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For anyone who might wish to offer a "Hillemann-style" singles event -- using, or based on, the original format -- here is a copy of a description of it that was written up to assist someone else running such a tournament:
The format is designed for an ideal field of 64 players, and I'll describe it as if that's what you'll have. In fact, it has yet to be used with so many, and you'll probably need to adjust for fewer, but the same general principles apply. It works best if there is a "square" number of players: 36, or 49, or 64, or as close to one of those as you can get.
For 64, you need 8 rooms. (For 49, you'd need 7; etc.)
The tournament is divided into two parts, played differently. You begin with three seeding rounds, the purpose of which is to divide the field into divisions (four of them, of 16 players each, if you have 64 players; 2 or 3 divisions with fewer players) and seed each player in each division for the ensuing double-elimination tournament of head-to-head singles matches.
Seeding Round A (45 tossups, plus 4 extras): Players are randomly distributed among the rooms -- 8 rooms of 8 players each, if you have 64 players. (Or 6 rooms of 6 players each, for 36, say.) Tossups are read in each room shootout style. (i.e., all players are competing with one another to be first to answer correctly). Standard scoring of +10 and -5 applies. There is no limit to the total number of buzzes taken, except that each player may buzz in only once per question. Neg. 5's are assessed on every interrupt with an incorrect answer, not just the first one. Players are removed as they reach a certain point level -- I'm still working out what works best there, but right now I'm using the number of points available (450 in Seeding Round A, with 45 tossups) divided by the number of players (8, if full), rounded down to the nearest multiple of ten below or equal to the result. (thus 50 points, if 8 players in Round A; 70 points if 6 players; etc.) The first player to come out receives that round's #1 ranking in that room; the next player to come out receives #2, and so forth. Questions stop when all but one player has reached the magic number and come out, or when 45 tossups have been read, whichever comes first. If 45 questions are read, players still left in are simply ranked in order of points scored to that time. Ties are broken by sudden death tiebreaker -- that's what the extra tossups in each of the seeding rounds are for. Each of the 8 rooms now has players ranked 1-8.
Seeding Round B (85 tossups, plus 4 extras): Players now go to other rooms based on how they ranked in the first match. Like this: the #1s all move 1 room "up" from where they were; i.e., the #1 from from Room 1 in Seeding Round A goes to Room 2; #1 from Room 2 goes to 3, and so forth. #1 from Room 8 goes to Room 1. The #2s all move 2 rooms up -- from Room 1 to 3, from 2 to 4, from 8 to 2, and so forth. #3s move 3 up, #4s 4 up, and so forth. #8s stay in the same rooms. (Which is the same as moving 8 up -- back to the same room.) So now we have all but 8 players in a different room from where they started, and nobody is in a room with a player they faced in Seeding Round A (if you have a perfect square number of participants, anyway). Now we repeat the procedure of Seeding Round A, except that for this round 85 tossups are read, and out at a higher point total than before. Each room again ranks all players 1-8. (Note: this is the most crucial of the seeding rounds, which is why it is the longest. Round A was just a quick sort to go from random distribution to approximately equal room strengths for Round B. Round B does the main dividing of the field into ability groups. Round C refines the results of Round B into exact seedings.)
Seeding Round C (70 tossups, plus 4 extras): Players now divide based on their rankings in Seeding Round B. All the #1s from B go to Room 1, #2s to Room 2, and so forth. Another shootout round is played, with the same procedures as for the previous two rounds. (Though the magic number at which a player comes out of the shootout is different again.) At the end of this, all 64 players have a seeding number 1-64. (The #1 players from Seeding Round B have rankings 1-8' the #2s from Round B have rankings 9-16 -- and so forth.)
The tournament will soon be playing a number of different double elimination tournaments of head to head singles play with no more than 16 players in each division -- for 64 players, one tournament for each quartile of the entire field. However, rather than divide now based entirely on Seeding Round results, we allow for some contesting of the positions around the fringes of the dividing line or lines. For 64 players, players currently ranked 1-12 will definitely be in the first quartile, and will be seeded according to their current numbers. Players ranked 13-20 will contest for the last four seeds in the 1st quartile; the losers will become the top four seeds of the 2nd quartile. And so forth to seed all four quartiles.
For these "Prelim matches" -- 12 of them in a field now splitting into four divisions; only 8 of them in a smaller field splitting into only three divisions, or 4 of them in a field splitting into only two divisions -- you use Packet D, which has 24 tossups. (If you have a very small field -- not enough to divide even into two divisions; for instance with only 16 players -- you would omit this round altogether.) The Prelim matches -- and all the rest of the matches in the tournament -- are head to head singles matches consisting of 24 tossups, followed by sudden death tiebreaker if necessary. Here are the "prelims" matchups, for a 64-player field, based on the numbers given people in the Seeding Rounds:
13 vs. 20
14 vs. 19
15 vs. 18
16 vs. 17
(The winners of the above will enter the 1st quartile double-elimination tournament, while the losers will enter the 2nd quartile. They will be seeded within their quartiles based on their original Seeding number. Thus, if 13 beats 20, he or she will be the 13th seed in the top quartile, and 20 will be the 4th seed in the 2nd quartile. But if 20 beats 13, 20 will be the 16th seed in the top quartile, while 13 will become the top seed in the 2nd.)
29 vs. 36
30 vs. 35
31 vs. 34
32 vs. 33
(The winners of the above enter the 2nd quartile tournament; losers to 3rd)
45 vs. 52
46 vs. 51
47 vs. 50
48 vs. 49
(Winners of above to 3rd quartile; losers to 4th.)
With more "prelim" matches to be played than rooms available, you will need to sequester some teams initially in order to play all of these matches on Packet D.
Then we play four (or fewer, with fewer players) double-elimination tournaments running simultaneously. In each division teams are seeded 1-16 (if that's the size of the division) based on results so far: the #1 seed in each division will begin versus the lowest seed in the division, and so forth -- classic seeding, with #1 and #4 and #5 beginning on one side of the draw, and #2s, #3, #6 and #7 on the other, and so forth. In order to conserve packets and require as few as possible it will be necessary to sequester players heavily during the early rounds. Rounds, being 24 tossups-only, do go very quickly, but it is necessary to be very organized to make sure everyone gets to where they need to be, playing on the proper packets, and that players are sequestered as necessary.
In the past I have had very low entrance fees per person, to try to get as large a field as possible. I have also given prizes pretty lavishly -- a trophy for the winner, plus book prizes for everyone in the top division, plus the winner of the 2nd division, chosen in order of finish.
I may have left something out here -- ask, if anything is not clear. It isn't so complicated as it sounds on writing it out, and is really rather elegant. The biggest difficulty is making the appropriate adjustments for an odd-sized field, and then being organized enough so that everyone gets to the right rooms and plays on the right rounds. Players are always fairly confused where to go to between Seeding Rounds A and B. But for the double elimination tournaments, putting the brackets up on chalkboards usually makes everything that's happening pretty clear. Readers don't need to do any scorekeeping beyond what is necessary to report winners and losers -- and report correct order of rankings for each of the seedings rounds.
This format is a blast, and even those eliminated quickly in the double elimination portion have played enough in the seeding rounds to feel that it's worth a modest entrance fee. One caution: this all takes much longer than you might think. I've done this as a more or less full day (morning to suppertime) event, with lunch break coming between the Prelim matches and the start of the double elim tournaments.
Following this format exactly requires the writing of 480 tossups. Others offering tournaments in this style are, of course, free to decide upon any subject breakdown they wish for their own tournaments. For reference, this was the subject division I used for my singles tournaments of 1998 and 1999:
85 HISTORY
85 LITERATURE
85 SCIENCE/MATH
40 FINE ARTS
40 POPULAR CULTURE
40 MISCELLANEOUS
30 GEOGRAPHY
25 RELIGION/MYTHOLOGY/PHILOSOPHY
25 SOCIAL SCIENCE
25 SPORTS
