In addition to the general tournament rules for Avenue tournaments, the following specific rules will be in effect for March Hare Madness.
March Hare Madness is an “Amazing Race” style tournament. This means that players will race around a course of games, with the lowest player or players at each station dropping out of the race. As soon as a player has passed the necessary minimum score to not be in danger, he or she will drain the remaining balls and move on to the next station. The current score needed to “pass” a machine will be written on an index card and posted on the game’s lockdown bar.
The number of players who fall by the wayside in each round will be determined by the number of people still in the race at the start of that round.
14 or fewer racers: 1 person per round
15-24 racers: 2 people per round
25 or more racers: 3 people per round
This continues until only 4 people remain. Those 4 will then do a playoff round on 3 randomly-chosen games, with 4, 2, 1, 0 scoring. The highest total score wins the tournament. If a tiebreaking game is needed, this will also be done on a randomly-chosen game.
Because I don’t want anyone to come out and not get to play at least 3 games, we will have optional buy-ins for the first 2 stations. Anyone eliminated in one of the first 2 stations may pay an additional $5 (also going to the charity) to buy back in. He or she will then pass the round and move on to the next game. As many people as want to buy in for the first two rounds will be allowed, so it is possible no one will be eliminated until station 3.
We will also have a rule that when multiple players are waiting to play, the highest numbered (lowest ranked) “seed” always plays first. This isn’t really “seeding” but just a way of aiming to have the players who are likely to have the shortest games play first, to keep the tournament moving quickly; for the lack of a better term, I’m calling it a “seed.” The seed will be assigned according to IFPA rank if available. Example: my IFPA rank is currently 1675. Joseph’s is 1122. Let’s say at the tournament he has the 6th highest rank and I have the 10th, so he is seed 6 and I am seed 10. According to the “highest numbered seed always plays first” rule, if we are both waiting at the same station, he would allow me to play first.
Extra balls will be turned on, but must be plunged. See the general tournament rules for more information.
When players finish a game, they should have a scorekeeper verify their score. Scorekeepers for this tournament will be me, Joseph N., Mike S., and Chris T. In the unlikely event of a tie that would affect who will be knocked out, the two tied players will play one ball on the same machine as a tiebreaker.
The official start time for the tournament is 6 pm. I will, however, allow people to start early provided I am present and ready to start taking scores. Players are asked to arrive by 5:45 to register if possible. Registration will end at 6:15 sharp. Anyone not registered by 6:15 cannot play, except those who RSVP’d and advised me of a late arrival. Late arrivers who have contacted me will be permitted to enter until such time as everyone already present and registered has completed the first game station. Once that first station has been completed by everyone present, no one else can enter the race.
All games should be played in one-player mode except during the playoffs. This is due to disadvantages certain games have for multiple player games (such as Theater of Magic and TotAN’s lock-spoiling) and the unfortunately non-trivial possibility of catastrophic failures.
This is a challenging location, because although it’s a great place to play and hang out (and eat delicious fries), the venue does not have keys, and the games can be finicky and unpredictable. As with the Silver Balls tournament, the prevailing ethos will be “roll with it.” This is for charity and for fun! For general information on what happens in the case of a malfunction, please see the generic rules. More specifically, the director (that’s me) has the right to remove games from the “course” at her discretion. I will have a high tolerance for imperfect play, but may need to rotate games out for serious problems. A game currently in progress, if it suffers from a catastrophic failure, will be removed and if anyone has not yet played it, all players will be considered to have “passed” that station and will move on.
We will be using all of the Avenue’s games that are considered reliable enough for tournament play and functioning well as of Wednesday. The exact list won’t be finalized until the day of the tournament.
Sudden Death Rule
To avoid outlasting the venue, we will have a sudden death rule in place if the tournament runs long. If more than 4 people are still playing at 11 p.m., the next game will be declared to be the final game of the race, and the 4 highest scorers on that game will move on to the “Final Four” playoff round.
