Today, the GNYBA Tournament Committee met to discuss whether to have Flighted Swiss versus Bracketed Teams. There are pros and cons.
Downsides of Swiss
A Flighted Swiss allows you to choose your bracket. However, the bracket could be very large, and you end up not playing all of the other teams (you play a team with similar cumulative Victory Points). Also, the depth of awards is less generous in a Swiss. With 32 teams in A/X/Y, which we had last October 2022, the top 8 teams in “A” received gold points.
Granted, 6 other teams received gold via “X” and “Y” strats, but that doesn’t always happen when some of the “X” and “Y” teams also hog the “A” awards. As always with strats, if you win both the “A” and the “X”, you only get the “A” award, and no one ends up getting the “X” award. Put another way, in a swiss you might need to beat 24 teams to win gold, whereas in bracketed teams you only need to beat 5 teams to win gold.
Swiss is also less fair in the way matchups are done. You don’t face every other team, so some teams might get lucky and play easier teams while your team might face all of the hard teams.
Downsides of Bracketed
Now we get to the pain points in Bracketed Round Robin. Yes, you usually play everyone else. There are no swiss gambits. Everyone SHOULD be around the same masterpoints. Also, usually 3 out of 8 or 4 out of 9 spots will pay gold. However, there are three annoying problems with bracketed round robin.
You can’t play up, unless you are willing to play top. Many players have a clear track record of playing stronger than typical players at their masterpoint level. However, bracketing must be done by Masterpoints, and an underrated team often dominates the entire bracket. Neither the winning team or opponents have much fun in this situation.
Second, there are no stratifications. After all, a bracket should only have at most 9 teams. If the bracket happens to have a clump of strong teams and a clump of lower rated teams, there won’t be a lower strat prize.
Lastly, you don’t know what convention chart you will play. There is a little-known quirk in the ACBL convention charts when it comes to bracketed teams. If every team in the bracket has a Masterpoint average of under 299, that bracket plays the Basic Chart (it used to be 750, which is even more awful). If every team in the bracket averages to under 1500, you play Basic+. If every team in the bracket average above 3000, you play Open+. Otherwise, you play Open. It is a bit awkward when you find out that you bracketed into a lower bracket than expected and suddenly can’t play certain conventions.
Best of Both Worlds
Thankfully, we have a solution that gives the best of both worlds (we hope). For the Oct 11-14 regional, we will run an open swiss with stratifications (open / 8000 / 4000). Concurrently, there will be Bracketed Round Robin for the rest (0-3500). For newer players, you can play in a bracket that is filled with 7 other less experienced teams. For the underrated, stronger teams, they can choose to play the top bracket in the round robin (with other players who have 2000-3500). Everyone in between can play their bracket. The top tier teams and those who want an extreme challenge can play in the open swiss.
For those trying to reach Life Master or any other ACBL rank requiring gold points, the Bracketed Round Robin is your best bet. Your bracket will probably only have 8 teams and 3 of the 8 will win overall gold points (the rest get red points for match awards). It is much better odds than a pairs game and much easier for players who are no longer able to play in the gold rush pairs. If you have over 750 masterpoints but need gold, go for Bracketed Teams!