I was recently asked a question about whether it was better to come 2nd than 3rd in a multiplayer tournament..I thought my reply could be a nugget and help everyone, but i have taken names out, and the explicit link to the tournament , and added a summary conclusion

This was written for domination but can apply to most multiplayer games

---

the way gold token tournaments work is as follows (from what i can gather)

last gets no points, and everyone still in gets a point
next person to eliminate, everyone still in gets a point
etc winner gets a bonus point

so in a 5 person multiplayer 5th 0 4th 1 3rd 2 2nd 3 1st 5 points
in a 4 person multiplayuer it is 0 , 1 , 2 , and 4

thats why second place in one game, may help in tournament.

I have been eliminated in tournaments where i had 2 wins and 2 4ths, to someone with 1 win and 3 seconds

From a one of the regular monthly multiplayer tournament from { Club }

in section 3 shows this point distribution

player1 #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 1 / 0 / 0 5
player2 #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 0 / 0 / 1 1
player3 #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 0 / 0 / 1 3
player4 #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 0 / 0 / 1 2
player5 #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 0 / 1 / 0 0


while in our section


player6 #1 #2 #3 #4 1 / 0 / 2 9
Red Panda #1 #2 #3 #4 1 / 0 / 2 7
player7 #1 #2 #3 #4 1 / 0 / 2 8


our section means if the results are as follows
player6 redpanda player7 12 8 8
player6 player7 redpanda 12 10 7
player7 player6 redpanda 11 10 7
player7 redpanda player6 11 8 9
red player7 player6 10 9 9
red player6 player7 10 10 8

so in our case if player6 or player7 win our last game, then the winner will advance. if I win, then player7 will also advance if he comes second

player7 and player6 have both been playing attack me from both sides (which is optimal for player7) however, I am slowly getting on top, and i hope player6 will then try to position for 2nd place to my win to ensure his survival in the tournament. It would have been better for me if player7 had the opportunity to advance with a 2nd place to me (which means best strategy is for player6 and player7 is to fight each other)

note In the subsequant move I took out player6 , so player 7 and myself got one extra point

player6 #1 #2 #3 #4 1 / 0 / 3 9
Red Panda #1 #2 #3 #4 1 / 0 / 2 8
player7 #1 #2 #3 #4 1 / 0 / 2 9


so the summary

1. Finish as high as you can in a multiplayer tournament game. (this is true for all multiplayer games)
2. Look at the tournament ongoing results. It might be in your advantage to sacrifice the win in one game to beat one particular opponent, and advance in a tournament
3. Look at the tournament ongoing results, and think about what each of your opponents optimal strategy is. If the opponents are playing their optimal strategy then it might get you a game win from a bad position. The opponents optimal strategy may make you change your own strategy. (note: you will need to observe, not everyone plays optimal strategies but the more knowledge you have the better you can plan your move)