GTT7
PTC's GTT tournament has been on permanent hiatus since the conclusion of the 2006 edition - GTT6.
A poll posted on March 15 2009 revealed favorable responses towards running GTT7.
On June 26, 2009, Pete announced that GTT7 would take place during 2009.
Guaranteed Spots
Guaranteed spots were awarded in the leadup to GTT to various handlers. These allowed people to secure a guaranteed berth in GTT, as well as an automatic entry in the top 16 seeds.
- James Varga - any character, won in IG63
- Craig Maloof - any character
- Ben Van Iten - any character
- Aaron Dillon - any character, won in IG67.
- Joe O'Toole - any character
Seeds
A seeding system "like Wimbledon" has been implemented as part of GTT7's tournament format. This is a first for any PTC event.
16 seeds have been selected based on:
- an assessment of promos submitted by aspiring entrants
- winning a guaranteed spot in GTT7 in leadup events (see above).
A full list of the 16 seeds can be found here.
A full rundown on how the seeds were selected can be found here.
A list of those who didn't quite make it can be found here.
Prizes
Money has been collected from community members to be donated to charity in the name of the winner and other high achievers.
First prize is a $US100.00 donation to the charity of the winner's choice.
Second prize is a $US50.00 donation to the charity of the choice of the runner up.
Additional money has been raised and will be awarded to high achievers as charity donations during the event.
Bounties
An old favorite returns for GTT7 - the bounty.
The first bounty on offer was the ability to bid for a Round 1 match with Phoenix, the only man to compete in all previous GTT's. Bidding wound up at $25.00, which was donated to UNICEF. His opponent was chosen by the community from a list of hopefuls, the final winner turning out to be Clinton Sage.
The second bounty on offer is a $20.00 charity donation from Sean W on behalf of the handler who defeats The Joe's character, Desade.
Each of the four top seeds (Rhine, Snow, Wolfenden, Stevens) has a $20 elimination bounty on their head, funded by the donation pool.
Brackets
Since GTT4, tournament bracket names have had a common theme.
The bracket names were released on September 24, and are named after leading authors:
Donation Tally
Copies of donation receipts will be able to be viewed in the receipt gallery.
- $25.00 to Unicef - Jay Phoenix round 1 opponent bounty. Donation made by Pete S on behalf of Jay and his family.
- $100.00 to spcai.org - Desade, GTT7 winner
The First Round Draw
The first round draw was held on Saturday October 3rd. It was hosted by Pete and video streamed live on Ustream. All matches that had not been assigned previously were drawn at random from a bingo barrel.