**This won’t go on the “Tournaments” tab, because I am playing.**

The basics: Participants will be sorted into groups, and some will advance to the knockout stage. From there, a champion will be crowned. Games will be on the Cold War variant. ANYONE may participate in the tournament, regardless of experience, Elo rating, or whether or not a user participated in the first Cold War Tournament.

Q: How do I enter the tournament?
A: State your interest by posting in this thread or by sending me a PM.

Q: Is there a “cutoff” point for the number of entrants?
A: No.

Q: Will games be rated or unrated?
A: The knockout stage will be UNRATED. Whether group stage games are rated or not will be decided on a group by group basis. Group A might decide it wants to play rated games, with Group B deciding the opposite. That would work just fine.

Q: How will groups be determined?
A: All entrants will be divided into pots based on the number of Cold War games they have won. The number of pots will likely be four. For example, if there are twenty entrants, the five with the greatest number of Cold War wins are in Pot 1, #6-10 are in Pot 2, and so forth. I will use a random number generator to complete the draw, with one entrant from each pot being selected for each group.

Q: Are there any exceptions to the aforementioned pots?
A: Yes. Last tournament’s champion (Maucat) is automatically in Pot 1 if they wish to participate in this tournament. Last tournament’s top four (Maucat, myself, Ubercacher16, and Grahamso1) must be in Pot 1 or 2 if they wish to participate.

Q: Why are pots being determined by Cold War wins, and not Elo rating or a random draw?
A: I want each group to contain players with different levels of experience playing Cold War. Furthermore, this is a Cold War tournament, not a World War IV tournament. There is a better chance of the X best players meeting in round Y if groups are determined by Cold War wins.

If two players have recorded the same number of Cold War wins, the first tiebreaker is least Cold War losses. The second tiebreaker is highest Elo rating. The third tiebreaker is most phases played.