Rules for organizing, conducting, and participating in online Heroes of Might and Magic III tournaments.

It just so happens that, on average, 20% of games are not played in the group stages – people who have lost their first games lose motivation. Another, more pressing problem is the delay in deadlines. How can we combat this?
This is where the system comes in: burger > personal match > deadlines > coin toss – in my opinion, this is optimal for Heroes. I think all group tournaments should be played according to this system.
And you can't avoid friendly matches.
Besides, equal results, as you say, are quite rare. Usually, everything is decided in the burger match, and if not there, then in the personal match.

I agree about the motivation, but isn't that their problem (the unmotivated players)? The other, more pressing problem can also be solved. For example, you could add a clause to the rules: "In the event of a tie in points in the group stage and the inability to determine a winner (the one who advances), the result of the last ranked game (or another tournament) will be taken into account." This way, fun games will also have weight, and if this clause is added to all tournaments, it will be much fairer and more prestigious to win in the rankings.

Ideally, a tournament calendar should be drawn up and made available to everyone, so that in January I know about the upcoming OFB tournament that starts in May, June, July, etc. Applications should be accepted, for example, until March 1st, June 1st if the start is in July. This way, people will know the composition of the groups a month or two before the start, and there will be an opportunity to test each other out (especially those who haven't played against each other) in ranked games.

Equal results have twice caused me to be eliminated in about 9 months :) and in each group tournament, the results are often close to equal. And it doesn't matter that it's rare, since it is possible in principle.

The delay in deadlines is resolved individually by communicating with each person who is behind, and the organizer makes a decision (I don't think it's difficult to sort this out, even if it requires technical assistance in some situations).