Thanks, you're welcome!
Sorry for the early timeouts. I have tried to contact the affected players, but there is no way to do this if they don't open their app. As far as I know there is also no additional information that a tournament has started. I'd really appreciate that feature to allow for a bit more of interaction.

    6 days later

    I decided to launch the second wave today on Sunday. Most of the first wave are finishing or at least in good progress. The first moves of the new games should be easy, anyway. In about three weeks, this stage could be finished.
    We already had a couple of timeouts. I repeat: Whoever ends up with a negative score will be ejected from the tournament. I'll promote from lower leagues accordingly and invite new players to the lowest division.

      One Note. My game crashed and I couldnt play unto Ende. Was in good Position...

        Could you restart this game?

        Cleveman Unfortunately, no. I can't do this as a normal tournament admin. I contacted support, though, about that game. If they suggest such a solution (reset and restart the game), I'd go for it. I'll keep you posted.

            Cleveman Support has replied and offered a restart as an option. I'll let them figure out how to do it and hope that you will be able to restart that game. All progress of the previous one would be lost, though. They cannot recover any mid-game status, apparently.
            In case this doesn't work, we'll probably just ignore that game and score it neutrally for all players (like 2.5 for each player). I hope I don't have to do that.

                9 days later

                Jorrig, may I suggest to relegate all no-shows in the last group. They really mess up the comp.

                  Diogenes I firmly intend to kick them out for next season, move all remaining players up accordingly and invite replacements for the last tier. Sorry for that, this is the problem for anonymous signup.

                      @Jorrig, speaking of suggestions for next round, can you give some notice (1 week?) of when it will start via here and maybe FB? Some folks may be no-shows because of unknown, surprise start dates, and not having particular reason to check on app w/in 2 day window.

                        NyaLala Yes, sure, will do that. So notice given now, Stage 2 has just 2 outstanding game, and I'll launch next stage as soon as they're finished. This might be by next weekend, although there may be some delay, since I'll try to invite new players for the timeouts.
                        I was thinking your way, too, but I launched the games in two waves, and those players timed out in both batches. So I doubt that this was a problem of notification. It is also possible for those players to complain either here, on FB or via ingame message. I even tried to contact them there, to no avail. So I doubt that this will improve by a notification. Though I do wish there was some possibility to send some ingame message to all tournament as a moderator. A push message on the mobile/laptop would be the most effective way to contact players.

                          Stage 2 has finished, thanks to the players of that restarted game for finishing so quickly! I have to kick out 6 players who finished with a negative score (=many timeouts), so I have opened the signup for 6 additional players. It is posted on FB, and 4 slots are already filled. I'll launch stage 3 as soon as we're complete. I have also decided to launch all games at once. I cannot split them in any meaningful way, and timeouts didn't seem to depend on the number of parallel games. I hope that's fine for all of you.
                          I'll place the newjoiners in the lowest division unless I know that they are very strong players, in which case I might advance them to some higher division.

                            All sessions are created, but I cannot launch them, since I get an http 500 Server Error. Please be patient, I'll try again later and otherwise contact support.

                              Regarding the seeding: Most new players are put in the lowest division, but some of them I've seeded higher, because I know them and they play more or less on my level. Everybody got their deserved promotion, and some players have been saved from descent, so I hope this is fine with everyone.

                                Just joined the tournament. I see the 7 players in my group, but how can I tell when my matches are, or who they are against?

                                Jorrig Appreciate the notice, and will appreciate it going forward (saw post on FB) — can't hurt to set precise expectations! +1 to better tournament administration tools, may be worthwhile raising to Support. Thanks, Jorrig.

                                    wombats111 Just go to the "Games" tab and you'll see all sessions. Unfortunately, I can't launch them yet, I've contacted support. Since it is weekend, I don't expect a reply before Monday.

                                        I have launched the next stage. I have always tried over the weekend and now it finally worked. So I clicked the button, before I lose access. Good luck everyone!

                                          13 days later

                                          @Jorrig, will the next wave be all 4 games at once again or more incremental? If the former, can I be withdrawn (I don't have time to keep up w/ that many games unfortunately). Thank you for hosting this!

                                            NyaLala Most certainly not. This is also too stressful for me, too many games in decisive Age III state for my own good. I'll probably split in three batches regardless of who plays there and then stagger them over two or three weeks. This way we may have 4 parallel games for a time, but not all in the critical phase. Would this be an improvement?
                                            Sorry for the inconvenience, I am also learning each stage about the seeding algorithm and the tournament admin tool.