"The Art of Strategy - III"

I suggest considering adjustments to the rules:
1. In point 3, remove the round-robin tournament and leave only the group stage + playoffs. In this case, all players from the group can advance if there are few participants, for example, 3 people per group.
2. I suggest playing 2 games each against each other within the group. At the same time, the choice of factions for each game is sent immediately and can be different. In the playoffs, I suggest playing best-of-3.
3. In the second games, players switch colors; in the playoff stage, if there is a third game, the color is determined by a draw.
4. Regarding the game mechanics: should the Griffin ability "Strike from Above" be considered a banned move if subordinate units dive onto the same cell from which they took off?

1. Why hold games in groups at all if everyone advances anyway? You can also draw lots based on rating.
2. If the choice of factions is different, how will it look? For example, if there are even 4 players in a group, there will only be 6 factions, which means 2 factions will not be used by each player, and again, 2 templates will be randomly selected.
3. How will the factions be chosen in the playoffs? The solution is not well thought out.
4. I wouldn't consider it; it's not that critical.
In summary, Evgen, you are essentially suggesting either a different tournament or one with not fully developed rules. And what's wrong with the round-robin format? There's no guarantee that enough players will be available for groups, and the mechanics of this tournament, which didn't cause any problems in previous tournaments, don't mesh well with the playoffs. There might even be more games in the end, and some players will be excluded from the tournament. The only drawback of the round-robin format is that the deadlines need to be strictly monitored.