Polo Tournament: The Draw?

I was wondering how the initial draw is going to be made...
are the teams going to be picked out of a hat or are they going to be selected based on ability?
obviously the former is the fairest...is this going to be done publicly on the day?
Bonjour!

The former is most random, I am not sure if I would call that the fairest. From a spectacle point of view, you would want to have the best teams play each other last. In a straight random knockout that's hard to do.

So some sort of seeding would be the best thing, IMO. But how to seed? I am glad I don't have that job.

maybe you could just do a single mallet from each team shuffle?

or is that insane?

30 odd mallet shuffle?
It was quite funny watching Dale try to shuffle 10 mallets on thursday!

we could put them in a giant one of these?

It's all fixed anyway. The South London underworld kingpins paid Roxy millions to make sure a Sarf-based team wins..

It's all fixed anyway. The South London underworld kingpins paid Roxy millions to make sure a Sarf-based team wins..

they wasted their money.

The former is most random, I am not sure if I would call that the fairest. From a spectacle point of view, you would want to have the best teams play each other last. In a straight random knockout that's hard to do. .

Surely that would happen anyway with a random draw?

of course it would!

like the shiteball world cup.

Bill, you can't seed teams that have never competed before!

I don't care, my team will be out first, we're more of a novelty act than a serious team.

I bet my team's out before your team!

get ready to lose that bet, ratio!

It'll make an awkward game if we get each other for first round.

Surely that would happen anyway with a random draw?

Right now there are 4 really good teams who all have a good chance at winning. With a random draw those teams could potentially play each other in the first two rounds leaving one of those teams advancing on and playing a mediocre team in the final making for a boring tournament.

I agree, seeding is the way forward with a straight knock-out tourney.

what about a round robin?

(I have no idea what that would entail, it just sounds good)

"novelty act" good one ;)

what about a round robin?

(I have no idea what that would entail, it just sounds good)

at a guess....fat birds

seeding is a matter of opinion.

;256605']Right now there are 4 really good teams who all have a good chance at winning. With a random draw those teams could potentially play each other in the first two rounds leaving one of those teams advancing on and playing a mediocre team in the final making for a boring tournament.

I agree, seeding is the way forward with a straight knock-out tourney.

So that means teams that have been given shittest odds to win* will have to play against the best teams in the first round, effectively giving us even less chance to progress.

*(like ours... thanks flickwg - even though Jo and Ali are much better players than you)

The only fair way is a public random draw.

and how do we know about the 4 really good teams? Are these just London teams? The teams travelling from Oxford, Manchester and Europe must fancy their chances.

seeding is a matter of opinion.

Some of the teams have played before tho, haven't they? So at least some have some form.

and how do we know about the 4 really good teams? Are these just London teams? The teams travelling from Oxford, Manchester and Europe must fancy their chances.

2 of those teams are London, 2 aren't...

So that means teams that have been given shittest odds to win* will have to play against the best teams in the first round, effectively giving us even less chance to progress.

I wouldn't think it would have to be as extreme as that.

With this sort of straight knock-out play, you want to have interesting games, 5-0 is not interesting. 0-0 to the time limit is not interesting either.

hmmm i think we're missing a point here a bit.
This is a tournament and the purpose is to eliminate the worse teams and reveal the best ones, one of which would eventually be the winner.

If you are not able to win with a better team in the first round, then you wouldn't have won with them in a later round either, so strategically it makes sense. Or are we talking about entertainment value here that the weaker teams might provide?

yo.
I'm working really hard to make this a great tournament. I am doing the play of the day like most bracketed tournaments, best vs. worst (see the World Cup or Wimbeldon for reference). However, I have also taken into consideration that I don't know every team and that some are coming from out of town.

here's what I've done:

1. rated all the teams I know as a 1, 2, or 3 (one being best, 2 being middle-skill, 3 being worst/newest)

2. then I've starred all out of town teams and then numbered those as well if I know them.

3. all teams that I don't know got a 2.

4. Next I put all out-of-town teams vs. london-based 3-rated teams. I think it would be crap to have all these out-of town teams come to London and only get one game in.
   *there is an exception to this if I've seen the team play

5. I placed all 1-rated London teams vs. 2-rated teams.

6. Currently, due to a team canceling (Sweet Thunder), there is an odd amount of teams, so one team will get a pass through to round two. However, this obviously changes if another team drops out and so on.

Reasons:
-This is the totally normal way to do a tournament.
-if we draw out of a hat, we'll get some worst vs. worst games which means that a bad team will get through and best vs. best game which means one of the best teams playing will have to be out. This does not lead to a "fair" tournament it leads to the teams with the best luck winning, not the best skills
-We are very limited in time, I don't want to take the time that we could be otherwise be playing, drawing teams. Plus, having worst vs worst games going for 12 minutes and having them end at 1-0 is crap.

The whole point of a tournament is that the best teams progress, not the worst.
If I had a week I would have every team play every team, we have one day. Currently we have 8 hours to play 10 hours of polo (though I'm working on that).

Anyone who wants to offer suggestions as to whom should play whom, is welcome to come over tonight or tomorrow before polo for a cuppa and a butcher's and check out my current line up.

well said. sounds well thought out and as fair as you can get. kudos