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Group Stages into Single Elimination
Now this system is pretty easy to understand. You can even model it on other sports as this is singularly the most popular way of sorting teams and players in competition across the globe. Almost everyone I spoke to about this column understands this system, from people in gaming, to people who work in councils and pick up rubbish in the streets. They know this system because it is widely used in traditional sports, such as the Football World Cup, European champions league, American Football (of sorts) and even, dare I say it, in a warped form in Major League Baseball. Again, let’s look at the amount of matches to be played and compare it to double elimination.
16 players – Double Elimination = 27 matches to be played
16 players – Groups into single = 31 matches to be played
This assumes that each group is made up of 4 players each, they play each other once (therefore giving each player 3 games, rather than 2 under double elimination) and then the top 2 qualify from each group into a Quarter final, semi final and final. If you throw in one more for a 3rd placed playoff, we have 32 matches, just 5 more than under the double elimination system. Whilst tournament schedules are often tight, surely 5 more matches wouldn’t hurt that much and in comparison to the league system, it’s a good compromise between matches to be played and fairness. This system is also better for the players, as they know they will get at least 3 matches rather than 2 and for the casual watcher, they can clearly see who goes through and how it works, it’s no different to the world cup in football. American sports often employ a variation on this theme too, yet some Europeans would claim they are hard to follow. American football for example has a kind of group stage into single elimination system (all be it with a few things thrown in for extra spice).
Some tournaments already use the group stage system, ESWC for example have employed this successfully over the years and it has proved popular with spectators and players alike. As for online leagues, ClanBase had for many seasons also used this system, but lately seems to have added a double elimination system after the group stages. There is also something to be said about the knock out part of the system which seems to provide some intense matches, both players knowing a mistake could mean a tournament exit. But hey, they had the group stages already, why get another chance, when they already had 3 chances in the first round stage?
CPL and WSVG are using what could be termed the more “traditional esports” model by adopting the double elimination system and this could be for a number of reasons, not least of which, because they tend to have far more people in their tournaments each weekend than say ESWC finals or WCG finals.
If we take a look at a larger tournament for example with around 128 players entering, it would surely be unworkable.
128 players - Double Elimination = 251 matches
128 players – Groups into single = 255 matches
Again this works on the same format as before, with 32 groups of 4 players, each with the top two going through to the next round. There is one thing I forgot to mention earlier, the seeds are less critical with this system as in theory, even if you get two great players in the same group together, they should both still be able to qualify for the next round.
Now this system is pretty easy to understand. You can even model it on other sports as this is singularly the most popular way of sorting teams and players in competition across the globe. Almost everyone I spoke to about this column understands this system, from people in gaming, to people who work in councils and pick up rubbish in the streets. They know this system because it is widely used in traditional sports, such as the Football World Cup, European champions league, American Football (of sorts) and even, dare I say it, in a warped form in Major League Baseball. Again, let’s look at the amount of matches to be played and compare it to double elimination.
16 players – Double Elimination = 27 matches to be played
16 players – Groups into single = 31 matches to be played
This assumes that each group is made up of 4 players each, they play each other once (therefore giving each player 3 games, rather than 2 under double elimination) and then the top 2 qualify from each group into a Quarter final, semi final and final. If you throw in one more for a 3rd placed playoff, we have 32 matches, just 5 more than under the double elimination system. Whilst tournament schedules are often tight, surely 5 more matches wouldn’t hurt that much and in comparison to the league system, it’s a good compromise between matches to be played and fairness. This system is also better for the players, as they know they will get at least 3 matches rather than 2 and for the casual watcher, they can clearly see who goes through and how it works, it’s no different to the world cup in football. American sports often employ a variation on this theme too, yet some Europeans would claim they are hard to follow. American football for example has a kind of group stage into single elimination system (all be it with a few things thrown in for extra spice).
Some tournaments already use the group stage system, ESWC for example have employed this successfully over the years and it has proved popular with spectators and players alike. As for online leagues, ClanBase had for many seasons also used this system, but lately seems to have added a double elimination system after the group stages. There is also something to be said about the knock out part of the system which seems to provide some intense matches, both players knowing a mistake could mean a tournament exit. But hey, they had the group stages already, why get another chance, when they already had 3 chances in the first round stage?
CPL and WSVG are using what could be termed the more “traditional esports” model by adopting the double elimination system and this could be for a number of reasons, not least of which, because they tend to have far more people in their tournaments each weekend than say ESWC finals or WCG finals.
If we take a look at a larger tournament for example with around 128 players entering, it would surely be unworkable.
128 players - Double Elimination = 251 matches
128 players – Groups into single = 255 matches
Again this works on the same format as before, with 32 groups of 4 players, each with the top two going through to the next round. There is one thing I forgot to mention earlier, the seeds are less critical with this system as in theory, even if you get two great players in the same group together, they should both still be able to qualify for the next round.