CurlyW
Noob
Hi, CurlyW here. You may know me as the guy who does brackets for such events as Combo Breaker and CEO, among others.
I have a general inquiry regarding what sort of schedule tournament competitors would prefer at an offline event. I posted a Twitter poll earlier this week with this question, but I also wanted to try to approach players more directly, hence why I'm here. (And apologies if this is the wrong area to post this, I wasn't quite sure where it best fit.)
Here's the situation: You've made it out of pools into Top 48. The Top 48 starts at 4pm. The Top 8 is at 8 pm, meaning the tournament needs to get through 52 matches in 4 hours so that the Top 8 will be set by 8pm. Of course, since this is essentially the semifinal round of the tournament, some matches will be played on stream between 4 and 8pm (the winners side matches and the Top 8 qualifier matches, for example), and the tournament wants to make sure that the stream has no dead air during the 4 hours.
There are two options for how to run this portion of the tournament:
Option A: Run the Top 48 as a single bracket
Option B: Run as two 24-person brackets, one starting at 4pm and one starting at 6pm
The main advantage of Option B is that it gives players in the Top 48 a guaranteed 2-hour break where they don't need to be either waiting by the tournament setups to play their match or waiting in the stream queue. Whereas with Option A, it's very possible that some players who make it far will need to hang around for the full 4 hours before immediately proceeding into the Top 8 matches, which could be exhausting and potentially detract from the tournament experience. (Some people expressed concern with Option B that players who made it out of the 6pm pool would have an advantage because they would already be "hot" going into Top 8, but in this scenario, there's nothing precluding the players that advanced out of the earlier pool to use some of their free time to warm up before Top 8 starts.)
The main drawback of Option B is that it has a much higher likelihood of double jeopardy occurring than Option A does. If you're not familiar with the term in this context, "double jeopardy" refers to when two people in a tournament play twice, once in winners bracket and again in losers bracket. Double jeopardy is generally undesirable, as players don't really want both their losses in a double-elimination tournament to be to the same person, unless they make it very far in the tournament before needing to replay an opponent.
With Option A, the three people who make it out of the same first round pool would be placed in the Top 48 bracket in a way that is guaranteed to avoid all instances of double jeopardy until Top 8 at the earliest. With Option B, the three people who make it out of the same first round pool would all be placed in the same semifinal pool. This is done in order to keep player schedules predictable, and helps with avoiding potential conflicts for players in other games (*cough*SonicFox*cough*). As a result of this, double jeopardy could occur as early as losers Top 16. Additionally, Option B has a much higher likelihood of double jeopardy occurring in the first round of losers Top 8 than Option A does.
Ultimately, it's a question of preference as to which option you think is better from a competitor's standpoint. If you would prefer to have a guaranteed block of time when you would not have to stay at the venue, you'd probably favor Option B. If you absolutely do not want even the chance of running into the same player twice in the tournament before making it to Top 8, you'd favor Option A. Or you may not care, and that's fine too.
Anyway, please let me know your preference, if you care, and I will be sure to take it into account for the future.
I have a general inquiry regarding what sort of schedule tournament competitors would prefer at an offline event. I posted a Twitter poll earlier this week with this question, but I also wanted to try to approach players more directly, hence why I'm here. (And apologies if this is the wrong area to post this, I wasn't quite sure where it best fit.)
Here's the situation: You've made it out of pools into Top 48. The Top 48 starts at 4pm. The Top 8 is at 8 pm, meaning the tournament needs to get through 52 matches in 4 hours so that the Top 8 will be set by 8pm. Of course, since this is essentially the semifinal round of the tournament, some matches will be played on stream between 4 and 8pm (the winners side matches and the Top 8 qualifier matches, for example), and the tournament wants to make sure that the stream has no dead air during the 4 hours.
There are two options for how to run this portion of the tournament:
Option A: Run the Top 48 as a single bracket
This is more or less the standard way to run things. With this format, the TOs would run the bracket from Top 48 down to Top 16 between 4pm and 6pm, then run the Top 16 to Top 8 matches between 6 and 8pm.
Option B: Run as two 24-person brackets, one starting at 4pm and one starting at 6pm
In this format, half of the players would go into a 24-person bracket that runs from 4-6pm, while the other half will play in a second 24-person bracket running from 6-8. Four players will advance out of each bracket into the Top 8 starting at 8pm.
The main advantage of Option B is that it gives players in the Top 48 a guaranteed 2-hour break where they don't need to be either waiting by the tournament setups to play their match or waiting in the stream queue. Whereas with Option A, it's very possible that some players who make it far will need to hang around for the full 4 hours before immediately proceeding into the Top 8 matches, which could be exhausting and potentially detract from the tournament experience. (Some people expressed concern with Option B that players who made it out of the 6pm pool would have an advantage because they would already be "hot" going into Top 8, but in this scenario, there's nothing precluding the players that advanced out of the earlier pool to use some of their free time to warm up before Top 8 starts.)
The main drawback of Option B is that it has a much higher likelihood of double jeopardy occurring than Option A does. If you're not familiar with the term in this context, "double jeopardy" refers to when two people in a tournament play twice, once in winners bracket and again in losers bracket. Double jeopardy is generally undesirable, as players don't really want both their losses in a double-elimination tournament to be to the same person, unless they make it very far in the tournament before needing to replay an opponent.
With Option A, the three people who make it out of the same first round pool would be placed in the Top 48 bracket in a way that is guaranteed to avoid all instances of double jeopardy until Top 8 at the earliest. With Option B, the three people who make it out of the same first round pool would all be placed in the same semifinal pool. This is done in order to keep player schedules predictable, and helps with avoiding potential conflicts for players in other games (*cough*SonicFox*cough*). As a result of this, double jeopardy could occur as early as losers Top 16. Additionally, Option B has a much higher likelihood of double jeopardy occurring in the first round of losers Top 8 than Option A does.
Ultimately, it's a question of preference as to which option you think is better from a competitor's standpoint. If you would prefer to have a guaranteed block of time when you would not have to stay at the venue, you'd probably favor Option B. If you absolutely do not want even the chance of running into the same player twice in the tournament before making it to Top 8, you'd favor Option A. Or you may not care, and that's fine too.
Anyway, please let me know your preference, if you care, and I will be sure to take it into account for the future.