Format for HU tournies

[omgwtfnoway]

Hey guys, let me know what you think about this.
I think it's a real pain in the ass that hu tournies as run on stars need an even (2^n) number of players and I was trying to think of a way around it.
Something I thought of that might work is a free for all period using a "swiss style" matching system. something similar to this is used by blizzard entertainment which runs automated tournaments with this format for warcraft3. see the automated tourney description here.
basically there's a free for all period of a specified length where you try to play a large number of games (no maximum). after each match you are paired against a new opponent of equal or similar record. This matching system has the advantage of sorting players automatically based on their skill level.
after the ffa period there can be a playoff format using the top 4/8/etc players. but i don't think this is necessary; just divide the prize pool according to position among the top x% of the field.
comments? ideas?
i think this tourney format has potential and could be very exciting + profitable for good players but i'm not exactly an impartial observer here [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[johnnyrocket]

they dont need to be 2^n, some of the nightly tournies dont hit the max, people just get byes in round one and some dont, then round 2 is all 2^n after this and it works out fine.

[Lord_Strife]

I play swiss style for magic tournaments all the time and while it is good for that, I think it would be bad for heads up. It seems like you're trying to get more value out of your tournament entry because you don't like to be out after you lose your first game which I certainly can't blame you for. However, giving byes and getting onto the next round is certainly the way to do it. Some HU matches take just about the full amount of time sometimes, so if you play 5 rounds of swiss that break into a top 4/8, we're looking at a 6-7 hour tournament, vomit

[omgwtfnoway]

why would it need to take 6-7 hours?
the way i envision this tourney the sets of matches wouldn't be synchronized and you'd play another as soon as you finished the current one. players would end up with similar, but not identical, numbers of matches played.