Rules Revised for GOF4

I made some major revisons to the tournament rules for GOF4. The main changes:

* Simplified the "number of players" requirement. Players can now join and form games as they desire, with the only requirement being that they play one 2-player, and one 3-player game at some point. {my thinking here was to encourage some play of the "lighter" games - as they are somewhat less "serious" than the big-boy 4-player games, they might get overlooked in the heat of the tourney} Also, the first 8 games played are scored, with no requirements on the type played. There is an option to omit the first game of the day from scoring if all players agree at the start. {made this change thinking that players that choose chess as their first game, and are unfamiliar with the use of the clock, may want to give it a try first so they are not frustrated when they run out of time in their first game, which happens frequently when introducing players to timed play}

* Eliminated the "swiss" pairing system. Players may play anyone they wish, and are simply encouraged to invite everyone to participate. Game-winner matching is gone.

* Added and removed a few games - Scrabble being added in the 3-player group, and Nexus Ops and Metro being removed.

* Modified the "number of players" requirement. Now you may play games with any number of players. However, points are only scored for the category that the game is in. If fewer than the "category number" of players are playing, the points scored go down to proper level. If more than the recommended number are playing, the maximum scored is at the base category. e.g. A 6-player game of Alhambra still only scores like a 3-player, and a 5-player game of Puerto Rico only scores like a 4-player. {This was done for a couple of reasons: First, because the length of the lighter (3p) games does not increase much with more players - choosing exclusively these games could allow you to race ahead of the players that would chose 4p and 5p games. Second, wanted to allow games to be played with less than the optimal number of players if they wish to give flexibility}

* Added a 6-player option, with points being scored as in a 5-player. Fifth and sixth player score zero points.

* Reduced the points for 5-player wins to 20, and increased the points for a 3rd place finish in a 4-p game to 3. {This was done to incease the attractiveness of the lighter games and 4-player games relative to 5-player. The small change to the 4-player points was made to tighten the range slightly, and give the odd 3rd place finishing player a better chance to recover}

All of these changes were made to reduce bookkeeping, allow players more flexibility in chosing games that they would enjoy, and to accomodate new players by making it easier for them to be paired up for games. The new rules can be accessed here.