pools to a single elim bracket like the olympics are the best.
why:
1- all the people who suck and spent money and time to travel and attend don’t go 0-1 and out or even 0-2 and out like double elim, rather they will get anywhere from 4 to 8 tourney level matches (depending on pool size).
2- rewards the most consistent winners through pool play:
3- challenges the most consistent winners in a single elim bracket where it rewards the player with the fewest mistakes
4- runs faster than double elim IMO. (if youre a good tourney runner), you have stations set to pools, assign everyone a pool, people no longer report their matches (time consuming), rather just play each other in their own pool, and with good players they can sometimes handle this themselves in the best case.
5- the sports != video games arguement does not apply here, as many other video game tournament organizations run this format, (WCG, CPL, online leagues…, etc.)
downside:
1- you have to kind of know what you’re doing when you make pools, ie dont put all the killer sharks in one pool, and most tourney runners would rather just have a laptop do the work for them with a double elim system.
2- you may need a judge for pool stations, the best case situation is players play themselves and figure out for themselves who the pool winners are, the worst case situation is you need someone to go by each station and babysit or tell who has to play who. this could be time consuming if you don’t have the staff.
3- pool ties: player A beats B, B beats C, A loses to C. now you have a 3 way tie, and people may be forced to play again.
4- double elim is too established as a tradition, so nobody will like other formats. you always fear what you dont understand!
I’m not saying double elim is horrible or anything, ive ran tournaments for like 5-6 years, and every single one has been double elim. what it really comes down to is what the people want. This was really seen with the shift of 1v1 tournaments to 3v3 tournaments in guilty gear becoming the more popular norm, even being the way it was done at evo one year.
