Hi Jorrig, does that include players who timed out in stage 1? Not sure how you/others feel about this but have seen in other tournaments that those who timed out automatically are excluded from following stages...
Swiss Open 2021
Lodon I decided to follow the suggestion from above and just promote everyone who didn't time out. Before waiting for some 27 replacements would probably take too long. I don't want those timeouts, so I'll exclude everyone and proceed to stage 4 directly. (I'll have to include one of them so that numbers match. I'll take the one who timed out last, i.e. somewhen in Age III)
Hi, I'm HHH. I think there's been a mistake, I have been second place during stage one (I have proof), and now I'm in a game of the second stage! I was in Roger Federer group 2, and now I'm in a game Martina Hingis group 7.reply asap, because I don't want to play this game
Thanks
To be honest I dont think its a good idea to change the rules in the middle of a tournament. I was expecting a Stage II and you just eliminated me (and some others like me), although this was not stated in the rules initially. I understand that organizing a tournament for approx 200 people is a hard job, but if you took the responsibility, you need to be more fair.
ChosenWizard You were one of the people who timed out in your first match. I have done this tournament before and I run a league with Fast Async games. The timeout players do not tend to return. If that were the case, you had plenty of time to make a statement here and tell me why you timed out (and promise to do better). I mentioned this also in one of the first comments, just to be sure. Unfortunately, I cannot change the main description page, as I keep receiving and http 500 error when I try to.
Honestly, I didn't expect so many people to just time out. When I subscribe to a tournament, I'll stay there and play it. We've had 25 players of 192 with a timeout. So what is the option? Continue as planned, replace all timeouts and wait for 25 new players? 2, 3 or even ten can be found quickly, but waiting for 25 would drag out the tournament for everybody. And no guarantee that it would be better next round. And by the time we get back to the main round, some of the winners might have moved on and be the new timeouts...
So I decided that it is the best to move on, even more so since the number of timeouts almost exactly matched the number of players who should be eliminated in Stage 3, anyway. This way everybody still in the game will have a minimum of three games, the only change is that the first round turned out to be a warm-up.
This is the longer explanation for the decision. As of you, I can only say that I respect you as a player and tough opponent, this is nothing personal. I have to decide what is best for all players and try to treat everybody the same way. And then imagine you have to manage some tournament with about 190 anonymous players, most of whom you don't know at all. There is no effective way of communication, very sparse feedback. How would you take a good decision? I very much prefer communication, some exchange with players and so on, but all I have is this and maybe some Facebook group. I'm sorry if I disappointed you, and I hope to meet you again soon in some other game or tournament!
Thank you for your explanation. You are right about making a statement, I should have contacted you, but I thought "nevermind, there is stage 2, you can get to the next stage there". Timeout was totally out of my control, and it was my first timeout in a tournament and as far as I remember, in the game I had a good start, so I would not leave that intentionally. But I agree about your point, if you lose 25 out of 192 in the first phase, you need to find a way to continue the tournament.
ChosenWizard Thanks for your understanding. I only knew you as quite a dedicated player, so I was also surprised that this happened. I highly doubt that we will have zero timeouts this round. There will probably a loser's round after this one. If there is some players to be replaced due to timeout I'll send you an invitation to that one.
10 days later
- Edited
So I think I timed out in my game, so does that mean that's it for me in this tournament, since this is actually Stage 4?
I think I was playing as if it was default async, so I usually checked twice a day, so I guess that's a lesson learned for fast async games.
I was actually doing well in my match too 
marcusesses1 As said before, if you timed out and tell me that it was by accident, I can still invite you for the next loser's round. There will be one (the next stage), and I'll send you the invitation. Starting from next round, though, a timeout will place you last and you will leave the tournament.
Jorrig Yes that would be great, thank you.
4 days later
Next round is initiated. Remember, this is a loser's round. Losers in these games are out, winners will rejoin the winners from last stage for the final K.O. stages. I kicked out the timed out players, and thus we're waiting for a couple of replacements. I believe this will fill up quickly.
All winners will have to rejoin manually next stage. I'll invite you, but you'll have to accept that invitation so that we can continue. After that stage, all invitations will be automatic again.
Jorrig hi Jorrig, not sure if my previous post was lost. Sorry if I’ve doubled up. I’m new to this online tournament stuff and was wondering how we find out when the games take place andwhat time of day they are. I’m UK so pretty close to CET and can reassure you that any game I commit to, win or lose I will finish. Please help me to understand what to do and when. Cheers
HTG Hello HTG! The games are launched by me at a convenient CET time (Switzerland), but they will be played around the clock. Players can join from anywhere, so all timezones can be represented. On Fast Async you'll most likely run into the red sometimes, over night, for example, but as long as that clock doesn't run to zero, everything's fine. So, if you can play around three times a day, you should generally be fine. You can make your moves whenever it suits you best. Join and you'll see!
20 days later
Ok, Stage 3 is finally over, and we'll proceed to normal tournament mode now. I have taken over all winners of the loser's round who are automatically assigned. All winners from stage 2 have received an invite and need to confirm their participation again. When hopefully all have done so, I'll launch the games. The road so far has been a bit rough for me and forced me to take some decisions:
- I didn't notice that the appendix tournament was oversubscribed. It is displayed as 3/4, and I only see applicants when I go to edit mode. I didn't know this before, so I missed all the waiting players. When I finally did notice, all other games were already halfway through. So I decided to promote all 3 players from there to the next round, so basically everyone passed except the timeout.
- Two spots were open for this round, anyway. I handed one of them to the players who managed to draw for second place in stage 3, so that was easy. The last spot I awarded to the player who lost his game by the lowest margin to 2nd place. This was ChosenWizard (4 points) before Silent82 (5 points) and Carbon14 (6 points). Close decision, but at least it was no tie. If some players should fail to join the next stage within the next days, I'll send invites to the runners-up.
- Apparently, I have made a mistake and took Sandwhale over to the loser's round, although he had won his game in Stage 2. Sorry for that. This left one more spot open which I filled with the remaining player from the appendix tournament.
I very much hope that we're now through the most difficult part. From now on I'll just take over everybody to the next stage and cross out the losers.
This is really difficult to set up, so please apologise for the inconvenience. I can only sum up briefly my issues:
I cannot take over people from previous stages automatically, only from the last one. So all winners from previous rounds need to confirm again. Now, the problem is, some didn't reply, some just rejected. That leaves some positions open which I can now try to fill with other participants. I have done this for all narrow misses of ChosenWizard, Silent82 and Carbon14. This was not enough, however. On top, while sending out the invitations, the tournament is "public", so everyone else can join, which is really not the intention. I cannot block this however, so I have to check on each and every one (in theory) whether they deserve their spot or not. I have not done this and instead relied on the sequence of application, i.e. I checked the last ones in the list until I got to someone surely qualified. I kicked out all surplus players, but remained short 3 players. These I accepted although they don't really deserve their spot. The players are: Alienchick, Nigma and balarithon. Without them we couldn't continue, so I decided to give them a chance. However, I'll apply tougher rules: They need to win their game in order to continue. Second place is not enough. In case they come second I'll promote the third place in that game. It is not an ideal solution, but I hope you can accept it.
Unless CGE change their tournament features accordingly, I'll not play such a tournament again. Straightforward elimination
works fine, though, and this is where we're now at. So let the games begin, good luck everyone!
16 days later
Jorrig I'm really sorry but I timed out in my game. I have been flat out at work and didn't have time to check my games, I thought I'd have time to take my turn in the evening but it must have come around really fast. I really appreciate you letting me join as a add on. Again so sorry to have timed out, I hope it didn't ruin the game for the other 3 players. I will try and join the next tournament, I was really looking forward to seeing it though.
balarithon THat's fine, life happens! Thanks for the notice, I appreciate that!
Games are finished, next round is launched! Some notable players already had to leave the tournament, including myself, unfortunately. 
Good luck to the last 64 and may the best prevail!
15 days later
The round is finished, and it ended with a surprise: pajada is out in one of the most difficult matchups this round (as far as I know the players). Most unlucky player is probably khyung who missed the next round by 1 point. Three others came within 3 or 4 points.
I launched the next round, last 32. Good luck everyone, enjoy the game!