Hey everyone! I'll keep this short and sweet, especially since it's 8AM and I'd like to get some sleep lmao. But we've had a few solid discussions, recommendations, crit, and even anon response about the tournament setup. We realize the godmodey, all-inclusive part of the event is hard to escape and that a lot of people are feeling left out without anyone to really work into pairings, especially the newer kids.

(EDIT: 27th 1AM) So we'd like to bring a re-tool to the table, and discuss randomization! While we'd definitely be keeping the mindfuckery spirit of things and the setting entirely, our proposed idea would be that everyone ICly chooses the partner that they trust the most as per usual for the first round, or everyone can go in alone and get randomly shuffled, or wait in the initial room like we already had laid out. But after that first match, we'd randomize the rest (with a few requested exceptions). This way would be a lot easier to sort into brackets and organize, but we also realize that a lot of people have already plotted out their rounds and may enjoy the CR potential. TL;DR Round 1 stays ICly picked, Rounds 2/3/4 are OOCly randomized and finalized.

After more (and incredibly helpful!) discussion on other options and ideas, we've worked in a few other ideas and modified the original plan to incorporate pairs you've already discussed and plotted out. You can request to keep pairs you'd really like to keep from future rounds, but we'll have to work them into rounds 1/2 or maybe round 3. All round 1 plans will still be perfectly fine (just please re-comment!), and we'll take requests for matches in round 2. It'll be easiest to work around the round 1 brackets to accommodate round 2, but rounds 3/4 will be difficult to wiggle around and make work. We can try but nothing's guaranteed! Some match plans will need to be forfeited if you planned all the way up through round 4, but we'll try to meet in the middle as much as possible.

While it'd definitely be easier and fairer, we do understand that there may be others who would prefer not to do things that way just as well that there are those who would. So again, a poll! We're definitely doing our best to remain flexible on these larger events and keep an ear to the ground, but rest assured we won't keep bugging you with polls and wishy-washiness. I'm very sorry it took so long to get this post up, and it may seem too late-- but the event is still almost two weeks away. Bear with us a little longer!

To make our points/reasons clear, while we've said it in the mod plurk I'll say it again here: the entire point for bringing up the option of a do-over is so that we can plan everything out round by round, from the bottom up this time. Our largest problem and complaint is that people are planning for future rounds and not figuring out rounds 1/2/3, leaving those rounds to essentially be "who wants to die so my character can fight this person we've already planned in Round 3/4?", which is both upsetting for other players and is also making it a lot harder for us to map out the brackets. So, onto how this will work!

• TL;DR, A POINT LIST:
  
• Everyone will keep/pick their first round ICly! The other options remain the same (going in alone, or just staying in the initial waiting room, period.)
  
• After a set time period open for discussion (say, ~72 hours) if winners haven't been decided and finalized in a sub-thread, we'll roll dice and decide for you.
  
• With Round 1 finalized, we'll take the winners and put them into a pot for randomized Round 2 matches-- or you can request to keep matches you've already worked out from the plotting post. The Round 2 thread will be open for discussion. Another 72 hours to discuss and decide on winners, rinse and repeat for Round 3 and Round 4. (maybe take the winner pot from each round and let people choose partners from it, randomizing the rest?)
  
• There is the option to SWAP OPPONENTS or KEEP PRE-PLANNED MATCHES! We'll be very flexible on this!

(And one last note-- if at any time you want to change your vote to agree/disagree with further discussion updates, you can change your vote via the link on the poll! It's greatly helping us to keep accurate numbers, so please do remember to change it if your idea changes.)

(EDIT: Jamie, 4/27 1AM) I've reworded most of the top plot details, and streamlined the edited-in updates we've discussed with players both in the mod plurk and on the entry here. I hope everything makes more sense! We'll add in any future updates at the bottom here dated/timed to PST.)

(EDIT: Jamie, 4/27 12PM) NVM on the weapons thing-- we're just gonna take the weird rule out altogether so people can come in with whatever they had on them on the time, and we can randomize weapons by request for anyone unarmed. o/