Sophocles' Law of Havoc by Consequences Unintended wreaks mischief in many realms, the Bracketed Knockouts of Sectional Tournaments are but the latest victim.

    Thursday night's standard scenario has the directors sort the K.O. entries by MP total, pick the top six (or more) for Bracket I., allocate others further down the line into II. and III. and IV. (If luck holds) and let the play begin.

    Play it is, but fair it is not.

    In most tournaments (present experience confined to Florida, but there can be no reason, why other areas would not suffer from the same plague) two or three teams will enter with 30,000 plus total MP-s, the next lower one with 6,000 or 7,000 (or 8,000 or 4,000, pick any low number) and all others lower than that.  While we all know, that three caddies and the Janitor can beat the Meckstroth / Rodwell / Duboin / Bocchi team easily on a specific given day, in real life the lower part of the top bracket is but cannon-fodder, to be rolled over by the top teams on their way to their well-nigh guaranteed 1st and 2nd place.

    In any bracketed sectional knockout the group of teams (3 or 4) just below the top serve no other function, but to lubricate the machinery with their (figurative) blood, for the big guys on their way to their 13.0 and 9.0 MP. Any team entering the event with less than 8,000 or so MP-s is buying a lottery-ticket, hoping, that there will be enough hitobashira-s ahead of them. ("Hitobashira" was the term applied to japanese  (volunteer) infantrymen during the siege of Port Arthur, Russo-Jap'e war of 1904, whose sole function was to throw themselves onto the barbed wire barrier in front of the russian lines, getting killed in the process, but having their comrades walk over them safely, a living/dying bridge).

    This phenomenon is caused by the statistical distribution of disparity in MP-s, that while that count itself is not an absolute measure, it is still substantial proof of skill-level in our beloved game.

    Before you read further, expecting another bucketful of very sour grapes,  note, that the author of this page holds well over 10,000 odd MP.-s, his team is one of the pre-ordained 1st -or- 2nd-s. This philippic is for our friends, for players of the 1K, 2K & 3K level.

    Many players in our Unit 102 (Sarasota & environs) including (informally for the time being) the Board of Directors of the Unit are greatly interested in correcting this inequity.  Inquiry to authorities having jurisdiction resulted in the reply, that an ACBL Board Rule sets the minimum  size for each bracket as six, and that is that, even if a change would be beneficial.

    Given that frame of things, it appeared reasonable, that the ACBL Board should be induced to change the rule, mayhap ... considering, that such a change would harm no-one, but benefit many.

    People asking for relief from a given rule should be ready to supply the remedy. Here is one in it's rawest form:

    Minimum size of Top Bracket as Three;  but when more are considered,  no team, whose MP total doubled (not X-ed, but twice) is less, than the team just ahead of it (in MP-s), shall be in this Top Bracket.  When the Top Bracket is Three, the statistically most likely configuration, those 3 Teams play a Round-Robin Swiss to determine the winner, the only one gaining a M.P. award. Refinements abound, but  this should suffice, as the starting point.  An unexpected beneficial consequence (!) of such a change will be the increased number of teams entering the K.O., instead of the undignified scramble of withdrawals by the "cannon-fodder" teams in the top bracket and subsequent re-shuffling of assignments by the directors.

    Medicina Peior Morbo (the Medicine is Worse, than the Disease).  Having started a movement to correct the inequities related hence-afore, even the unintended consequences produced unintended consequences:  the powers that be have been heard from.  Solution came down from Mount Olympus ... in the form of  handicapped knockouts !!!  Cannon fodder peons converted to participants in a lottery.  Assuming (and that in itself is an unreasonable leap of faith), that the ACBL handicapping formula  assigns a handicap fairly, commensurate with the relative MP holding of the competitors, what will we get?  ... what is fair?  The more MP-s you have, the better you play,  thus deducting some number from your "Plus" IMP result is fair,  so you say.  Except this "Plus" is a function of the difficulty in the deals played:  24 flat part-score hands or 24 game/slam hands or a mix thereof will mirror an IMP score completely unrelated to skills, but solely derived from blind luck ... i.e.: a handicap of say 25 IMP-s may be no obstacle to the better team or unsurmountable,  depending solely on what the hands (their potentials) were. 

    No sweet fruit is borne by this tree, an oh so beautiful and ever so politically correct, but factually inane attempt of equalization by brute force;  the inventor of the "progressive" income tax must be beaming from pride in his grave, having his brain-child as the invader of the noblest of games! 

   Where do we go hence? Well ...

   Here and now presents itself a chance for you to participate in the Journey of remedying the inequity, the First Step (of a thousand, recognize it?) is for you to take, to express your opinion. Positive or negative, we are asking for your preference / selection, if you will:

    ... shall the Top Bracket (I.) size remain mandated as a minimum of six teams or should the size be permitted to shrink to as low as three, if the MasterPoint disparity warrants it. Touch this arrow , it will take you to the voting page, and it will be Question [3]. There are other questions on that page, we would like your opinion on those too, if you would. 

    Thank you all.

visitors