OFB-12

For the future, here's an idea: the same nine rounds of a Swiss tournament. Let's say we need to select 10 people. We make the top three places automatic qualifiers, and the places from 4 to 17 play tiebreaker matches in a BO3 format: 4-17, 5-16, 6-15, 7-14, 8-13, 9-12, 10-11. At least, in theory, it looks good and doesn't contradict the idea of a Swiss tournament; it just means that three places become automatic qualifiers, and another 14 go into the tiebreaker zone. In theory, this should maintain motivation both for the chasing group – they need to get into the tiebreakers – and at the very top, where there's a fight for the top places.

In my opinion, this system is an excellent option. In Hearthstone, they use a similar hybrid, and it works well in terms of both competitiveness and entertainment.

As for the issue of draws, we can certainly discuss the fairness of draws in Heroes in general (in my opinion: offering and agreeing to a draw is the players' right, and restricting or prohibiting it from an organizational point of view is structurally probably wrong), but the question of controlling the implementation of any form of rule prohibiting draws turns these discussions into pure theory. Creating a rule whose implementation cannot be controlled is inherently a bad option.

It is much more important that all players understand the rules and feel that they are initially on equal footing. To this end, I would write in the rules the procedure for offering and agreeing to/rejecting a draw. This is just a couple of lines, but it will prevent most people from feeling that a draw is some kind of trump card, etc. If you look at it abstractly, there is a slight flaw in the current rules in general.