This is an excerpt from organizing tournament by John Byl.

Nine types of tournaments or leagues are described in this book: single elimination, double elimination, multilevel, straight round robin, round robin double split, round robin triple split, round robin quadruple split, semi-round robins, and extended (such as ladder and pyramid tournaments). In the passages that follow, you will find the details on each kind of tournament or league, including individual strengths and weaknesses and suggestions for the best use for each tournament and league format.

Single Elimination

The greatest appeal of the single-elimination tournament is its simplicity. Losers are eliminated, and winners advance to the next round until only one contestant remains—the tournament champion. The single-elimination tourney is valuable when the number of entries is large, time is short, and the number of locations is limited. Of all the tournaments, this one requires the fewest games (or matches); however, half the participants are eliminated after one game, and only a quarter of the participants remain after the second round. When more extensive participation is important and more locations and time are available, a single-elimination tournament is probably not your best choice. Yes, a single-elimination format is the simplest, but the other tournaments described in this manual are also easy to organize, so the simplicity of single elimination is not a significant factor in its favor.

Probably the best use for the single-elimination tournament is play-offs at the end of a season or following a longer tournament, such as a split round robin. You would then determine seeding for the single elimination by the standings at the conclusion of the previous playing period. Single-elimination tournaments are discussed in depth in chapter 2.

Double Elimination

The double-elimination tournament addresses two problems inherent in the single-elimination tournament. The first is that one of the best entries may have a bad first game or match or have been poorly seeded in the single-elimination draw; if that occurs in a single-elimination tournament, that entry is eliminated too soon. Having a losers’ bracket gives such an entry an opportunity to play in the finals. The second problem with the single elimination is that half of the entries play only one game (or match). The double-elimination format ensures that all entries play at least two games.

However, this tournament type is often overrated because of those strengths. It also has weaknesses, and there are alternatives. The major difficulties with the double elimination are that the second- and third-seeded entries play many games, particularly in the final rounds of the tournament, and it takes many rounds to complete. Also, this tournament type often uses available areas inefficiently. For example, if the tournament consists of nine entries and four locations are available, the double-elimination tournament takes seven rounds to complete. This is as many rounds as in a round robin double split (discussed later) but without the advantages a round robin tournament offers.

The double elimination is a good option when the number of locations is limited, time is at a premium, final standings are important, and all entries are to be awarded a minimum of two games. For more on double eliminations, see chapter 4.

Multilevel

The multilevel tournament is similar to a single-elimination tournament; in fact, at the top level they are the same. However, in a multilevel tournament, a player is not eliminated following a loss but simply moves down one or more levels of play into the consolation rounds. This downward movement continues until no other challengers remain. One result of this approach is that all entries play about the same number of games. Another benefit is that in each round the players are more likely to encounter other players of their caliber.

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