The "Bloodbath" Round

by Gordon Bower, Fairbanks, Alaska

Editor's note:

• In Australia Swiss Teams are seeded, and the first round is played between the number one seed, and the one just below half-way: then the number two seed plays the next one down, and so on.

This ignores the whole point of having a Swiss in the first place: namely, to ensure that you play against people of approximately equal ability as yourself all day long, while still allowing you to earn the chance to play up if you distinguish yourself.

A 'bloodbath Swiss' is an Anti-Swiss. I am not sure whether or not to buy the argument that giving all the A players a first-round win makes the rest of the day work better or not. I certainly don't think it makes the rest of the day so much fairer as to toss the first round out the window.

In ACBLand where almost all events are stratified, current practice is either to pair up adjacent starting tables to save time, or to have a random draw among teams of the same stratum. An organized entry-seller can arrange his entry forms in such an order as to make the latter happen automatically when he does the former.

Compiling and sorting the masterpoint holdings of each team, only to use these for one or two rounds, is a real waste of time. In bracketed KOs the bracketing takes an extra 15 minutes that we usually don't have to spare in always-slow-anyway swisses.

Further comments re seeding of games in general:

Sometime maybe 3 or 4 years ago common practice in Regional knockout teams changed from "best vs. worst" pairing within each bracket, to random draw on the first round. I don't know if this change has spread throughout ACBL or is just a Northwest thing.

The practice of seeding and awarding byes, as used in many of the big name events, is perceived by the rank and file as so grossly unfair that awarding byes is gone - and has been for some time - from essentially all events except the Spingold Vanderbilt and the International Trials. (In the latter it makes some sense to retain it, since the purpose is to choose a team with a consistent record, not merely to find the team playing best on a given week.)

Do not confuse this with seeding of pairs games, which has exactly the opposite purpose: to ensure all sections face opposition of equal strength, not to award the experts more than their fair share of fish to beat up on.

Editor's note:

• If you want to comment on this article, why not write direct to Gordon Bower?
• He will be pleased to hear from you!

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