Having seen a few of these come and go without a successful conclusion might I suggest a different format. The two biggest problems seem to be getting people together and games that can take well over 2 hours to finish. Most tourneys fail for the above two reasons. The last one I know of failed because the odds of people getting together within a reasonable time frame to play their matches is pretty slim. Eventually they give up trying and interest wanes.
My suggestion would be to hold the tourney as part of one of the forum parties. Whoever shows up at the party can sign up to play.This way everyone in the tourney is available at the same time.
In order to make it work the games would need to be quick. I would suggest that victory should be decided by Wonder and Wonder only. First team to build and protect a Wonder wins the match. Most of us agree these games can be pretty exciting.
Teams could be 2 vs 2 or whatever depending on how many show up. Maps would be consistent in each game. e.g. large, med. Large map with teams of 2 means possible (probable?) skirmishes to disrupt things and less travel time to wage battles. It should be setup with a limited number of civs to choose so that each team plays once with each available civ. Possibly a tool age start to speed things up a tad and max. time limit of 1 hour per game. Games that go the limit are called a draw. 2 points for win, 1 point for draw, 0 for loss. A reasonable start time should allow for four rounds in approx. 5 hours. The final matches could be observed by the losers who would be responsible for reporting the match results in the forum.
This is just a rough outline but I think it has some advantages.
1) everyone in the tourney is present and matches would be running concurrently.
2) fast scheduled games mean everyone is playing with very little time wasted.
3) hopefully the crowning of a victor at the end of the party. Possibly make it a monthly or bi-monthly event depending on interest.
4) keeping tab of the results may allow us to group players in different divisions according to skill levels or possibly a handicap system
Any comments or suggestions?