Tournament Formats

GulBara · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 19

I am considering participating in a backgammon tournament. I’ve been doing a little bit of research online to see what tournament play is like and find some tournaments that I can participate in and I have noticed a lot of different formats that different tournaments offer. The three that I have seen the most are single elimination, double elimination and round robin tournaments. Can anyone explain to me what the difference between these formats is? Is any one of them better than the others? Thanks in advance for your help and opinions!

NulloPlay · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 11

Double elimination is probably the most common format in backgammon tournaments. In a double elimination tournament everybody starts out in one group, called the upper bracket. In the first round the winners stay in the upper bracket and the losers go down into the lower bracket. In the next round, upper bracket players play against each other and lower bracket players play against each other. The losers in the upper bracket move down to the lower bracket. The losers in the lower bracket are eliminated from the tournament. Therefore, once you lose two games you are eliminated, hence the name “double elimination”. At the end of the tournament one player will remain, undefeated, in the upper bracket and one player will remain in the lower bracket. These players play against each other in the last match. If the upper bracket player wins he is the champion. If the lower bracket player wins then the players have a re-match and the winner is the champion.

In single elimination games, also known as knockout or sudden death tournaments, a player is eliminated as soon as he loses a game. There is no lower bracket. The winner of the tournament is the player who remains undefeated at the end.

In round robin tournaments every contestant plays once against every other contestant. Then at the end the results are tallied up and the players are ranked based on the number of games they won and by how many points they one each game.

Each format has it’s own benefits so I suggest you give them all a try and see which one you think is the best.

Wipeout · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 19

In reference to whether one format is better than the other I can give my own opinion, which I think is shared by quite a few backgammon players. I think that the round robin is the fairest format because everyone gets an equal chance to showcase his or her lovely backgammon skills. However, if there are fifty people in the tournament it isn’t really feasible to play in this kind of format. Therefore, I think that the double elimination format is the best option. It gives each player a second chance (as opposed to the single elimination which simply ousts a player as soon as he or she loses, even by fluke). I have played in all three and all can be fun and exciting but I think that the options that give players a fair chance are best.

Wipeout · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 19

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