Need a new Commish for the 2026 Mystery Tourney

Folks,

I will not be running the tourney next year due to frustration with the lack of response from SOM after our tourney has concluded.

You might have noticed there has been no announcement on the site regarding the conclusion of the tourney like you see for the Players or Barnstormers tourneys. This isn't due to any lack of communication on my end.

After ten or so emails over the last month trying to get this concluded and credits assigned to me and gritch for our placing in the tourney, there has been no response.

I'm too busy to be chasing down folks when I am doing a solid for free. So that's it for me.

But someone else might have better luck or more patience than me. So, to that end, if anybody is interested in running it like Juiced and myself have run it, I would be happy to share the knowledge.

Thanks,

Jason - jaywalker72

Update: After my post, the announcement has been made and I believe gritch and I have received our winnings.

Thanks to SOM for responding, however, the need for a new Commish remains, so let me know if you are interested. If not, there may not be a tourney for 2026.

What about a MT committee to share the work? Maybe a 5 member board that keeps it alive without heaping the burden on one guy. It was my first tourney and I would like to see it continue. one member might just be the "squeaky wheel" that keeps in close contact with Strat's sales/marketing team, reminding them of the value of 100+ members buying credits for a 5+ season tourney. I have been a strat customer since the mid-70s and SOM365 has become the main way I play strat and this tourney really boosted my interest again. That's my 2 cents.

Here is our Discord for those that like live chat too as I will be cross-posting this. https://discord.gg/aYbfw3B3Xj

Jason -- THANK YOU for running the tournament. This was my first MCT and I was lucky enough to enjoy 10 months of fun. It is unfortunate that SOM couldn't find the time to promptly respond to your emails. That had to be a sour ending to your MCT championship.

I have no idea of what is involved in running the MCT, but can see that there is not much time to get organized for 2026. Burkey63 has some good ideas for sharing the workload and perhaps avoiding the search for a single volunteer each year. I noticed that the number of teams was down in 2025 from previous years -- and maybe a shorter MCT schedule would get more teams and be less of a burden for management.

In any case, I hope that SOM's lack of responsiveness doesn't end the MCT.

Jason — since you’ve run this and Juiced did before you, you two are the only guys who really understand the full scope of what a commish handles behind the scenes.

If we do go the committee route, it would help to know the actual responsibilities you had on your plate. Some of them seem pretty straightforward from the outside — league assignments, communication threads, SOM liaison, fillers, and enforcing join deadlines — but I’m sure there’s more nuance and time-consuming stuff that isn’t obvious to the rest of us.

Would you be willing to outline the specific tasks involved, start to finish, the way you experienced them? That would make it a lot easier to divide things up and build a solid structure so nobody has to shoulder everything alone. Cross-posting this on Discord too.

PS: BillyRoyal, jump in our Discord if not a problem. Live chat is faster.

The biggest, most time consuming issue is when people don't enter their teams by the deadline for a league. You chase them down and then determine when is the time to get a filler. Still takes time, but in recent years this hasn't been as much of a problem as in earlier years.

My suggestion is to copy the rules that are currently in place. They are very in depth and have been working great.

Would Jaywalker72 or Juiced be willing to be "Commissioner Emeritus" just to have a trusted overseer of things. We could form a committee of interested volunteers to share getting the leagues started, etc. I'd be happy to volunteer to get one decade started. Anyone else interested in sharing the load?

Of course, if anyone wants to be the Commissioner, that's even better.

I volunteer to do decade 1980's. My first message would go out February 8. My last message would likely go out February 10, assuming no unusual issues with the 1980's status deadline. By that time I hope to learn the process for:


1) mass messaging to 100+ people
2) how to acquire invite codes
3) using a randomizer.

Seems like the other correspondence knowledge I need can be obtained by reviewing posts from last year or previous year and making sure they are submitted in a timely fashion for this particular decade. I see there are four discussion threads I would be generating between February 8 and February 10.

"The 80's are Coming"
"80's Leagues - Randomized League Assignments"
"All leagues filled - update 2/14, 11:59"
"League Links and Invite Codes"


As others have said if someone has a better idea for running 2026 besides a committee-driven effort that's even better.

Paul8210

I would love to help out but I will be travelling extensively this year often without internet. That said, it seems to me (correct me if I'm wrong) that the biggest headache is chasing people down to submit their teams on time. Would it be possible to require an entry into all 5 decades up front? That way, the randomizer runs one time to start the year and allows the progression to continue without hiccups unless someone removes their team and doesn't re-submit.

Would Jaywalker72 or Juiced be willing to be "Commissioner Emeritus" just to have a trusted overseer of things. We could form a committee of interested volunteers to share getting the leagues started, etc. I'd be happy to volunteer to get one decade started. Anyone else interested in sharing the load?

Of course, if anyone wants to be the Commissioner, that's even better.

I am going to write up the process, which Juiced perfected, and will get it to Burkey in his Discord. Happy to be, as JC was to me, a chat bot to answer questions, lend advice, etc.

Appreciate folks already getting involved.