Power Matching for Practices

[jkulesza]

I'm trying to figure out how I can use some sort of power matching in practices. For instance, is there a way to have 16 players compete 1-on-1 in eight separate, five-minute matches, and then send each competitor to play someone of identical record for the next series of eight matches, and on, and on? My constraints would include only having four readers at the practice, so that each round of eight matches would actually have to be broken into two separate rounds. Is this even possible? What would it look like? What would be the numbering on the cards? How much time would it take to play out? If there was a way to make it work, could it also work for 18 or 20 players? What would be the best way to proceed if an odd number of players showed up to practice? What if I only had 3 readers instead of 4? Maybe the players who were "off" could be reading as well. Lots of questions here...perhaps someone doesn't have time to answer them all, but I would be grateful if anyone could shed some light on at least one or two of them to get me pointed in the right direction.

[idrayer]

What is the goal for these practices? Is it for determining your best team of 4 or to help all your players in getting better? If it's the latter, then I'd suggest having just 2 or 3 rooms with 6-10 people in each room so that everybody is playing all the questions, and then just shuttling players up/down in a ladder format, like after 20 tossups, the 2 lowest players in the room move down a room, the 2 highest move up a room, and everybody else stays where they were.

[ether a go-go]

The schedule is:
1v16, 2v15, 3v14, 4v13, 5v12, 6v11, 7v10, 8v9
1v8, 2v7, 3v6, 4v5, 9v16, 10v15, 11v14, 12v13
1v4, 2v3, 5v9, 6v10, 7v11, 8v12, 13v16, 14v15
1v2, 3v8, 4v7, 5v6, 9v14, 10v13, 11v12, 15v16

If you only have four rooms, then you just take 8 rounds to play instead of 4. If you have fewer than 16 students, then you just get a bye whenever you are supposed to play a student who does not exist. If you have a little more than 16 students, there isn't a particularly nice way to do it--you might just want to pair up some weaker students to form teams until you get down to 16.

I guess the reason to do it is to add some variety, perhaps add some incentive, and allow weaker players to answer some tossups while playing other weaker players. The downside is that it adds more downtime and confusion to practices.

[Horned Screamer]

Is the idea to do this once, or at many practices?

[jkulesza]

What is the goal for these practices? Is it for determining your best team of 4 or to help all your players in getting better?

I know my top few players; this would simply be another competitive tool to add to practices to keep them interesting. Last year, I ran a solo double elimination tourney in practice and it went well. Thinking through some practice plans for next year, it seems that something like this might be a good key to keeping things competitive at practices, but I just hadn’t figured out the details yet. I envision the positives of players cramming in between rounds and then experiencing the need to be aggressive as a solo player, all the while experiencing the pressure of many watching—i.e. no place to hide with no other team members at the buzzer.

I'd suggest having just 2 or 3 rooms with 6-10 people in each room so that everybody is playing all the questions, and then just shuttling players up/down in a ladder format, like after 20 tossups, the 2 lowest players in the room move down a room, the 2 highest move up a room, and everybody else stays where they were.

I like this option in terms of adding variety.

The schedule is:
1v16, 2v15, 3v14, 4v13, 5v12, 6v11, 7v10, 8v9
1v8, 2v7, 3v6, 4v5, 9v16, 10v15, 11v14, 12v13
1v4, 2v3, 5v9, 6v10, 7v11, 8v12, 13v16, 14v15
1v2, 3v8, 4v7, 5v6, 9v14, 10v13, 11v12, 15v16

If you only have four rooms, then you just take 8 rounds to play instead of 4. If you have fewer than 16 students, then you just get a bye whenever you are supposed to play a student who does not exist. If you have a little more than 16 students, there isn't a particularly nice way to do it--you might just want to pair up some weaker students to form teams until you get down to 16.

Exactly the help I was looking for. Thanks!

Is the idea to do this once, or at many practices?

Probably at least once per month to serve as a checkpoint for a given tool we’re working. Maybe more if it turns out to be relatively easy, fun for the players, and fruitful for their learning. We’ll have to see.