Tournament Format

In Santa Fe Rails, players build the Union Pacific, Santa Fe, Great Northern, Kansas City, and Southern Pacific railroads from their bases inChicago, New Orleans, Kansas City, and Milwaukee. The short lines, Texas Pacific, Denver & Rio Grande Western, Western Pacific, and Rock Island, make their appearance in the middle of the game. Players play City cards to lay claim to end-game victory points for the number of railroads connected to their cities. They lay track pieces to create the connections of the major railroads to those cities. Special cards allow railroads to establish Branch Lines. Players may opt to grab special cards that allow the laying of extra tracks on a turn. Boomtowns can be created out of small-value cities. Short line railroads can be used to connect out-of-the-way places. The game ends when all the track pieces for the major railroads have been used. The Cities with the higher values and most railroad connections will score the most.
 
This year we're expanding to a third heat. Play in as many as you wish. Four-player games will be the preferred format. 16 will qualify for the semi finals. Advancement will by Heats: Most Wins (HMW)
 
Multiple heat winners will be split up at the semi-final tables. Four winners advance to the Final. If we have less than four tables in the semi-finals, then we'll advance enough 2nd place finishers to get four finalists. Percentage of winner's score will be the tiebreaker to determine which runnerup advances.
 
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 events for most multi-player games consist of three rounds; an opening Round consisting of two to four Preliminary Heats, a semi-final and a Final. The sem-ifinal 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 semi-final round, the scheduled semi-final will instead become the Final.

Heats: Most Wins (HMW) - Standard tiebreakers used to trim the field or identify alternates to complete the field, as listed below in the following order: 
Most Wins (e.g., total in all heats entered);
Win in first Heat entered;
Win in second Heat entered;
Win in third Heat entered;
Most second place finishes
Best second place finish as a percentage of winner's score
Average finish in all heats entered (e.g., a 2nd and two 3rds = 2.67 and beats two 2nds and two 4ths = 3); and
High dice roll.
 
Tournament Officials

I will be playing again this year. Tom DeMarco and Bob Wicks will be the two Assistant GMs who will always rule against me :-) Feel free to write with any questions about the tournament. My email is listed below.
 
Special Tournament Rules

Only the standard rules will be used. The Advanced game and optional rules will NOT be used unless all players at the table agree to use them. Each round will be limited to 100 minutes from when the last group is organized. A 15-minute warning will be called. At the end of 100 minutes, the current turn will be completed plus one additional turn will be played, then final scores will be tallied.