[quote name=\'SplitSecond\' date=\'Sep 3 2003, 08:02 PM\'] How exactly do you propose a tournament would work, keeping each match within the solo player vs. family pair format? [/quote]
Here is the idea I came up with. Assume that they do this instead of letting 10-game winners come back in regular play.
Top three solo players and top three family pairs
(Seeding: 10-game winners first, ranked by winnings)
Each solo player takes on each family pair exactly once. Each win earns you $500 and a trip to the Gold Run, which pays the same as normal.
In the finals, the top-winning* solo player and the top-winning family pair play a best of three (or maybe five) match for the top prize. (There no trips to Gold Run in the finals.)
Two possibilities for the top prize:
1) The winner does not keep the moneys won in the first part of the tournament but gets $100,000. ($50,000 is less than what two of the participants won in regulation play.)
2) The winner gets whatever they won in the first part, plus $50,000 for winning the match. This would potentially create a $66,500 winner.
Questions that I leave open:
1) Does the losing finalist get money for any game(s) won in the finals?
2) Is the money real or just score? If the latter, I would give the losing finalist something like $25,000 and the other seven participants $10,000.
* In the event of a tie, the player/team with the shortest time(s) winning the Gold Run prevail.
A contingency: If all nine games are won by the solo players or by the family pairs, the top winner wins the tournament without a final. A tie here would go to the player/team with the shortest times in Gold Run.