Sounds great. I suggest making sure the 30 game limit is built right into the software - record every game. Don't rely only on tickets, which can easily be traded/sold between participants.

yeah, that's what my thinking was too. if I was a lock for the finals after 25 attempts, I'd feel selfish to keep playing if a buddy of mine was on the bubble, and I'd probably give him a few tickets if it were allowed. But that's not fair to those that don't have the option of getting a few more attempts. And of course if you allow ticket swaps at all, someone will grossly abuse it -- "my daughter only wanted to play that one EM, so I'm using the other 59 tickets for myself...". Might be good to get a ruling on this right away - is ticket swapping going to be completely prohibited (preferably by software, not just asking nicely)? If not, people might be tempted to buy an extra entry for less interested family members just to have the insurance.

Okay, I see that the official rules (now?) say it's 30 plays max per person, with no mention of tickets at all. That seems pretty clear.

Am I missing something, or will this be worth less than 100% TGP should it reach 161 players? The four-player novice finals don't count toward the "finals must include at least 10% of participants" threshold, do they?