The Empire Builder Series tournament provides the opportunity to play several of Mayfair’s “Crayon Rails” games. Empire Builder and Eurorails will be offered in each of the three preliminary heats. Additionally players may choose to play variants if their selection has a three or four player interest. Variants include original Empire Builder [without Mexico], North American Rails, British Rails, India Rails, Australian Rails, Nippon Rails, Lunar Rails, Russian Rails and Iron Dragon.

To encourage faster play, a four card opening will be used, open contracts after “dumping” will not be used due to overwhelming disapproval. The five player semi-finals will feature Empire Builder including Canada and Mexico and the five player final game will be Eurorails.

MESE ADVANCEMENT TIE-BREAKERS: In Multiple Entry, Single Elimination events for multi-player games, players possibly qualify for Single Elimination play in the second round by winning any of up to four preliminary Heats. Occasionally, players may advance wihout winning a heat. Players can enter one or more Heats without limit. All MESE events for multi-player games consist of three rounds; an opening Round consisting of two to four Preliminary Heats, a semifinal and a Final. The semifinal round will advance a predesignated optimum number of players to fill the second round; i.e., 25 players for a five-player game, 16 players for a four-player game, etc. but in all cases will advance no more than half of all players which participated in the Preliminaries. If insufficient players advance to warrant a semifinal round, the scheduled semifinal will instead become the Final.

MESE TIE-BREAKERS: A Preliminary Heat win will NOT in itself guarantee advancement. All MESE events will advance the optimum number of players to the next round based on the following tie-breakers without exception.
1. Win in first Heat entered
2. Most Wins
3.Win in second Heat entered
4.Win in third Heat entered
5.Win in fourth Heat entered
6. has brought a copy of the game if needed for next round; otherwise GM may substitute game specific tie-breaker
7. average finish in all heats entered; e.g., a 2nd and two 3rds = 2.67 and beats two 2nds and two 4ths (average: 3)
8. high dice roll

“Win and you’re in” is no longer a given although it is a strong possibility. This system of tie breakers encourages repeat play in Heats without requiring it. A single win (especially in the first Heat entered) will probably advance that winner but is not guaranteed to do so. Conversely, players who continue to play additional heats after winning a Preliminary game only enhance their chances of advancement without damaging their prospects, but a player who wins their only Preliminary game will probably advance without investing further time in Preliminary play. Meanwhile, non-winners who continue in Preliminary Heats will have additional chances to qualify in search of that elusive first win since in most events, a single win will still advance you to a semi-final round.