Patent ID: 8562401

Claim:
An apparatus comprising a non-transitive machine readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of instructions that when executed by a computing device causes the computing device to perform a method comprising: assigning a first player to a first tier of game play of a plurality of tiers of game play; receiving an indication that a first player desires to play a first game; determining that the first player is a winner of the first game, in which the game is against a second player assigned to the first tier of game play; in response to determining that the first player is the winner of the first game, assigning the first player to a second tier of game play of the plurality of tiers of game play, in which the second tier includes a highest tier of the plurality of tiers; receiving an indication that the first player desires to play a second game; determining that there are sufficient players in the second tier ready to play the second game; in response to determining that there are sufficient players and in response to receiving the indication that the first player desires to play the second game, facilitating play of the second game between the first player and a third player assigned to the second tier of game play; determining that the first player is a winner of the second game; in response to determining that the player is the winner of the second game, providing the player with an award; assigning a fourth player to the first tier of game play, in which the fourth player is assigned to the first tier after the first player is determined to be the winner; determining that the fourth player has paid a fee to move from the first tier of game play to the second tier of game play; and in response to determining that the fourth player has paid the fee, assigning the player to the second tier of game play.