(Ectuohy) "It's nice to see teams other than Maryland-CP and Michigan in tournament finals, and this can only happen with single-elimination." - This is PB's market. Translation into english: If we don't have single-elim, Md and Mich will win. (by inference #1 Chicago and #2 Illinois as well) Since we don't want that, we will devise a system that prevents these teams from winning. Single-elim is the only mechanism to do so. Therefore it must be used. -- We call this a bias. That comment above, though not by Penn indicates why people defend single elimination. It also explains why people are willing to turn a blind eye to problematic nature of the PB9 outcome despite imbrobability so extreme as to preclude chance as a factor. Single-Elim, through the instrument of the "upset special" packet remain the primary cause. In this case, the burden of proving a statistical near-impossiblity lies upon the Penn Staff. Let them show how such a result is even *possible* within a 10% level of confidence without the SE and Packet Factor. (notice that I said 10%, and not 90%. That is how improbably the results are.) They have plenty of data to mine from their tournament. Mr. O'Neal's example is flawed in the extreme as he provides no data set from which to draw any conclusions or do any real analysis within any acceptable level of confidence. Perhaps I am rash to accuse Penn of "consiring" against these top 4 teams to create the "upsets" their customer base so desperately craves. Maybe Penn simply lacks editorial skill, tournament experience, and judgement so severely that they cannot competently run a playoff. And perhaps it was accidental that these extremely unlikely events just happened to occur in the first playoff round, rahter than the round robin, where the effects could be conveniently maximized, and while the upset craving public could be blind to the situation because they weren't playing. Interestingly, no one else has mentioned that the ETC round clearly failed to meet tournament guidelines. Ultimately, this is because our observers want to see an upset so badly that they don't much care how it happens. Next year, we can ensure the requisite quota of upsets by breaking buzzer fingers. That way those bottom bracket teams can learn to aspire to be 2nd or 3rd. They can be good enough to make and stay in the playoffs, but not so good as to be Player-Hated out of them. "In mediocrity, there is company"
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