators in Milwaukee's convention center. In Indianapolis, the convention, now called Gen Con Indy, continued to draw between 20,000 and 30,000 visitors each year, at

5616-499: The course of the badminton tournament. The tournaments are meant to promote both the sport and the social aspect of the game, hence its results are not connected to external rankings. Beforehand, players can enroll in three or four categories designed to separate national, regional and recreational players. Players of different clubs are coupled to form doubles and mixed doubles. The starting positions on each ladder (singles, doubles and mixed doubles) are random. Unlike in official matches

5720-420: The effect of reducing the number of players with perfect scores more rapidly (by approximately a factor of 2 after two rounds). For the first two rounds, players who started in the top half have one point added to their score for pairing purposes only. Then the first two rounds are paired normally, taking this added score into account. In effect, in the first round the top quarter plays the second quarter and

5824-638: The extra attendance that produced the 1995 record. Wizards of the Coast purchased TSR in 1997, which was in turn purchased by Hasbro in 1999. Gen Con moved to the Midwest Express Center (now the Wisconsin Center ) in 1998. In November 1999 Wizards announced that Gen Con would leave Milwaukee after the 2002 convention. Peter Adkison , founder of Wizards of the Coast, purchased Gen Con from Hasbro in May 2002, forming Gen Con LLC to run

5928-427: The fact that players should meet each other at most once and pairings are chosen dependent on the results, there is a natural upper bound on the number of rounds of a Swiss-system tournament, which is equal to half of the number of players rounded up. Should more than this number of rounds be played, the tournament might run into the situation that there is either no feasible round, or some players have to play each other

6032-474: The final game has no bearing on first place, the first-place player can decide who wins second or third prize. In the 1995 All-Stars Tournament in Scrabble, tournament directors paired David Gibson , who had by then clinched first place, with the highest-ranked player who could not win a prize so that the second- and third-ranked players could compete between themselves for the final placements. The "Gibson Rule"

6136-504: The first day. Players with fewer than 4 victories (Limited or Mixed) or 5 victories (Constructed) after day 1 were eliminated. 8 more rounds of Swiss followed on the second day after which the eight best finishing players constitute what is called the Top 8 . On the third and final day, the Top 8 players play single-elimination until the winner is determined. Starting with the 2009 season this system

6240-508: The first round is not so big (as for the accelerated systems), and ideally the "big match" between the first and the second one should occur at the last round, no matter how many players and rounds are in the tournament. A bit like the Amalfi system, the Keizer system aims to offer a more interesting pairing system than the Swiss or round-robin system for tournaments that take place over a long period, for example an internal club championship with

6344-598: The first round the pairs for the second round would be first-ranked team against the second, third against fourth, and so on. In a true Swiss tournament all teams play in one group. However, in a curling arena there are a limited number of curling sheets available at any one time. Therefore, the teams are usually divided into groups, and the groups are rearranged after a round or two. The criteria used for ranking are, in order: British Parliamentary Style debate competitions have four rather than two teams in each debate. The preliminary round for many such competitions, including

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6448-432: The first round would require four waves, the next two, and all remaining rounds would consist of a single wave each. Over the same six rounds, only nine waves would occur. Note that the waves format is not strictly necessary, as instead a match could commence as soon as another in the same round ends, but the principle is largely the same. In a Swiss tournament, all the results of a particular round need to be recorded before

6552-474: The first round, competitors are paired either randomly or according to some pattern that has been found to serve a given game or sport well. If it is desired for top-ranked participants to meet in the last rounds, the pattern must start them in different brackets, just the same as is done in seeding of pre-ranked players for a single elimination tournament. In subsequent rounds, competitors are sorted according to their cumulative scores and are assigned opponents with

6656-502: The following season's Pro Tours (including the World Championship). Since the 2016–17 season, there is no additional benefit as a Player of the Year. A tie in the Player of the Year standings resulted in a playoff to determine the winner. The first playoff was held in 2011 as a side event at Pro Tour Paris, deciding the 2010 Player of the Year race between Brad Nelson and Guillaume Matignon (both finished with 66 points in

6760-492: The highest amount of placements in the Top 8 in official competitive play since the first Pro Tour in 1996. These statistics include Pro Tour Top 8s, Players Tour Top 8s, Players Tour Finals Top 8s, Mythic Championship Top 8s/Top 4s, Mythic Invitational Top 8s/Top 4s, World Championship Top 4s (2012-current), 2020 Season Grand Finals Top 8s, Set Championship Top 8s, Magic Online Championship Top 4s, Magic Online Champions Showcase Top 2s, and Arena Championship Top 8s. (For team events,

6864-404: The in-person convention returned the following year, an online version was run concurrently until Gen Con ceased operations of Gen Con Online after the 2023 show. The convention features a large exhibit hall filled with game publishers, artists, and related businesses, wherein most attendees spend at least $ 100. The only game to be on the event schedule every year since the convention's inception

6968-463: The last one or two rounds there may be a switch to the Danish system, especially to allow the first two ranked teams to battle against each other for the victory, even if they have met before during the tournament. This would be more common if relatively few teams are involved. In a large field it is usually easy to match high-scoring teams who have not previously met. In a few tournaments which run over

7072-423: The letter that "Gen Con proudly welcomes a diverse attendee base, made up of different ethnicities, cultures, beliefs, sexual orientations, gender identities, abilities, and socio-economic backgrounds" from over 40 countries and all 50 states, and that welcoming such a "wide-ranging diversity has been a key element to the success and growth of our convention", as well as injecting "over $ 50 million dollars" annually to

7176-456: The local economy. Swartout stated that signing such a bill "will have a direct negative impact on the state economy and factor into [Gen Con's] decision-making on hosting the convention in the state of Indiana in future years," after the Indiana Convention Center had already completed a major expansion in 2011 to accommodate increased attendance to Gen Con. Pence signed SB 101 into effect on March 26, 2015. In August 2022 when Indiana passed

7280-584: The name The Black Lotus Pro Tour , featuring events only in the United States. A tournament was held in New York on February 16–18, 1996. The series included three more Pro Tour events, culminating in the final Pro Tour, the World Championship, held in Seattle. After this first season, Pro Tour events began to be held in Europe and Asia. In the following years Pro Tour seasons (one year each from August to August

7384-407: The next opponent, typically excluding repeats. The Monrad system used in chess in Denmark is quite simple, with players initially ranked at random, and pairings modified only to avoid players meeting each other twice. The Norwegian system has an optional seeding system for the first-round pairings, and within a score group, the pairing algorithm endeavours to give players alternating colors. There

7488-430: The next round may begin. This means that each round will take as long as its slowest match. In a single elimination tournament, any game may commence once the two preceding games that feed into it have been completed. This may result in one branch of the bracket falling behind if it has several slow matches in a row, but it may then catch up if it then has several quick matches. Additionally, each round has fewer matches than

7592-404: The next year) always consisted of five and later six Pro Tours. From 2003 to 2005 Wizards of the Coast made an effort to bring the Pro Tour seasons in accordance with the calendar year . This resulted in the '03-'04 and '04-'05 seasons being composed of seven Pro Tour events. The 2006 and subsequent Pro Tour seasons were reduced to five and later four Pro Tours per year. In 2012, the season schedule

7696-402: The number of players rounded up. Thus, three rounds can handle up to eight players, four rounds can handle up to sixteen players, ten rounds can handle up to one thousand and twenty-four players, and so on. If fewer than this minimum number of rounds are played, two or more players could finish the tournament with a perfect score, having won all their games but never having faced each other. Due to

7800-599: The official Star Wars convention, called Star Wars Celebration , which was held in the banner years of the franchise. The Indiana Convention Center completed a major expansion in 2011, in large part, to accommodate increased attendance to Gen Con, at a cost of over $ 275 million. Gen Con was held in Europe in the 1990s, with the first annual European Gen Con held in Camber Sands, Sussex, England, in 1990, and Gen Con Barcelona in Spain in 1994. The European convention

7904-415: The other competitors. Competitors meet one-on-one in each round and are paired using a set of rules designed to ensure that each competitor plays opponents with a similar running score, but does not play the same opponent more than once. The winner is the competitor with the highest aggregate points earned in all rounds. With an even number of participants, all competitors play in each round. The Swiss system

8008-446: The pairings, the tournament organizer often uses a computer program to do the pairing. In chess, a specific pairing rule, called "Dutch system" by FIDE , is often implied when the term "Swiss" is used. The Monrad system for pairing is commonly used in chess in Denmark and Norway, as well as in other sports worldwide. These two systems are outlined below. The players are divided into groups based on their scores . Within each group with

8112-466: The period up until that time." Attendance at Gen Con conventions, based on the numbers given below: [REDACTED] Gen Con is scheduled to remain in Indianapolis through 2030. Swiss system tournament A Swiss-system tournament is a non-eliminating tournament format that features a fixed number of rounds of competition, but considerably fewer than for a round-robin tournament ; thus each competitor (team or individual) does not play all

8216-500: The player will no longer be included in the Swiss and will have qualified. Once a player can no longer reach the threshold, they are eliminated from the Swiss. The number of rounds is about double that of the threshold. Curling uses a variation called the Schenkel system. Like a Swiss tournament, the Schenkel ensures that after the first round teams will play against teams with similar levels of success so far. That means that after

8320-598: The previous one. Afterwards prize payouts had only minor fluctuations throughout a season with the exception of the World Championships, where additional prizes are awarded. Pro Tours started as single-format events in 1996, alternating between Constructed and Limited , with the exception of the World Championships which have been multi-format events since the inception of the Pro Tour. In 2010 Pro Tours were changed to always have several rounds of Constructed and Limited play. MTG Pro Tour players benefited from

8424-425: The previous, and the average longest match in a round will more closely match the average match as the number of matches in that round decreases. The method of accelerated pairings also known as accelerated Swiss is used in some large tournaments with more than the optimal number of players for the number of rounds. This method pairs top players more quickly than the standard method in the opening rounds and has

8528-775: The qualifier may be incentivized to not do their best, as doing so might make them play against the 1st seed on the first round, decreasing their chances of having a good score. Conversely, for knockout tournaments, the highest seed is usually paired with the lowest, the 2nd highest with the 2nd lowest, and so on. This incentivizes players or teams to do their best and get a higher seed so that they can play against lower-seeded players/teams. The players are first ranked based on their scores, then on their starting numbers (which can be random or based on seeding). Then #1 meets #2, #3 meets #4, etc., with modifications made to ensure that other rules are adhered to. Players are sorted by scores (not score groups) and original ranks, then each player paired to

8632-514: The results compared using the International Match Point (IMP) scoring system. The difference between the total IMPs scored in the round is converted to Victory Points (VPs), with typically 20 VPs shared between the teams. In pairs, the initial scoring is by matchpoints which are then converted to VPs. In the first round, teams are usually paired randomly; however, pairings can be based on other criteria. In subsequent rounds,

8736-415: The same (or almost the same) score. No player is paired up against the same opponent twice. The rules for Swiss System chess events also try to ensure that each player plays an equal number of games with white and black. Alternating colors in each round is the most preferable and the same color is never repeated three times in a row. Players with the same score are ideally ranked according to rating. Then

8840-532: The same opponent twice and, on the other hand, a team having a balanced mix of places in the running order. Mind Sports South Africa, the national body for esports in South Africa , uses a Swiss system for all its tournaments. For its Swiss implementations, players receive three points for a win and only one for a draw and no player can play against another player more than once. There is the further provision that no player may play against another player from

8944-418: The same or similar score up to that point. The pairing rules have to be quite complicated, as they have to ensure that no two players ever oppose each other twice, and to avoid giving a player some advantage as a result of chance. The detailed pairing rules are different in different variations of the Swiss system. As they are quite complicated, and it is undesirable to have a long delay between rounds to decide

9048-451: The same or similar score, players are ranked based on ratings or some other criteria. Subject to the other pairing rules, the top half is then paired with the bottom half. For instance, if there are eight players in a score group, number 1 is paired with number 5, number 2 is paired with number 6 and so on. Modifications are then made to prevent competitors from meeting each other twice, and to balance colors (in chess). For this method to work,

9152-465: The score groups cannot be too small, and thus for smaller overall fields score groups are not a suitable approach. This pairing system may have some issues with competitive integrity if a tournament where this system is used has qualifiers leading to it. For example, suppose a certain qualifier determines the 5th-8th seeds in an 8-team Swiss-style tournament. If the Dutch system is used, players or teams in

9256-677: The standings after the previous rounds. Thus, the system UEFA will be using for Champions League is not a Swiss system but Leandro Shara System, also known as the Pots System. A similar pre-seeded system (with similar mis-attribution to being "Swiss") is used in League A of the CONCACAF Nations League as of the 2023–24 season. International Student Badminton Tournaments depend on the Swiss ladder system to ensure its players get as many challenging matches as possible over

9360-424: The teams are ranked in order of the number of VPs they have accumulated in previous rounds, and the top team plays the second team, the third team plays the fourth team, etc., subject to the proviso that teams do not play each other twice. Software may be employed to do pairings, and in the early rounds it will match teams with approximately the same score but it will not result in a precise 1 vs 2, 3 vs 4, etc. This

9464-410: The third quarter plays the fourth quarter. Most of the players in the first and third quarters should win the first round. Assuming this is approximately the case, in effect for the second round the top eighth plays the second eighth, the second quarter plays the third quarter and the seventh eighth plays the bottom eighth. That is, in the second round, winners in the top half play each other, losers in

9568-562: The third-largest consumer hobby game convention in North America. It was held in the Anaheim Convention Center . In spite of Adkison saying that he did not want Gen Con to become a "mini-E3" in 2003, when E3 downsized in mid-2006, Gen Con LLC announced it would provide more show space for video game businesses. Gen Con described their intention to "pick up where E3 [left] off". Also in 2006, Gen Con LLC ran

9672-490: The top half is paired with the bottom half. For instance, if there are eight players in a score group, number 1 is paired to play number 5, number 2 is paired to play number 6 and so on. When the tournament, or a section of the tournament, has an odd number of players, one player usually is assigned a "Bye"—e.g. a round where the player is not paired.  Modifications are then made to balance colors and prevent players from meeting each other twice. The first national event in

9776-444: The tournament and after six rounds, the top player will qualify as they will be unbeaten. The remaining seven places are decided after a series of round robins and playoffs. Compared with a round-robin tournament , a Swiss tournament can handle many players without requiring an impractical number of rounds. An elimination tournament is better suited to a situation in which only a limited number of games may be simultaneously played in

9880-403: The tournament. For example, if a tennis tournament had sixty-four players, but only eight courts available, then not all matches in a round can be played at the same time. In a Swiss tournament, each round would have to be divided up into four waves of eight matches each. This would result in a total of twenty-four waves over the minimum six rounds. Conversely, for a single elimination tournament,

9984-413: The winner. The Players Tour is split into three regions: Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. Each region hosts three events, resulting in nine Players Tour events per season. The first major Magic: The Gathering tournament was the 1994 World Championship held at Gen Con '94. It was a single-elimination 512-person Constructed event run over three days of competition. The winner, Zak Dolan, received

10088-604: The world chess federation ( FIDE ). In some events, especially when none or few of the players have an official chess rating, the players are paired randomly. Once play begins, players who win receive a point, those who draw receive one-half of a point, and those who lose receive no points. Win, lose or draw, all players proceed to the next round where winners are paired against opponents with equal performance scores (e.g. Round 1's winners play each other, Round 1's draws play each other, etc.). In later rounds (typical tournaments have anywhere from 3-9 rounds), players face opponents with

10192-488: Was a frequent donor to CCF. Some individuals within the gaming community expressed disappointment about the decision; author and game designer Rich Burlew , for example, called it "insulting," and the response by gamers led both the CCF and Gen Con to issue official statements explaining what had happened. As a result of the misunderstanding, Gen Con chose to support a different charity. On March 23, 2015, Adrian Swartout sent

10296-423: Was again adjusted, now starting and ending in May. Additionally, the World Championship lost its status as a Pro Tour event, resulting in three Pro Tours to be held each season. In 2014, the amount of Pro Tours went back up to four a season. Cash prize pools gradually increased from around $ 150,000 per tournament in 1996–97 to $ 250,000 in 2012. In the first Pro Tour season each Pro Tour event awarded more prizes than

10400-521: Was announced that Sponsor's Exemption invitations would be given regularly to players who "showed excellence in play and positive community activity during the qualifying season." Previously, invitations to those who did not meet qualification criteria were given out very rarely. Players Tour events consist of one constructed and one limited format. Constructed Players Tours utilize either Block Constructed, Standard, or Extended (succeeded by Modern in 2011 season), while Limited Players Tours usually employ

10504-418: Was held as planned. On November 20, 2008, a letter of intent to purchase Gen Con LLC's assets was filed with the bankruptcy court. It announced that a to-be-formed company called Gen Con Acquisition Group would purchase Gen Con LLC., for an amount equal to Gen Con LLC's outstanding debt. Gen Con's president, Adrian Swartout, described the letter as "suspiciously cryptic" and concluded that the offer "is not in

10608-662: Was held in 1981 and 1982, first in Cherry Hill, New Jersey , and then in Chester, Pennsylvania . In 1985, Gen Con moved to the Milwaukee Exposition & Convention Center & Arena (MECCA) in Milwaukee , due to a need for more space. After the move, attendance steadily rose from 5,000 to a peak of 30,000 in 1995, making Gen Con the premier event in the role-playing game industry. In 1992, Gen Con broke every previous attendance record for game conventions in

10712-515: Was held in England for 8 years, eventually migrating from Camber Sands in the mid-1990s to Loughborough, where the final UK-based European event was held in 1997; the same weekend on which Princess Diana died. There was no European Gen Con in 1998, but it reappeared in Belgium in 1999 for a single year, before again reappearing in Paris for three years between 2006 and 2008. Benelux Gen Con was held in

10816-624: Was hosted at a variety of southern Wisconsin locations, including an American Legion Hall, George Williams College , and the former Lake Geneva Playboy Resort . In 1978 the convention moved to the University of Wisconsin–Parkside campus in Kenosha , where it remained through 1984. A Gen Con West was held in California for only three years, 1976–1978. From 1978 to 1984, Gen Con South was held in Jacksonville, Florida , and Gen Con East

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