Hi,

I have a few questions about today's Four in a Row tournament:

https://www.flyordie.com/tournaments/Connect4/2026-08-11T20:00

First, why did the tournament stop creating new matches at around 20:34 UTC when the scheduled end time was 21:00 UTC? Is there a specific rule that stops matchmaking before the official end time?

My second question is about the red/blue assignment system.

For example, I played 5 games against joedegaard, and in all 5 games he was Red while I was Blue.

On the other hand, I also played 5 games against Yoan_Wilsonn, and in all 5 games I was Red while he was Blue.

In classic 7x6 Four in a Row, Red has a theoretical forced win with perfect play. Because of this, color assignment has a very significant impact on competitive games. In a tournament like this, a player who receives Red more often effectively has a considerable advantage.

Would it be possible to make the color assignment more balanced between the same two players?

For example:

If two players play an even number of games against each other, the colors could be split 50/50.
If they play an odd number of games, the extra Red game could be assigned randomly.
Alternatively, colors could simply alternate after every rematch.

This would still involve some randomness depending on how many different opponents each player faces, but it would seem significantly fairer than having one player receive the same color 5 times in a row against the same opponent.

Another possibility would be to use best-of-2 matches, with each player playing Red once and Blue once. This seems particularly suitable for 7x6 Classic because of the first-player advantage.

Is the current color assignment completely random, or is there already some logic behind it?

Thanks!