registration and discussion of the upcoming online tournament for Might & Magic: Heroes

First of all, the top 5 players can be seeded on the first board. Then there won't be any of the pairs you mentioned. For seeding, I suggest using not the rating (which in some cases weakly reflects reality), but a vote by all those who have registered for the tournament. That is, each participant sends the judges their top-5 and, based on the voting results, a fairly objective top-5 can be seeded. Next, a draft from the remaining players, starting with the player with the lowest seeding. In my opinion, this will be a good system.