Suggestion: "Non-Elimination" Tournaments

snarles2 · Joined: 07 Sep 2007 Posts: 11

There's a way to modify the standard 8-man single elimination tournament so that everyone plays three rounds.

The end result is the same as what you get from a standard 8-man tournament, but instead of just a 1st place and 2nd place you will also have 3rd-8th place results.

Here's how:

1) Everybody starts at 8th place
2) Each round, randomly pair players who are tied in place
3) Winning the first round moves you up 4 places
4) Winning the second round moves you up 2 place
5) Winning the third round moves you up 1 place
6) Ties are determined by coin flips
7) At the end of three rounds, no two players will have the same place. You will have one first-place winner, one second-place player, etc.

The only end difference between this type of tournament and the single elimination tournament is that you will have a definite 1st-8th place, instead of 1st, 2nd, 3/4 tied, 5/6/7/8 tied.

Here's a diagram:

Advantages
1) More bang for the buck when hosting minis. Instead of providing a maximum 14 league matches per mini, you will provide 3 league matches per player per mini, or 24 league matches total
2) You can have differing prizes for 1st place, 2nd place, etc.
3) The structure also tends to pair up evenly matched decks

Disadvantages
1) Obviously, there will have to be some recoding, and it might not be worth the effort on the part of the coders
2) More complicated to understand for participants and hosts
3) Contestants might not care about fighting over 7th or 8th place, and won't always bother with playing all 3 rounds.

Thoughts?

Dutchmojo · Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 1

great idea, i hate it when i lose the first round and thats it, especially with draft minis.
would like to see it implemented.

(nicely explained with the brackets and all)

DESTRUCTOR · Joined: 28 Jun 2005 Posts: 76

well many people plays on minis to test a deck so only playing 1 round really doesnt help so playing the 3 rounds may be a little betther and gives more chances to gain some teams points to those that plays only or mainlly for that reason so i think is a good idea, talk to webmasters on that

AlexTrebek · Joined: 24 Nov 2004 Posts: 145

If anyone drops, it ruins the entire thing. It works at FNM because you're already there and might as well play/you can lose round 1 and still get the 3rd place prize. But for tournaments with no prize, there doesn't seem to be a point.

EDIT: And your bracket doesn't benefit anyone. Example: I lose to round 1 opponent who finishes first but can still only get 5th (same as with single elimination)

snarles2 · Joined: 07 Sep 2007 Posts: 11

AlexTrebek · Joined: 24 Nov 2004 Posts: 145

So sign up for another tournament?

snarles2 · Joined: 07 Sep 2007 Posts: 11

AlexTrebek · Joined: 24 Nov 2004 Posts: 145

I guess for drafts it works.. but your brackets have someone who is 1-2 getting 4th and someone going 2-1 5th so I think you need to switch those.

snarles2 · Joined: 07 Sep 2007 Posts: 11

Engrishskill · Joined: 15 Jan 2007 Posts: 247

why not just make some tourneys swiss-style? Best out of five or whatever.

gushatog · Joined: 19 Jan 2007 Posts: 21

uh, yeah, i think if we were going to implement non-elim, we would use swiss. it would be much easier to program than that and actually works

snarles2 · Joined: 07 Sep 2007 Posts: 11

Rotstejn · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 148 Location: Belgium

I like the current single elemination system !

HHH1 · Joined: 10 Apr 2007 Posts: 5

snarles2 · Joined: 07 Sep 2007 Posts: 11