London: Format Change Could Be Huge
Brian Wheeler, the Commissioner of the London Wiffleball Tournament, announced a format change this past week which could make a HUGE difference in the number of teams headed to home early, or staying late.
The tournament, which will have around 64 68 teams, begins with pool play. There are 16 17 pools of 4 teams each, and each team gets 3 guaranteed games. (They play each other team in their pool once.)
After that, it gets interesting.
All teams with a winning record, advance to stage two of the tournament, double elimination. The teams will be seeded by won/loss record and then run differential. The only problem…we won’t know until the round robin is finished how many teams move on. What a team will know when the pool play is over, is whether or not they’re going home.
With the way the pools are split up, it’s mathmatically possible to have as few as 16 17 teams move on, or as many as 48 51 teams could go on. For those of you not educated in the way of brackets, this is huge difference in the amount of games.
Games to Decide the Double Elimination Tournament:
- 17 Teams = 32 games (33 games if losers’ bracket winner is champion)
- 51 Teams = 100 games (101 games if losers’ bracket winner is champion)
Of course, we’ll likely be someplace in the middle, but it’s going to be an interesting day.
In the past, a specific number of teams has advanced, or a certain percentage of the teams in the tournament. In this model, you always knew how many teams made it, you just sometimes didn’t know if your record and run differential would be good enough to keep you in. This year, it will be clear if you’re in or not. It won’t be clear if the World Series will be played Saturday, or in the wee hours of Sunday morning.
AF, Jul 27, 10:50 AM:
I’m predicting another bracket disaster like last year.
downriver wiffle, Jul 29, 06:39 PM:
That’s my one concern with doing it this way, London has a history of getting lost making brackets. So, with them not knowing until it’s time to make the bracket how it is going to look…. that has me nervous.
Overall, though, I like the idea. In the past when you were 2-1/1-2 and waiting on run-differentials (which mind you isn’t always accurate) to be tallied was always a long, worried wait. This makes it clear right away, you can clear your head of anything and just get ready for your game… or pack up and avoid the crashing of your anticipation.