7th Interportal Tournament of HMM3-OFF: "Earth Magic"

By the way, if it's not a secret: how many participants have already signed up? And will the information about the number of accepted final save files be updated regularly in the first post?

Well, information about who has signed up and who hasn't doesn't reflect reality. Someone might sign up but not play, and someone might do the opposite. Mostly, all the strong save files are submitted in the last hours of the tournament. The information will be updated as save files are received.

Secondly, what's the point of the map creator playing their own map for speed? The probability that they will play it worse than anyone else is around 3%. I don't think there will be so many skilled players in the tournament that they can beat the record (if it exists, of course) of the creator.

In reality, the author's advantage on the map is minimal. Any normal player, after an hour of scouting, will know the same things that I do. It's just that someone has to find what I already know :)