Tournament
From Free net encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Tournament (disambiguation).
A tournament is a competition involving a relatively large number of competitors, all participating in a single sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses:
- One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentrated into a relatively short time interval. Some game clubs focus on preparing members for such tournaments. Chess clubs, for instance, frequently employ similar ranking systems, chess clocks, and etiquette to those used in chess tournaments.
- A competition involving multiple matches, each involving a subset of the competitors, with the overall tournament winner determined based on the combined results of these individual matches. These are common in those sports and games where each match must involve a small number of competitors: often precisely two, as in most team sports, racket sports and combat sports, many card games and board games, and many forms of competitive debating. Such tournaments allow large numbers to compete against each other in spite of the restriction on numbers in a single match.
These two senses are distinct. All golf tournaments meet the first definition, but while matchplay tournaments meet the second, strokeplay tournaments do not, since there are no distinct matches within the tournament. In contrast, football (soccer) leagues like the FA Premier League are tournaments in the second sense, but not the first, having matches spread across many stadia over a period of up to a year. Many tournaments meet both defintions; for example, the Wimbledon tennis championship.
A tournament-match (or tie or fixture or heat) may involve multiple game-matches (or rubbers or legs) between the competitors. For example, in the Davis Cup tennis tournament, a tie between two nations involves five rubbers between the nations' players. The team that wins the most rubbers wins the tie. In the later rounds of UEFA Champions League of football (soccer), each fixture is played over two legs. The scores of each leg are added, and the team with the higher aggregate score wins the fixture.
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Knockout tournaments
A knockout tournament is divided into successive rounds; each competitor plays in at most one fixture per round. The top-ranked competitors in each fixture progress to the next round. As rounds progress, the number of competitors and fixtures decreases, and the final round consists of just one fixture, the winner of which is the overall champion.
In a single-elimination tournament, only the top-ranked competitors in a fixture progress; in 2-competitor games, only the winner progresses. All other competitors are eliminated. This ensures a winner is decided with the minimum number of fixtures. However, most competitors will be eliminated after relatively few matches; a single bad or unlucky performance can nullify many preceding excellent ones. Other knockout formats provide a "second chance" for some or all losers.
A double-elimination tournament may be used in 2-competitor games to allow each competitor a single loss without being eliminated from the tournament. All losers from the main bracket enter a losers' bracket, the winner of which plays off against the main bracket's winner.
Some formats allow losers to play extra rounds before re-entering the main competion in a later round. Rowing regattas often have repechage rounds for the "fastest losers" from the heats. The winners of these progress, but are at a disadvantage in later rounds owing to the extra effort expended during the repechage.
In the playoffs of the Australian Football League, the teams with the best record before the playoffs are allowed to lose a game without being eliminated, whereas the lesser qualifiers are not. In athletics meetings, fastest losers may progress in a running event held over several rounds; e.g. the qualifiers for a later round might be the first 4 from each of 6 heats, plus the 8 fastest losers from among the remaining runners.
Group tournaments
A group tournament, league, division or conference involves all competitors playing a number of fixtures. Points are awarded for each fixture, with competitors ranked based either on total number of points or average points per fixture. Usually each competitor plays an equal number of fixtures, in which case rankings by total points and by average points are equivalent.
In a round-robin tournament, each competitor plays all the others an equal number of times (typically once). This is often seen as producing the most reliable rankings. However, for large numbers of competitors it may require an unfeasibly large number of rounds. A Swiss system tournament attempts to determine a winner reliably, based on a smaller number of fixtures. Fixtures are scheduled one round at a time; a competitor will play another who has a similar record in previous rounds of the tournament. This allows the top (and bottom) competitors to be determined with fewer rounds than a round-robin, though the middle rankings are unreliable.
There may be other considerations besides reliability of rankings. In some professional team sports, weaker teams are given an easier slate of fixtures as a form of handicapping. This occurs in the National Football League in the USA, and in the Australian Football League. Sometimes schedules are weighted in favour of local derbies or other traditional rivalries. For example, NFL teams play two games against each of the other three teams in their division, one game against half of the other twelve teams in their conference, and one game against a quarter of the sixteen teams in the other conference. American sports are also unusual in providing fixtures between competitors who are, for ranking purposes, in different groups.
Group tournament rankings
In 2-competitor games where ties are rare or impossible, competitors are typically ranked by number of wins, with ties counting half; each competitors' listings are usually ordered Wins-Losses(-Ties). Where draws are more common, this may be 2 points for a win and 1 for a draw, which is mathematically equivalent but avoids having too many half-points in the listings. These are usually ordered Wins-Draws-Losses. If there are more than 2 competitors per fixture, points may be ordinal (for example, 3 for first, 2 for second, 1 for third). A games behind figure is sometimes included in listings for a tournament still in progress, to allow comparison of competitors who have not completed the same proportion of their allotted fixtures.
Some games may have more complex ranking criteria. In football (soccer), where draws are relatively common, many leagues give 3 points for a win and 1 for a draw to encourage attacking play. In rugby union, bonus points may be awarded for scoring a certain number of tries, which are a more crowd-pleasing form of score than goals, or for losing by a relatively small margin.
When competitors are level on points, there is usually some tiebreaker criterion. Sometimes, however, ranking ties may stand: prior to 1994, the Five Nations Championship in rugby union could result in joint champions. A tiebreaker may be a play-off, with extra matches between the tied competitors. If there are more than two tied competitors in a 2-competitor game, the play-off may be a round-robin or knockout tournament. Instead of a playoff, the original fixtures may provide the tie-breaker criteria:
- head-to-head
- considering only results of fixtures between the deadlocked competitors. If more than a single fixture is involved, a subtable may be used recursively for the ranking.
- scoring average
- the ratio of points (goals, etc.) scored to those conceded.
- scoring differential
- the difference between points (goals, etc) scored and those conceded.
- points scored
- irrespective of points conceded.
- disciplinary record
- fouls conceded, players sent off, etc.
- seeding or ranking
- This may be defined to favour the higher- or lower-ranked competitor.
- Neustadtl score, or Sonneborn-Berger score
- the sum of defeated opponents' scores plus half the sum of drawn opponents' scores; this method is especially common in Swiss tournaments.
Ties remaining on one of these criteria may be resolved by resorting in turn to others of them. Where a group is the qualifying phase of a larger tournament, it may be necessary as a last resort to use drawing of lots as a tiebreaker. This was used in Group F of the 1990 Football World Cup to separate second and third place.
Multi-stage tournaments
Many tournaments are held in multiple stages, with the top teams in one stage progressing to the next. American professional team sports have a regular season (group tournament) acting as qualification for the post season or playoffs (single-elimination tournament). In the football World Cup, each continent has one or more qualifying tournaments, some of which are themselves multi-stage. The top teams in each qualify for the finals tournament. There, the 32 teams are divided into eight round-robin groups of four, with the top two in each progressing to the knockout phase, which involves four single-elimination rounds including the final.
Sometimes, results from an earlier phase are carried over into a later phase. In the cricket World Cup, the semi-final group features three teams from each of two preliminary groups, who do not replay the teams they have already played, but instead reuse the original results in the new league table. Formerly in the Swiss Football League, teams played a double round-robin, at which point they were split into a top "championship" group and a bottom "relegation" group; each played a separate double round-robin, with results of all 32 matches counting for ranking each group.
Promotion and relegation
Where the number of competitors is larger than a tournament format permits, there may be multiple tournaments held in parallel, with competitors assigned to a particular tournament based on their ranking. In Scrabble, and many other individual games, many tournaments over one or more years contribute to a player's ranking. However, many team sports involve teams in only one major tournament per year. In European sport, including football, this constitutes the sole ranking for the following season; the top teams from each division of the league are promoted to a higher division, while the bottom teams from a higher division are relegated to a lower one. This promotion and relegation occurs mainly in league tournaments, but also features in Davis Cup tennis, where each group is a single-elimination tournament: while the team which wins each round is the champion, the one which loses each round will be relegated. The hierarchy of divisions may be linear, or tree-like, as with the English football league pyramid.
Bridge tournaments
Template:Main In contract bridge a "tournament" is a tournament in the first sense above, composed of multiple "events", which are tournaments in the second sense. Some events may be single-elimination, double-elimination, or Swiss style. However, "Pair events" are the most widespread. In these events, an identical deal (or board) is played in multiple rubbers. The North-South (NS) pair in one such rubber is measured not against the East-West (EW) pair in that same rubber, but rather against all the other NS pairs playing the same board in other rubbers. Thus pairs are rewarded for playing the same cards better than others have played them. Several systems provide a predetermined schedule of fixtures based on the number of pairs and boards to be played, to ensure a good mix of opponents, and that no pair plays the same board twice.
Poker tournaments
In poker tournaments, sometimes "shoot-out" (i.e. single-elimination knockout) is used. Otherwise, as players are eliminated, the number of tables is gradually reduced, with the remaining players redistributed among the remaining tables. Thus, unlike most other tournaments, a competitor may join a fixture which is already in progress.
Alternatives to tournament systems
While tournament structures attempt to provide an objective format for determining the best competitor in a game or sport, other methods exist.
- Challenge
- in this format, champions retains their title until they are defeated by an opponent, known as the challenger. This system is used in professional boxing. Prior to 1993, it was also used in the World Chess Championship. The right to become a contender may be awarded through a tournament, as in chess, or through a ranking system: the ranking systems used by boxing's governing bodies are controversial and opaque. If the champion retires or dies, then the current top challenger may be declared champion, or the title may be vacant until a match between two challengers is held. Prior to 1920, the reigning Wimbledon champion received a bye to the final; the official name of the FA Challenge Cup reflects a similar arrangement which applied only in that tournament's very early years. The America's Cup is decided between the winners of separate champion and challenger tournaments, respectively for yachts from the country of the reigning champion, and of all other countries.
- Ladder
- an extension of the challenge system. All competitors are ranked on a "ladder". New contestants join the bottom of the ladder. Any contestant can challenge a competitor ranked slightly higher; if the challenger wins the match (or the challenge is refused) they swap places on the ladder. Ladders are common in internal club competitions in individual sports, like squash and pool.
- Selection
- A champion may be selected by an authorised or self-appointed group, often after a vote. While common in non-competitive activities, ranging from science fairs to cinema's Oscars, this is rarely significant in sports and games. Though unofficial, the polls run Associated Press and others were prestigious titles in American college fooball prior to the creation in 2001 of an official national championship. The polls remain as factors included in determining the two teams qualifying for the championship game.de:Turnierform
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