The Championship Invitational - New tournament series with prizes!

Rank Team Coach Points W-D-L Race Value 1 Leaping Lizards Alex 1349 11-3-1 Liz 1710 2 The Cheese Puns Bob 1307 20-3-7 Ska 1760 3 I Know Kung Fu Charles 1287 6-1-0 Orc 1410 4 Musical Beers David 1263 5-0-0 HiE 1330 5 Full Louse Alex 1262 6-2-0 DaE 1560 6 The Elements of Style Elvis 1247 8-1-2 Ska 1720 7 Evil Theme Songs Frank 1237 7-2-1 Uwd 1400 8 I'm a Lumberjack Frank 1237 21-8-9 Ama 1830 9 xxSeipherothxx Greg 1235 7-2-1 Nur 1470 10 Wow Such Blood Helen 1226 9-4-2 Dwa 1600 11 Here's Looking at Goo Ivan 1225 9-1-3 Uwd 1710 12 The Spooniest Bards James 1215 16-6-7 Nec 1660

I've kicked around the idea of starting a tournament for a little while, but never really had a good idea which would make the tournament interesting or different. For short leagues, we have the Mister Hadwick Democracy Bowl, and for long leagues, we have The Ndamukow Moo Memorial League. I knew I wanted to run something, but I didn't want to make it a rehash of the same old things.But today, I was watching the Shoutcraft America Starcraft 2 tournament, and I realized it's a format worth stealing. How about I run something to make the Mister Hadwick Invitational competitive again? And how about I offer up a real prize? Not a little in-game trophy, but something with real monetary value?Let's call it the Mr. Hadwick Championship Invitational.Here's the gist of it. I announce a fast-paced tournament in the near future where the top ranked players in the Mister Hadwick Invitational are allowed to compete for cool prizes. Then, I give you a few weeks to play in the MHI and get your ranking up. The top eight players make new 1000TV teams and fight it out. Someone wins and gets awesome prizes, and we do it again. But those eight teams that qualified their owners for the league can't qualify them again. So we get some fresh blood in there, get some new teams made, and do it again, for even more fabulous prizes.Sounds good? Then read on.---The top 8 players in the Mister Hadwick Invitational league (as determined by points) on Monday, Jan 13 at 11:59PM Eastern Standard Time will be invited to the tournament. If two teams are tied for points, then the tiebreaker will be the order they are listed in the league rankings.(You can use matchmaking or you can organize games to find opponents to play against in MHI. But see the legalese below regarding win-trading or forfeiting games.)After the standings are finalized, I will attempt to contact the 8 invited players, as well other people who just missed the cut. All players will have until Monday, Jan 20 at 11:59PM Eastern Standard Time to get in touch with me, confirm that they wish to participate in this league, create a new 1000TV team, and submit it to the tournament league in Blood Bowl. Failure to do so will result in the forfeiture of their spot. If this happens, then their spot will be given the the next highest ranked player who does not have a spot yet, provided they have gotten in touch with me and have a team ready to enter.As usual, no default names for players in the Championship tournament. If you have qualified for the tournament, but do not wish to participate, let me know, and I will give your spot to the next available player in the rankings.Once we have our eight players, the tournament format will be one divisions of eight teams which will each play round robin against the other teams in their division. The top 4 teams will enter a tournament bracket, and the winner of that will win the tournament.As with most of the cKnoor community leagues, you will have one week to get your tournament games completed. If a game is not played and only one player has made an effort to get in touch with the other, then that player will be assigned the default win. If neither player has made an effort, they will be given a draw. (But please don't make it come to that.)The current plan is that there will be multiple Mr. Hadwick Championship Invitationals. If there are future tournaments, then a player will be allowed to participate in multiple tournaments, but they will not be allowed to qualify for the tournament with a team which has already been used to qualify them for a past tournament. For example, if Alex qualifies for Mr. Hadwick Championship Invitational 1 with his team "Leaping Lizards" then he will not be able to qualify for Mr. Hadwick Championship Invitational 2 with "Leaping Lizards". However, if he gets a different team into the top eight in time for that tournament, then he will be allowed to participate again.Let's say the rankings in the Mister Hadwick Invitational look like this on Monday, Jan 13 at 11:59PM Eastern Standard Time:In this case, the qualifying players will be:Alex, for the first place team, "Leaping Lizards"Bob, for the second place team, "The Cheese Puns"Charles, for the third place team, "I Know Kung Fu"David, for the fourth place team, "Musical Beers"Elvis, for the sixth place team "The Elements of Style" (The fifth place team was skipped because Alex was already invited.)Frank, for the seventh place team "Evil Theme Songs"Greg, for the ninth place team "xxSeipherothxx" (The eight place team was skipped because Frank was already invited.)Helen, for the tenth place team "Wow Such Blood"I attempt to contact these eight players in addition to the next few players in the rankings, and get them to make fresh teams for the league. However, Charles does not get back in touch with me, and Ivan (who is in ninth place with his team "Here's Looking at Goo") is ready to take his place. So the eight players in the Mr. Hadwick Championship Invitational 1 are Alex, Bob, David, Elvis, Frank, Greg, Helen, and Ivan. They'll make their new 1000TV teams, and we'll go from there.Note: None of the eight teams used to qualify ("Leaping Lizards", "The Cheese Puns", "Musical Chairs", "The Elements of Style", "Evil Theme Songs", "xxSeipherothxx", "Wow Such Blood", or "Here's Looking at Goo") may be used to qualify a player for the Mr. Hadwick Championship Invitational 2, or any later tournaments. However, Alex and Frank have other teams which are in the top eight, so they might be able to qualify for the next one. Also, since Charles did not participate, his team remains eligible to qualify him for season two.Obviously, you don't need to give anyone your contact information to play in the MHI. And if you qualify for the tournament, I will make every effort to try and get in touch with you. But if you want to make sure I'll be able to find you, here's a spreadsheet where you can put in your contact information.$25 Steam gift certificateSteam gamesThere will be a prize for this tournament beyond the recognition of your peers. This will most likely be in the form of a steam gift card, steam games, or something like that. I'll put in something on my end, but if you wish to add something to the pool for the winner of this tournament, please contact me in a personal message in Steam.Currently, I've received a few gifts to hand out. I don't think all of the prizes will be handed out in tournament number 1 because I want to make sure we have stuff to hand out for future tournaments. But if we get enough prizes, I might make a prize for second place as well.Many thanks to the following people for donating items for the prize pool:Slightquills: Railroad Tycoon 2 PlatinumHabilsucks: PrototypeUPxGilky: XCOM: Emeny UnknownZenLoser: South Park: The Stick of TruthPlayers are not allowed to win-trade, organize the forfeiture of games, or otherwise schedule games against an opponent with the intention of one player forfeiting the match to raise the rating of another. Any teams found in violation of this rule will not be eligible for entry in the tournament, and may be banned from all future tournaments.In addition, any players who organize games to win in a way which is against the spirit of fair competition (for example, only playing games against a single opponent, or only playing against teams with much lower team values) may also have their team banned from the tournament. If you are not sure what constitutes fair competition, you may contact me by private message for more details.If any players have been banned from any other official cKnoor community tournaments or leagues for unsportsmanlike conduct or for failure to play matches (including, but not limited to, Mister Hadwick Democracy Bowl, Ndamukow Moo Memorial League, or Mister Hadwick Invitational) they will also be banned from this tournament series.EDIT: Dec 9 2013 - Changed the format of the final tournament in the rules section.EDIT: Dec 20 2013 - Added some prize information.EDIT: Jan 10 2014 - Added a tournament bracket for the top 4 players in the tournament after the round-robin is over. Cyanide doesn't support the format I was originally looking for.