Rejected Delete playoff tiebreakers in Stour, Slam, Classic

[Skarpherim]

This year there was a 3-person tiebreak reset in stour, a 5-person tiebreak in slam, and another 5-person tiebreak in classic. That's borderline 2 months worth of tiebreaks in 2025

These tours seed the top 16 players by points -> win% -> and deepest runs for the playoffs, but inexplicably stop at points if the 16th/17th seeds are tied. This forces them into a tiebreak instead of using the other metrics to decide who gets the spot. It makes the tour drag on, playoffs get delayed, hosts and players get annoyed, and really serves no purpose to anyone (not even the players who are in them). If the goal is to win the tournament then being in a tiebreak only makes it harder. Playing 1-2 extra bo5s and revealing prep to your future opponents is significant, including that you have to win more elimination sets in a row than you normally would. There's also the fact that nobody has ever won an individual trophy from tiebreak

It sucks barely missing the playoffs of your favorite tour, but this is a possibility that will always exist. Players who are in the race are paying attention to the standings — it's not like people don't know about how many wins they need to qualify. The chance of missing top 16 because someone ahead of you cleared 1 more round of the RU Open is dumb, but not even close as dumb as "grand slam tiebreak 3-way bo5 round-robin x2 reset"


Start using win% or deepest run after points to determine the last playoff spots so shit like this doesn't happen

 

[Luigi]

These tours seed the top 16 players by points -> win% -> and deepest runs for the playoffs, but inexplicably stop at points if the 16th/17th seeds are tied.

this is very explicable actually. we seed with other metrics because any seed is virtually the same in playoffs, but having a spot vs not having one at all is a big deal, so people tied in points, the actual thing that matters play for it.

the rest of your post is insane. no one won a tour from a tb because any given seed has a roughly 1/16 chance to win, and tiebreaks are pretty rare to begin with, most tours don’t even have someone from a tiebreak competing lol.

the points about revealing prep and it not serving anyone are absurd too. if you gave the 2 people tied a chance to coinflip for it instead of play no would take it. obviously the tied players benefit from it.

and having hosted and played in many playoffs that had a tiebreak, lots of people appreciate the extra time. but even if everyone hated it, it’s a ridiculous concept to use the arbitrary nonsense (i know it’s arbitrary nonsense because i’m the one who invented it) we use to seed to eliminate someone tied in points for 16th seed instead of just taking an extra week to play it out

 

[Finchinator]

I think the status quo is fine personally.

There is no “perfect” solution and things can take a long while, but I would argue that the extra time is well worthwhile here and fits the competitive nature of the tournaments.

There's also the fact that nobody has ever won an individual trophy from tiebreak

This is entirely irrelevant, by the way.

revealing prep to your future opponents is significant

And if this is a problem for anyone in playoffs in 2025, they are going to run into trouble regardless.

 

[Skarpherim]

Having more time to prep is a good reason to keep the TBs, I didn't think of it that way when typing this

I really thought this would make it easier for players and hosts and just make the tournament run smoother / have a more predictable timeline, but evidently people value the break

Drawing the line at points is equally as arbitrary as drawing it at points - > win%. We could skip the odds of having this ridiculous round-robin tiebreaker where 3 players are fighting for 1 spot and have to play 2 bo5s in one week with the chance of it resetting multiple times. Some tournaments use resistance or whatever to make it run smoother, and I wanted this to act in the same way

no one won a tour from a tb because any given seed has a roughly 1/16 chance to win, and tiebreaks are pretty rare to begin with, most tours don’t even have someone from a tiebreak competing lol.

I was saying that there's no historical reason to keep it the same way, but this really wasn't a good point or one that I strongly felt, so I concede here. obviously these circumstances are already hella unlikely

My complaints about prep is probably more relatable to people than you'd think. In the case of a 3-player round-robin competing for the 16th seed in the slam, where all three players go 1-1 and the bracket resets, can anyone in that circumstance reasonably build 20 quality teams in 2 weeks? assuming you don't have an army helping you? and if you do win, now play the rest of playoffs on top of that

the points about revealing prep and it not serving anyone are absurd too. if you gave the 2 people tied a chance to coinflip for it instead of play no would take it. obviously the tied players benefit from it.

It's on the player to qualify within 1-16, and you can account for this by paying attention to the standings and how many games you need to win. what about that is a coinflip? when #16 wins more games or has a deeper run than #17, #16 deserves the spot more. #17 knows that if they have the same amount of points that they won't make it.

yes the tied players will play in the tb if nothing changes. that doesn't mean it's a healthy or good system when it comes to these bo5s



Epic fail

 

[Finchinator]

After discussing this internally, we are going to maintain the status quo for the reasons Luigi and I mentioned above.