Tournament News - August 9, 1997 - 1 week into the Practice Round Greetings, Warlords - After a long week of adventuring, you find yourself seated in the great Hall of the Warlords, the vast hall where hundreds of Warlords dined in splendor and excitement when the Round Starter announced the beginning of the Practice Round. Tonight the hall is a bit less festive, but no less noisy, for hundreds of Warlords have gathered here again after a busy week's campaigning, to share notes and swap stories. So you enjoy your food and scrounge up gossip and news, and you learn: * 40 Practice Round games remain active! (3 of the 43 had their players reassigned to fill holes in other games) * 16 games have made it through the most difficult phase, and are over the "Turn 1 Hump" and moving along nicely! * 20 games are on Turn 1, Side 3 or Side 4, after fixing various problems. * 4 games are stuck a little earlier, waiting for players to re-send gamefiles or return from vacation. You realize that any problems that remain unresolved will be fixed soon, because off in the corner a number of Moderators are conferring, pointing eagerly at a group of fresh faces at the far end of the table. "Aha!" you realize - "We have many substitutes available to fill in for any Warlords who failed to show up for their wars." You know those missing Warlords are not cowards, but they must have had some trouble preparing for the tournament or getting communications through to the Remailer. You swallow a big gulp of wine and relax in the satisfaction of knowing that where some other Warlords came up short, you have survived. Indeed, having survived the first round - or close enough as makes no difference - you know that the worst part of the Tournament is over. The Remailer has been mastered, communications have been established with everyone in your game, and all that remains is the joy of exploring the rules and learning how best to slaughter the enemy using WarBOT as your guide! There is a commotion near the main door as two sturdy-looking Warlords with deep, penetrating eyes and shrewd looks stride in, carrying an immense parchment rolled up into a tube. The parchment is truly immense, indeed, the tube is thicker than their legs and half again as tall as either of them! They scamper onto a table near the wall, and with a sledgehammer and mighty iron stakes, they pin two corners of the parchment directly to the stone. They each step to one side of the scroll, and with a flourish, they cut the ropes holding the parchment in a roll. With an immense whoosh, the scroll unrolls down the wall, and you realize these are the Rules Gurus, for the top of the scroll reads: The Ten Commandments of Tournament Warlords! You see ten large numerals, ten large-print statements, and a variety of smaller annotation, but you cannot make any of it out. The silence that fell over the room with the whooshing fall of the scroll has now turned to a wild hubbub as Warlords from all over the world jostle towards the wall, seeking to read the mighty text. But from the corner of your eye you spot a number of messengers rapidly placing smaller scrolls at each of the places at the table, while all attention is diverted. You realize that these are smaller copies of the giant scroll, and you wait for one to come to you...