Keep the ladder out of strategus... Its for sports and strategus is seriooos.
not at all, and it'll be funnier with this kind of tournament as in SP,
 imo 1 tournament/month/faction would be more than enough, otherwise i can already see the exploits, 
only for towns and the owner can choose type of tournament as in SP for ai : melee, ranged, cav, well you know what it is 

 btw you shouldn't be allowed to refuse any applicant, would be lame
22 towns ... let's say there's 8 factions owning at least 1 town, up to 8 tournaments/month, more than enough