Fair enough. The only time I'd come up against the term was in a Battle Royale at a con, when we were paired into teams, then the winning teams fought each other, then the winners battled between themselves, so we started with 8 people, dropped to 4, then to 2.

I generally ignore everything to do with tournaments and most to do with Approved Play as I disagree with some fundamental approaches usually in play. It was the participation clix aspect of the CoG events (the heralds) that drew me in, and I'm following through on week 5 largely as a show of support for what they've done with this year's summer events.

Follow-up question: What is it that makes pairings of 1 on 1 "Swiss," then?

The way the pairings are determined through out the tournament. WK has a document here that explains the swiss pairing system in detail, but essentially the first round pairings are random and then the second and subsequent rounds pits the players ranked 1 and 2 against each other (and 3 and 4, 5 and 6, and so on) based on their win/loss then scores. The number of rounds varies depending on the number of people playing, but it is typically 3 - 4 rounds (don't really need to do 5 or 6 unless you've got a big venue).

This set up makes sure everyone gets to play every round (not counting byes, of course) and because of the method of pairings you tend to have the better players (the better win records) playing each other and the not so good players (the losing win records) playing each other; this tends to lead to pretty fun/evenly matched games after the first round. That isn't always the case of course (I've seen a players get absolutely steam rolled even in the final rounds), but as a general observation, it usually holds up.

Thanks! The document lays the details out nicely.

So, yeah... we're back to wondering what Wizkids was thinking when they only sent 5 maps out to each event..? (And why did they choose a large-scale map with four starting areas?)

I guess to support a 10 player tournament? But, it would have been nice if they sent a lot more (20-ish) so that everyone would go home with a new map. Unlike the newer narrower maps, with a square map, you could choose any side-hence the four starting areas.

Another quick question.

Say surfer starts his HSS move in hovering, and he takes a teammate along for the ride. Can teh surfer end his movement in soaring, placing the teammate adjacent to him at the end of the turn? I know surfer won't be able to tote his grounded buddy around the following turn as he starts in soaring.

Thanks

No, in order to carry someone he has to begin and end his move in hovering, setting the passenger down at the end of his action. So, if the Surfer plans on ending his move in Soaring (as I certainly would with this character while he's on any of his HSS clicks) he can't act as a taxi.

I just want to add a little emphasis here on the words 'ending his move in soaring.' Specifically 'ending'.

Surfer can still move into soaring when carrying another character (maybe his HSS target is soaring and he wants to avoid soaring's half range penalty on top of HSS's half range ), but he would then have to come back down to end his movement and drop off his passenger.

Right, and that could very well happen during the course of one of these games.

If I should decide to use the Surfer tomorrow (I'll be bringing him and Stardust and then looking to see what I pull) I expect any taxiing I'll be doing will likely be very early (perhaps the first move, but probably not) or late in the game, and very possibly not at all. With un-Outwittable HSS there's not likely to be any good reason for not ending each turn in Soaring so long as HSS is in play. Sure, two of his Speed points will be comsumed by moving out of and then back into Soaring at beginning and the end of a turn, but being able to cut all grounded/hovering piece's range in half is very useful. It'll likely be in the Surfer vs Surfer matches where it won't be as big a factor.

Interesting, as I believe my judge allowed this during week2.

Actually I could easily see a scenario where taxiing someone would be better than going into Soaring...since you can drop the taxi to block line of sight...If they have Stealth this could be very effective...or if you just need to get in real close for a shot and going into Soaring won't get you far enough away, plink the person you are carrying down between you and your opponent.

Another stupid question about something that may come up. Can you dual target using Psychic Blast?

This is probably late...but yes you most certainly can.

I know its a lil late to say what ?s will pop up but heres some good ones i had for the judge.

1.Since hhs is a move action,attack action,then another move action,do you fall before the attack, and if so can you run out,say your going to attack a fig or even an object or barrier,then come up the stairs and attack sumone adajacent to the stairs after you pop up then move.His answer was yes,because even free actions count as actions.This also answered my ? about if a fig is poisonded and gains earthbound can you attack them before they fall.

2.Can you outwit a power cosmic figs soaring, its not technically a power so you can.

3.If 2 players play inferno what happens.Does it still only deal one damage, deal 2 damage,or deal 1 damage twice.He said it dealed 1 damage twice.

4.If you fall in open air with a fig with mastermind,can you mastermind the damage, and if so do you mastermind before or after the fall, he said yes,before you fall.

5.Forgot to ask this 1 so if anyone knows let me know, does alantis rising make open air normal terrain or not.I know this wouldnt come up in the CoG but if you fall and get KOed can you go up the stairs before you die to get to a suicide squad member.I would think both of theses would be no but just want to make sure.