Circle of death

A circle of death is a three-way tie in which each of the three teams has beaten one of of the other two teams and lost to the remaining team. Such ties cannot be broken by a head-to-head result (not that any ties should be) and require a relatively complicated tiebreaking procedure (or the use of statistical tiebreakers). The term sometimes refers to other types of three-way ties and occasionally to five-way (or even higher-order) ties that are analogous to the original meaning.

Resolving a circle of death

In general, it is not necessary to break a tie, and it is common for ties that do not involve first place to be left unresolved. However, some formats (or participant preferences) require the breaking of ties. If three teams are tied for one spot, the best procedure is to have the teams ranked by a statistic (typically points per tossup heard) and then the lower two teams play each other for a chance to play the upper team, the winner of which takes the top spot. If three teams are tied for two spots (e.g., in a preliminary pool the top two spots of which go to a specific playoff pool), the best procedure is for the top two teams play each other and the winner gets one of the better two spots, after which the lower of that game plays the originally lowest team, the winner of which gets the other better spot. Frequently, half-games are used instead of full games.

Sometimes statistical tiebreakers are used instead of additional gameplay, which is not ideal but is sometimes necessary for reasons of time, question availability, or other constraints. Very occasionally, a game is played with all three teams playing at once, which is very much not a best practice.

Other uses

The term "circle of death" is also used by the NAC to designate the double-elimination playoff at the end of the tournament.