01A fair and proper tournament would give all competitors the same opportunity:
- to test or prove their strength
- to learn from tournament participation
02To achieve this, two conditions must be met. First, every competitor should be able to play a reasonable number of matches. In the traditional tournament setup, only the round-robin system makes this possible. But in a round-robin tournament each participant gets to play against every other participant. As a result, the total number of required matches is very large unless the number of competitors is fairly small. Tournaments with a large number of competitors, such as most tennis tournaments, have to rely on an elimination system to reduce the required matches to a manageable number. In this system the number of matches required is relatively low: one less than the total number of participants. But this efficiency comes at a high price.
03First, while the elimination system does well in producing the champion, it fails to clearly identify those finishing in second, third and other places. What is worse, the elimination system does not provide much opportunity for most participants to test their real strength or to gain experience and learn how to compete better. After the first round, 50% of the competitors are eliminated from the tournament and after the second round 75% are out. This should not be acceptable, especially in junior and other competitions where participation in just one match cannot justify the effort, time and money spent. All participants should have an equal and reasonable opportunity to benefit from any tournament in which they play. Instead of traveling home after losing in the first round, juniors should be able to analyze their first loss so that they can try to do better in the next match. equTournament makes this possible by giving every competitor a chance to play several matches, like in a round-robin. At the same time, equTournament keeps the total number of required matches to complete the tournament manageable.
04But while equTournament lets every competitor play a number of matches, it is also necessary to make sure that the performance of the players is evaluated accurately. This is the second necessary condition for a fair and proper tournament design. In the traditional system, a 9:1 victory against the top team is rewarded exactly the same as a 2:1 victory against a second-rate team. So the difference in the score has no real significance for the outcome and the strength of the opponent carries no weight. But since scores like 9:1 and 2:1 represent entirely different performances they should be rewarded accordingly. equTournament does not treat a 9:1 victory as equivalent to a 2:1 victory but rewards each of them as it should be. To learn more about how it works, please click here.
