Proposing A New Championship Tournament Format - Swiss-System(-ish)

Once you have been into Catan long enough, you might be interested in playing in a tournament. The table below illustrates my idea for a format, which can be applied to any tournament with at least 9 players.

The first column features qualifying matches. In case of having a larger number of participants, it can be expanded into a round-robin group stage with each group consisting of 3, 4, or 5 players.

The concept of priority will be shown in the second column and third column. The higher the bracket, the more opportunities you get. Top bracket players have a 100% chance to advance to the next round, while players in the mid bracket have 66.7%, and ones in the bottom bracket have only 33.3%.

The last column can be either the final game or a quarter/semi-final if there are more competitors. It can also be played as a best of 3 or a first reach 2 if necessary.

In a game of Catan, oftentimes the losers have the same number of Victory Points. In this kind of situation, the one with more concrete VPs (from settlements and cities) will be regarded as higher. Next, we will prioritise anyone who owns more bonus VPs the longest road and the largest army. Victory Point Cards have the least value because they are cheaper and too luck-based.

Another upside of this championship tournament format is that you are still able to recover after losing in your early rounds. Also, you do not have to keep winning in order not to get eliminated. Therefore, if you are truly good, you will be given chance to gain back your momentum.