Recommended turn order based on play times:

You asked: "what do we do now ?"

Don't worry. You don't have to do anything yet for a while. After I'll hold the lottery, I'll post the results here. This results will show in which of lists (main or odd) do you find yourself. Also by your, Longinus, request, I'll post approximate composition of the teams. But maybe someone will wish to change the team - it's ok, just say about it here and we'll discuss such possibility.  And also you can discuss the team name.

After that moment, when all players will agree with their teams you'll need to contact your teammate-veteran. You'll ask him about possible combos (class/race) for you for the first match (or propose your own combo) and discuss it to define which combo and specializations you'll choose for this match. Only after that when your teammates and you will decide this question, each player of the team have to send to the judges (for now it's only me) their class/race choices by private message (PM). If some of the beginners has troubles with it, then you must ask your teammate-veteran to do it instead of you. 

When the judges will check all combos for both teams of the match and approve its, I'll choose by random factor the host team. The veteran from the host team has to host the game on the server and posts screenshots at the game blog's page on this site. Your game blog you can find at the roster page here. The judges and your opponents will check the settings and after approving it you can finally join this game (with your chosen combo for the match, of course) and may start.

P.S. I'm busy this week so maybe I can hold the lottery only in Monday or a few later. Sorry for this

Finally our ship is sailed.   You can read the match settings and the rules HERE. The rule №6 I'll add later

Yeah I mean I can only speak for what I think/believe is right, I can't promise all Beginners feel that way but I think it is fine this way.
And if we try to match stronger elites with weaker beginners it actually helps to avoid this complaint, as we TRY to balance teams a bit. Teams won't be the same strength, but there is always luck etc as well in AoW. It's not about making perfect balance but only using the easiest steps to make it a little balanced (:

I hope everyone will play seriously, have fun and learn. And as there is no big prize, losing is not all that bad so do not get too serious everyone! (:

Thanks for organizing!

Ok, you persuaded me. I'll try to simplify a participance of the beginners in terms of the rule № 6. But after this simplifying I can't and don't want to receive and consider complaints with such contents: "Beginner A is better than me and he uses limitations of rule № X in his favor". 

Well, since RedChameleon decided not to participate, I think we shouldn't wait other beginners so I propose use the first scheme: 4 teams with 2 matches into each of tourney phases.
For all other players who will appear in the odd list (on substitute players' bench) - don't be upset. If soon more beginners will wish to join us, then we can start another parallel tournament (the similar situation was in 2015-2016 for 3 duel tournaments, which were organazing one by one  ).
I hope I'll find time for organizing things this week. 

Also I have to announced additional basic rule, № 8: If the beginners will decide that their teammate-veteran is rude or too persistent in terms of choosing a strategy of playing session or cheating, they must let know about it to the judges (evidence of this behavior, like screenshots etc., is welcome). And if the judges will agree with that evidences, then this veteran must be replaced on another one from the odd list. The match must be stopped and restart with the new composition of the team.

RedChameleon quitted!

Yeah we can split teams into 1 vet and 2 beginners but I'd still propose to at least try to mix stronger vets with weaker beginners.
I know that I am weaker than Lobo for example and I believe I am in turn, stronger than Nub Nub. And Nub Nub is certainly way, way less experienced/skilled than El_Lobo. So it's tricky to put the same label on all of us. But of course it needs to be done, to easen match-making, just beware of pitfalls and try to create at least marginally fair teams.

And let's not do it 4v4, because 1.) players are more likely to quit and destroying the game for more players who would have liked to play 2.) turn times are much longer and games take longer...and they are also less fun/exciting due to that

Well. if it´s about starting this one soon - 3 vs 3 is the way to go and then force one of the veterans into the beginner group. This forcing could then be based on ranking or gut feeling by the most experienced players and we could consider making a mid-tier/second beginner runner-up group (by splitting the then 12 players into two tiers of 6 players) for further balancing purposes.

The perfect balance is not easily achievable in this game where luck will and should be a factor (though not major) as well as day-to-day variation in performances of players (thus I occasionally also still make beginners mistakes and am not regarding myself as elite despite my ranking and humongous playtime recorded).

yes, I really would suggest to do a 1 Vet 2 Begs as intented and start soon, otherwise some new players might loose interest. I would be a back up then (unlikely to happen because the veterans shouldn't leave the tournament )
maybe 2 groups of 3 teams each would make sense? then you need 12 beginners 

Yeah, I'd rathern ot do a 4v4, because quitters and turns take very long

It's interesting idea to change the tourney from 3vs3 into 4vs4. More experince for the beginners, more fun for all. But I'm afraid that each match will continue too long. I'm not sure that all beginners are ready for 6 months match for each of phases. And we will have no any chance to restart match from quitters this time. Also we need one more vet))
It's all my concerns. But I'm ready to try, if the others will be agree too

P.S. Instead, we could try to organize 3vs3 tourney with 6 teams into 2 groups of 3 matches as Marcus proposed. But we still have not enough number for beginners without any replacements.

Hi all. I'm still waiting more than 1-2 opinions about teams structure which you prefer for this tourney: (1 Veteran + 2 Beginners) OR (1 Elite + 1 Veteran + 1 Beginner).
It looks like I need a few more days for organizing things than I suggested ealier, sorry for this.   It turned out that I have real life circumstances too  

@Ezekiel  I'm glad to see you here. And no, you are not too late, you joined in a right time. You are welcome  

@Badok  I'm glad that I could convince you to give us a try, to show you how team game with the full teammates support is amazing.   But you need to read some earlier messages in this topic to be in the know. I hope you will find it not so complicated to understand.   I'm still thinking on rephrasing it to make it easier.

@IIaanor  Thanks for your statistics work.  I hope it will make the discussion easier and more constructive.   

@Zytozid  I understand and partially share your concerns, but I urge you to remember that any tournament - a kind of competitive events. All I want with my "difficulties" - to help the beginners to be a good/significant part of their team. Otherwise it may happen that beginners will be left out, only by spectators in their own team game.   Though to observe how elite players are playing, and teaching from them - sometimes useful, but not fun. I agree that to play for only fun is a very good incentive. But in my opinion, my "difficult" variant may help the beginners to be more involving into session's fights than only as observers, and so have more fun.  I'm not insist, you and others may think by another way.

but then there are at least 10 beginners for only 4 teams? I can be one reservist for a veteran and maybe we stick to the 1 vet 2 beginners mode? or make it 2 vets + 2 begs? So teams of 4.. maybe it would take too long

If yo uask me, Lobo is experienced and should not be a beginner but he is not elite either. So he can well be a veteran. But we should make sure, that none of the other "beginner players" is stronger than him, I only know a few but they are all far weaker than Lobo is.

Updated list:

Veterans (7):
DreadReapr
Jean_de_Metz
AIXStormrage
Skuns453Lirik902
gladis
marcuspers
Ezekiel

Beginners (11):
Santil
RedChameleon
Fluksen
Nub nub
IIaanor
Zytozid
DiaEmperador
Akinos
Longinus
Badok
El-Lobo

Missing one Veteran to split them into Elite and Veteran, but maybe somebody from Beginners could be potentialy Veteran in the new system?

Hey! After a friendly nudge from @Skuns, I decided to give it a try - if there's still space, that is. Can't say that I'm much more than an amateur, but hopefully I'd do well in a team

Badok joined !!

I do agree with a lot of what Zytozid wrote, especially about making it as easy as possible to follow the rules.
I think having it too complicated will also make it difficult for the host/judge to ensure all rules are followed.
And if you are able to use same class/race after 2 matches it wont limit the combos for the "best" classes/races anyway, in my opinion.

@Skuns, can you make a televised draw for the teams/groups, that would be fun

1. Don't lose the beginners because of complex discussions

For beginners, the rules are already quite complex. I'll leave the discussions about rules to you and hope that at the end, when everything is solid, someone will shortly give a good overview about what is allowed and what isn't. Until then, I just want to remind noobs to not get annoyed and leave, just wait until the rules are set and you are fine! Stay and play, people!


2. Advanced matching rules
We can let people create teams freely, but we could also try to make sure (at least for vet/elite) that the strongest two do not play together.

As soon as the lists are finished (who is elite, who is vet), it would be nice if those players can work on a ranking of their (probably strength) like this:

Elite players:
Elite 1
Elite 2
Elite 3
Elite 4

Vet players:
Vet 1
Vet 2
Vet 3
Vet 4

then let the "weakest" vet player play with the strongest elite player to balance at least a bit (Elite 1 + Vet 4, Elite 2 + Vet 3, ...)
It doesn't need to be super precise but it would just make things more fair. We do not need it for noobs, because they won't impact the game strongly balance-wise.
Of course, i set my trust into these players to honestly rate their strength compared to others. Age of Wonders doesn't work well without honesty anyways.


3. Class/race
I'd allow noobs to play any race combo they like, as long as they did not use the exact same before. (Only noobs!)
Game 1: Dwarf Sorcerer
Game 2: Dwarf Archdruid
is perfectly fine and different enough for a noob. A noob might learn more when playing other races/classes but this is not an academy game.

Still, the noobs need to change the class each game.

4.
Emphasize fun

You wrote yo uwant to show noobs how great team work in AoW 3 is. Here is an idea/a concern:

If you only make this tournament serious and about winning, then noobs won't have much impact. I'd remind every elite player that this game is for everyone and with their playstyle they can either only focus on pure winning and grind themselves to victory (oh, what fun we had! NOT), or they can also try to include the noobs and actually play WITH them, which I think is much more interesting.

Don't get me wrong, the elites should not play bad... but the elite players are like team leaders/parents here and they should be concerned also that everyone is having a good time and not ignore or exploit the noobs.
But this is just my opinion and the decision is up to the organization.

5. Thanks
for the idea and the work to create this tournament and for everyone's contributions. Keep up the good work!

Any feedback is welcome, Thanks for reading!

Ezekiel joined !

Actually seems like I was too late for this?