Cursed Court Tournament Rules
Time and Location
Tournaments begin promptly at their scheduled times as printed in the convention schedule.
Entry
Entry to the tournament is subject to space limitations. Ticketed entrants will be seated first, and then generic ticket-holders up to the event’s maximum count of players.
Games
Games of Cursed Court will be played according to the printed rules, without optional rules.
The seating order of players, and starting player for each game, will be determined randomly by the tournament director.
Games will start ten minutes after the top of each hour of the tournament, and last no more than 50 minutes. No games may begin early, and any games that begin late will nevertheless end at at the top of the following hour. Any game in the midst of scoring at 50 minutes past the hour will finish scoring before results are adjudicated.
Any player not present when a game begins will forfeit one crown (and no coins) for that year each time their turn comes and they are not present. A player who misses an entire year of play because they are not present will be disqualified from that game and earn no points for it.
If any player objects to players in their game taking long turns, then all players in that game will be limited to taking 20-second turns for the remainder of the game. Any player who has not taken a turn after 30 seconds will forfeit a crown (and no coins) for that year. Turns will be timed by any method the tournament director determines is fair.
Cards will be dealt by any player mutually agreed by the players in a game, or by a player assigned by the tournament director in the event that the players can’t agree.
Face-down cards may not be purposely exposed until a year’s scoring phase. If accidentally exposed, the tournament director will adjudicate a solution.
Players may openly discuss gameplay, but all players are expected to try to win for themselves, and players may not collaborate to ensure another player’s victory. If the tournament director determines that players are collaborating, all such players will be disqualified from the tournament, and may not advance or win.
Tournament Structure
The tournament will be played in three rounds.
The first two rounds will consist of round-robin games.
The number of players in each round-robin game will be normalized as closely as possible, favoring four-player games, then five-player games, then six-player games, unless the venue’s seating limit requires other preferences, or there are fewer than four entrants.
Player match-ups for round-robin games will be determined randomly by the tournament director, with these exceptions:
Players from the same first-round game will not be seated together in the second round, where possible.
The tournament director’s seating assignments will be final, and not subject to appeal.
Records will be calculated by assigning points for round-robin game placements:
- 1st Place 5 points
- 2nd Place 3 points
- 3rd Place 2 points
- 4th Place 1 points
- 5th Place no points
- 6th Place no points
Tied players will each receive their place’s record points, and placements will be eliminated beneath them according to the number of players tied. For example, if two players tie for second place in a four-player games, the winner will receive 5 points, the tied players will receive 3 points each, and the fourth-place player will receive 1 point.
The best six records from the round robin games will be seated in a six-person final game, with exception:
If multiple players tie to fill the sixth seat in the final round, none of the tied players will be seated in the final round. Instead, those tied players will play in a special consolation round, which will be used to assign tournament placements past those seated in the final round. However, if placing tied players into a consolation game would reduce the final round below four seated players, enough tied players will be randomly selected to seat four players in the final round, and tied players who were not randomly selected will play in the consolation round.
The finish order in the final round will be the finish order for the tournament. That is, point values from round-robin rounds have no effect on the tournament’s finish order.
Tournament Directors
The tournament will be run by a tournament director, assisted by a number of assistant directors. Any player may request a rules or tournament adjudication from one of these directors. The adjudications of the assistant directors may be appealed by any player to the tournament director, whose decisions will be final.
Sporting Behavior
Good-natured, good-sported behavior is not optional, and will be expected from all entrants. Directors will issue one warning to players who violate this rule. The tournament director will disqualify and remove warned players from the tournament on their second violation. Removed players become ineligible to win placements or prizes.