Guild Wars 2 studio ArenaNet has been murmuring the words “Swiss tournaments” for months now, all the way back to Mike Z’s big post of promises a year ago. Now, it’s finally happening.
“Swiss tournaments have progressed enough that we need your help with the next phases,” ArenaNet’s declared. “On February 13 at noon Pacific Time (UTC-8), we’ll be running the first experimental Swiss tournament.” And the studio really does mean experimental; it’s expecting bugs and maybe even the cancellation of the whole shebang if it goes awry. Here’s how the whole thing works:
“Swiss is a system in which the number of rounds is based on the number of teams participating. You will not be removed from the tournament after losing in a Swiss round. In each round, each team plays a team with the same record, if possible. All teams will play all the Swiss rounds, unless they get a bye. […] Once the system launches, tournaments will start off in Swiss rounds. Once those rounds are finished, we’ll take the top teams in Swiss standings into a single elimination tournament. From here, the tournament will proceed under the current system.”
Ideally, the studio argues, this setup will avoid long waits with early DQs and offer more practice for teams. “Additionally, we’ll use the Swiss standings to seed the single-elimination portion of the tournament,” the devs write. “This is a much more accurate way to seed and should result in more competitive matches in later rounds of the tournament.” Rewards for this PvP type won’t be changing, though you can expect bigger gold payouts in automated matches.
