Hi, I've been running a
PM/Melee monthly tournament for a few months now and I'm wondering if there's a widely accepted system for awarding seed points to each player depending on their final placement.
Up until now I have been awarding the points as follows:
Placement / Points
1 / 16
2 / 15
3 / 14
4 / 13
5-6 / 12
7-8 / 10
9-12 / 8
12-16 / 4
>16 / 0
I'm wondering if the points awarded should be weighted differently so that, for example, the difference between 1st and 2nd place should be bigger than the difference between 2nd and 3rd which in turn would be bigger than the difference between 3rd and 4th etc. etc.
I've tried googling but I haven't been able to find anything other than numerous pages describing what exactly seeding points do rather than a fair way to distribute them.
Any input whatsoever is appreciated. Cheers.
Hi, I'm Overswarm. I have run a ton of tournament series in my history as a smasher.
When seeding based on placement, you need to determine what you want to encourage. Your current seeding system makes it virtually impossible for someone to "catch up" after getting 12th or so unless there's some high variance, so it encourages attendance.
More importantly,
it doesn't accurately reflect skill, as you can miss two tournaments due to a doctor's appointment and a date with your significant other and then consistently win other events and still be a lower seed than the guy who always gets second for
sixteen tournaments in a row!
When seeding, you typically want to encourage one of two things:
1) Attendance
2) Skill
Both are always obviously encourage by any seeding system (you get more points by being higher, you only get points for showing up), but you can encourage one over the other.
To encourage attendance, make the points closer together and give them out to as many placements as possible. The closer points are together, the less it reflects skill and the more it reflects attendance.
To encourage skill, do the opposite. Make points further apart. The farther apart they are, the more placement is important. If 1st is 500 points and 2nd is 200 points, someone who gets 1st can attend every 3rd tournament and still be first seed.
The best way I have found to encourage both is to separate the bracket into "tiers". Make the distance between two points equal within tiers, but slightly less in other tiers. So the difference between 1st and 2nd could be 10 points, but between 5th and 7th is 2 points. This encourages skill because if you place consistently, you are likely to get a good seed
around that level, but if you excel and do well, you "gain a lead" on those who placed below you. Someone placing 3rd three times in a row might have 60 points, but your two 4th place finishes at 4th add up only to 30... but your surprise 1st place finish boosts you 40 points to 70 points total! This means getting 4th, 4th, 1st is better than 3rd, 3rd, 3rd. Skill is greatly encouraged in this fashion.
I've used this for many circuits and it results in good competition. People try to gain higher points, but dont' feel discouraged because they cap out at 7th, because they are competing within their "tier".
These are the points I've used, feel free to use them:
1 - 40 pts
2 - 30 pts
3 - 20 pts
4 - 15 pts
5 - 10 pts
7 - 8 pts
9 - 6 pts
13- 4 pts
17 - 2 pts
25 - 1 pt
It works out quite well!
