Patent ID: 8202165

Claim:
A method of providing a tournament feature allowing asynchronous tournament participations in which, upon or after ending of a participation period in said tournament feature, scores resulting from said tournament participations that took place during said participation period are evaluated to determine a winning score for awarding a prize to a winning player, the method comprising: conducting a primary game on a gaming machine in which game outcomes are generated and evaluated and wherein a prize is awarded for a winning outcome; detecting a tournament participation invitation during said step of conducting said primary game, said step of detecting a tournament participation invitation taking place during said participation period; and providing at least one of said tournament participations during said participation period according to completion of said step of detecting said tournament participation invitation, each said tournament participation comprising conduct of a tournament play sequence resulting in at least one of said scores in said tournament feature, wherein said at least one tournament participation is provided during said participation period in a non-concurrent manner with respect to at least another tournament participation provided during the same participation period resulting in at least another of said scores in the same tournament feature.