1) Each game is played as 2 player games and 30 day time limit (apart from LOM which has 40 day limit). Recruitees start at the same hour as the recruiters.
Pretty basic.

2) The challenger (see below) chooses the scenario as one of "Lords of Midnight", "The Foul Return", "The Circle" and "Quadrant of Five". The citadel grab is set to 14 for LOM, 10 for TC and 8 for the TFR and QOF.

3) All games should start with the string [RUST] in the name (case insensitive)! Fun or interesting names after [RUST] are encouraged!
So I can monitor the progress.

4) All other options are the choice of the challenger!
See! this could be unfair. The challenger is decided for each game when a round is started.

5) The winner of each game stays in the tournament.
Normal, knockout tournament style, but...

6) The loser of two consecutive games is out of the tournament! (see? not completely unfair)
This is to compensate for bad luck and rule <7>. So, if you lose a game you'll stay on for the next round, unless you also lost the game before that. It also means, if you are not part of a round as per rule <10> it is the last two games you've played that counts, not the games of the last two rounds.

7) A player that has not made a move within 48 hours of it becoming his turn, or hasn't accepted an invite within 48 hours, forfeits (is that the word?) the game - no exceptions (loss of internet connection? vacation? illness? RL commitments? sorry, but this is the Rather Unfair Speed Tournament)
To ensure a speedy tournament - and yes, it is harsh or possibly unfair, but remember it's just a game. I know I'll have trouble doing this consistently.

8) When a new round is started, the umpire send a PM to the challengers for that round. Within 72 hours of that message being sent, the new games must be created (= invites sent) or the challenger forfeits the game. If a challenged player do not have a slot free for the game, or has invites turned off, the challenged player forfeits the game. The 48 hour rule from <7> also applies to accepting the challenge.
Same reasoning as <7>.

9) sonico is the umpire, and will participate (trust me )
I can be trusted. Generally.

10) Before each round is started the referee will randomly assign the games. If there's an odd number of players left for a round, one player is chosen to succeed to the next round without playing a game. When only three players are left, see rule <12>.

11) As long as the first round is being played, new players can join.
Even though other games of the first round has already started (or even finished) new players can join. They then alternate between being the challenger and the challenged player. This also modifies <10> for round one, so a player that could have just gone on to round two may have to play a game after all.

12) When only three players remain in the tournament they play two games of three players. The player who invites is chosen randomly by the umpire but the same player cannot invite twice in a row. If a player wins both of these games, he is the winner of the tournament. If two different players win these two games, the third player is out of the tournament. Then a final and decisive game is played. The challenger is chosen randomly by the umpire. Again.
An excellent suggestion to speed up the final part of the tournament.

sonico the Umpire

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