--- In quizbowl_at_yahoogroups.com, "Viking Squirrel" <geertgen22_at_a...>
wrote:
> Vicky wrote:
>
> "In a case where everyone knows what's going on beforehand, everyone
> knows that in order to end up in the top bracket, you have to finish
> up top two in your bracket."
The baseball analogy is flawed, IMO, in two ways:
(1) In baseball, at least the teams know, well before the season
begins, who they're going to have to play, and when.
(2) Quiz bowl is inherently unlike most team sports in that there is
a third factor involved: the questions.
> One problem about the top two though that always bothers me is that
> you run the risk of eliminating a team with just one loss, should a
> circle of death occur at the top.
> That's why I think playoff brackets should always have
> at least the top three from preliminary brackets.
This is my main argument against 3x12-top-two-advance formats. A
format where the top 3 teams in each bracket played the top 6 teams
in the other two brackets would be far preferable, IMO. [I can see
taking top two from brackets of six to eight, but not from a bracket
of 10 or more.]
--STI