Fixing TEAM

With all the no shows plaguing TEAM there seems to be a desire to fix the system or do something about it. Fact is now-a-days most of us are very busy, and do our best to get 1-2 promos up per cycle. Unless you're a nut like me or those two maniacs in the Winters/Hart thread in EPW's PPV that's all that's expected of you. Yet for some reason people love the idea of signing up for big tournaments, but Rp'ing for them...That's a bit of work.

So my big answer for TEAM is simple. Make it like a Magic: The Gathering tournament.

MTG tournaments were played at the start in the Swiss Format, with however many rounds needed (You need 5 for 32 people, 6 for 64, 7 for 128 etc.) and then a top 8. Two losses in the swiss effectively shuts you out from top 8.

Swiss format is simple, you play people with the same record as you. You win round 1, you play a winner in round 2, win again, you play somebody else who's 2-0. By the same token, you lose round 1, you're playing an opponent with a loss in round 2...

With this set up you could rig the pairings to give a tough break loss in round 1 to a no Rp'er in round 2 and just declare the match a forfeit...Make it clear that a no show in any round without a *big time* acceptable reason is grounds for your character to lose the next round of the tournament and then be dropped out. "0-2 drop" was a common expression in magic tournaments and a sign your day went really crummy.

The drawback to this is that the tournament goes on a bit longer, cause to win it you could have to Rp for 8 matches instead of 5 in a traditional 32 man knockout tournament, you could make it 5 rounds of swiss and then a top 4 and save a match that way.

I think that having a format like this would create a strong finals, since the people that made the top 8 would clearly deserve it, and the other fun thing it would do is allow for crazy drama.

In the MTG tournaments if you were 3-1 after 4 rounds and had good tiebreakers, you would draw somebody else who was 3-1 with good tiebreakers, the two of you could intentally draw and make top 8...In TEAM that would be an option also, but what if one character just refused to do it, felt it was dishonorable, the drama of risking a sure spot in the top 8 just to be true to himself, his opponent can write outraged promos about what an idiot he's fighting, and how it sucks that of all the people he had to get in the last round, his was the one idiot that wouldn't take a deal.

Just food for thought.