So, my first GPT is about to start in an hour and an interesting question came up.

We're having both a cut to top 8 (of course) and a draft when this happens, will pairings work in the normal fashion for this? (1-8, 2-7, etc) How should these players be seated for the draft? Should I maybe obscure where each player is in the top 8 and just tell them they made it? (ie: grats, you're in the top 8! What position? tell ya later)

This is covered in MTR 10.4. Players are seated randomly, and you then use the normal pairing algorithm for a draft pod. One interesting side effect is if you're using modified Play/Draw, the 2-4 seeds aren't guaranteed to play first in the Ro8.

The pairing will be 1-5 3-7 2-6 4-8, after their seat number in the randomized draft pod. In other words, cross pairing.

With that said, the rule about the higher seed deciding to play or draw first in the top 8 is not mandatory for GPTs, see MTR 2.2. In fact, the default is that it is not used, and you should let the players know before round 1 if you intend to use that rule. In my city, we always use it, but we make sure players are aware of that (both in general and before each individual GPT starts).

Edited Even Lindell Heggø (Nov. 2, 2014 04:30:00 PM)

I tend not to use the alternate play/draw rule for Top 8 of my Limited GPTs BECAUSE of the random seating for the draft. I feel that having the 1 seed and the 2 seed across from each other creates a feel-bad for the 2 seed when it is in effect. Having said that, I religiously use the alternate play/draw rule for my constructed top 8s.

They don't need to register their draft decks do they? This might also be being asked too late

Originally posted by MTR Section 2.7:

Players are required to register their decks and sideboards (if applicable) in Competitive and Professional REL
tournaments. The Head Judge may require registration in Regular REL tournaments.

Im getting the feeling that most of my questions would be answered and my problems solved if l just read the comp and tournament rules cover to cover. Thanks for the help everyone.

In order to expedite the Top 8 draft, I usually have the players lay out their deck and sideboard then write their name on a piece of paper and snap a photo of it.

Adam's suggestion is 100% accurate - i suggest doing it on tablet device as the larger screen is helpful here and sometimes on phone screens it can get annoying to have to continuously zoom in and out to read card names

I would like to point out that from the most recent update we now use the play/draw rule for top 8 based on standing as a standard in all competitive tournaments.

Originally posted by Niels Viaene:

I would like to point out that from the most recent update we now use the play/draw rule for top 8 based on standing as a standard in all competitive tournaments.

Careful! That change isn't just for competitive, it's for all top 8 tournaments (MTR 2.2). I love this change, and my players do, too!

Originally posted by Even Lindell Heggø:

The pairing will be 1-5 3-7 2-6 4-8, after their seat number in the randomized draft pod. In other words, cross pairing.

Is this supported by WER?

Last time I had a draft playoff, I seated them randomly. Then, If I'm not mistaken, when I paired the quarterfinals, WER paired them using cross-Swiss-standings instead of Seat numbers.

Originally posted by Jorge Monteiro:

Is this supported by WER?

Last time I had a draft playoff, I seated them randomly. Then, If I'm not mistaken, when I paired the quarterfinals, WER paired them using cross-Swiss-standings instead of Seat numbers.

had the same problem…
I just paired them manually.

I believe it is supported, but you'll have to ask a TO as I don't have
access to WER.

My sealed PPTQ we didn't do the magic incantations the right way, so
we just manually paired them after manually randomly seating them.

Some of you may have seen my rant in another thread, about how you shouldn't re-do pairings or manually pair, just because you're convinced WER is wrong? Well, this is not one of those cases - if you can't figure out how to get WER to randomize & correctly pair a Top 8 (or if it doesn't support it), then do as others have suggested.

d:^D