Tournament

A type of tournament, a tournament format or tournament mode describes the structure of a tournament or a league with the best players, athletes, or the best team to be determined. Mostly it is about sports that allow no direct measurement, but must compete with those two students against each other.

Requirements for a tournament format

The comparison athletic performance is - depending on the sport - different levels of difficulty. When marathon about the performance comparison is relatively simple, since the fact that all tournament participants compete against each other at the same time, allowing a direct performance comparison. An objective performance measurement, such as a time-keeping is in principle not even necessary.

The ability to ask all participants compete against each other is, however, often not given. The performance can often not be measured objectively, but only relative to an opponent (football, tennis, chess, bridge ). This allows the "best" participants in these sports only by a tournament are determined consisting of several comparative fighting.

Desirable properties of a tournament format are therefore:

• The best player should win; that is, if the respective favorite wins in every single match, then the top favorite to carry the tournament victory.
• The second best player to reach the second place.
• The third-best player is to reach the third place and the same applies for the other places.
• The number of games or rounds to - organizational reasons - be as small as possible.
• The decision on the tournament victory is - to increase the voltage - fall in a final of the two best players at the end of the tournament.
• There are no opportunities for collusion exist. No player should be able to draw from the loss of a lot of an advantage. Two players are their own chances to win the tournament at the expense of a third can not be improved by a prior agreement of the game. Such examples can be found very often in football ( see, for example, the infamous non-aggression pact of Gijon ).

The following different tournament formats to meet these criteria only partly why there is no " ideal" tournament format.

Knockout system

The knockout system (of English knock out, such as: " incapacitate ") is a tournament format in which, in each round two participants meet each other and the loser is eliminated, until finally determined in the final the winner of the tournament will.

Best-of- mode

In the best-of- x mode ( Best of x ) where x is an odd number that specifies the maximum number of games or passages that is needed to decide a game or series ( for example, play-off round ). Then is the winner, who won first more than half of x. In most sports is omitted no longer host the decisive games when one side has already won the required number of wins.

Principle can be about the best-of- mode virtually any form of excretion rewrite. A simple knockout round game is thus " Best-of -One ", a very high best-of- series will be played in the final of the World Snooker Championships. There, the player who first gained 18 frames wins ( " best-of- 35").

Best-of -Three

• In tennis, you usually have to win two of three sets to win a match.
• In Floorball the playoff rounds of the first MaXxPrint Floorball Bundesliga and 2 MaXxPrint Floorball Bundesliga after the mode " Best-of- Three" will be played.
• In Hockey is in some lower leagues played in the play-offs after the mode " Best-of- Three".
• The German women's basketball ( DBBL ) be played every playoff rounds in the mode " Best-of- Three" down to the final of the League 1 ( Best-of- Five) and the quarter-finals 2nd leagues.
• In the volleyball league of gentlemen the quarter-finals of the play-offs as a best- of-three is played. Semifinals and finals are decided in a series of best- of-five.
• When E-Sport also many games like Unreal Tournament 2004 Best - of-three mode are played.
• When this mode Wrestling 2 out of 3 Falls is mentioned.
• At the Track Cycling sprint discipline at least to the semi-finals at World Championships from the quarter- final two rounds will be held with two drivers. If tied after these two races will decide a third run of the victory.

Best-of -Five

• In tennis, is today only in the Lord competition of all four Grand Slams, played in the Olympic singles final, and in Davis Cup on three winning sets.
• In basketball was played in the first round of the play -offs in the best- of-five mode in the NBA until the 2001/02 season.
• In table tennis (eg internationally at the Summer Olympic Games, but also in the local sports ) will be played in best- of-five mode usually.

Best-of -Seven

• In Hockey Best-of -Seven is usually played in the mode. In the DEL and the 2nd Bundesliga in all play-off games.
• In the Austrian Hockey League in all play-off games.
• In the NHL throughout the playoffs.
• In the Swiss National League A and B in all play-off games

Double knock out

As a double knock out (even double- elimination ) refers to a tournament that is based in its main features to the knockout system, but attempts to circumvent its weaknesses. The main differences of the double -knockout format as opposed to simply knock-out system (single knock out or single elimination ) are:

• A participant is out until after the second defeat of the tournament.
• A participant can win the tournament despite a one-time loss. This is also excluded in the simple knockout system when additional games will be held in order to obtain a continuous Sort by: Loser of Semifinal game runs best occupy the third place, the loser of a quarter- final match at best the 5th place etc.
• It is ensured even without seeding (set) that the second- best player in the second place (provided at each meeting wins the particular favorite).
• With the same number of participants about twice as many games must be completed as in the knockout system. (Take n some players, 2n -2 games are required.)

Round-robin tournament

As a " round robin " (also " Every man for himself ," Round Robin or English league system ) is a type of tournament called, in which each tournament participants equally often competes against all the other tournament participants.

This system is used in most systems League in football, where the basis of a solid game plan every team against every other team once at home and once away plays (exact name: " Double Round Robin ", as each team each other twice applies). This is also applied when bowling.

A tournament " every man for himself " is required in the simple implementation ( without games) with n subscribers Games. For each victory and each draw points are awarded. At the end there is a complete ranking by points, at equal points more criteria are used, the goal rate or the direct encounters.

Combinations of knockout - and round-robin tournament format

In many cases, a combination of knockout and round robin system will be used. In most cases, the first portion of the tournament as the round-robin tournament, carried out as a further knock-out tournament. Examples include the World Cup, European Football Championship and most European football cup competitions. Here the teams will be divided into groups of four teams each. Between the teams in a group everyone plays against everyone ( " Preliminaries "). The group winners and runners-up play then in the knockout system against each other ( " elimination games" ).

This mixed system has the advantage that a premature withdrawal of good teams can be largely avoided by the group winners meet as late as possible. To play in the first elimination round is always the first group against group second.

By appropriately setting can also reach that two teams that have played in the preliminary round in the same group together, can meet again only in the final one. Before starting the actual tournament many qualifiers will be held in which the mode to turn either the K. -o- system or the round-robin tournament is applied. Of course there are many other ways to combine these two forms of competition; this, different variants are applied primarily in North American sports club (National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, National Football League or Major League Soccer).

Swiss system

The " Swiss system " can best be described as a special form of round tournament. The first round is set or dissolved, then after each round of the intermediate state is determined. In the following rounds always plays the leader against the runner-up, third against the fourth in this series and each further.

However, it is possible that two players meet each other twice, the pairings are therefore determined before each round as follows

• The leader plays against the top ranked player against whom he has not played,
• The leader among the remaining players play against the top ranked player against whom he has not yet played.

So lying after a round of the same players in, so now plays the first against the third (if he has not played against this, therefore: against the top ranked player against whom he has not yet played ), the second to the fourth. In the Swiss system repeatedly encounter the same participant is excluded. The similar Danish system differs from the Swiss system in that same pairings can occur more than once: It wager each round, the first against the second and so on respectively the closest placed.

A special form of the Swiss system is the Mac -Mahon system, which is very common in Go tournaments, in this case the players do not start with zero points, but start the tournament with according to their classification in kyu or dan grades different scores.

• Competition System
• Game concept