Hello -- I wasn't at NAQT this past weekend, so I may not be the best judge, but looking at the new format on its surface, overall I like it better, with one exception (see below). I always felt that there was no way truly to guarantee a fairer, more accurate result with the power matching than with bracketed round robin. At least this way, everyone plays the same opponents (within the bracket, and then within the playoff bracket). But... Matt wrote: > > After round 11 (and immediately before lunch), any teams in the same bracket with the same overall record faced each other in a > tiebreaking game (or sequence of 13-tossup half-games) to resolve > each bracket into a 1-12 ordering of teams. > > (For half-games to break three way ties, order of play was determined by points per tossup, with the top team facing the winner of the other two teams.) > Admittedly, with the power of the best teams, it would be relatively rare, but what happens if you get the dreaded (X-1) circle-of-death at the top? You mean to tell me that a team that went 10-1 this past weekend may not have gotten a crack at the top six just because they lost a half-game to another 10-1 team? That doesn't seem quite fair; IMHO, 1 1/2 losses should not preclude you from the playoffs. This is the potential problem caused by taking only the top two from a bracket. I'm not sure what the best alternative would be, though, without extending the tournament another two rounds. -Adam
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0: Sat 12 Feb 2022 12:30:45 AM EST EST