 |
The Swiss Ladder System of play originates from chess tournaments. It guarantees a certain number of matches, so you don't have to go home after one lousy match, and the resulting ranking is believed to reflect the actual strength of the players more than the traditional knock-out system. A bad draw does not play a role any more in this system and one badly played match does not have such a dramatic effect. Here is how it works ... First, a list of players is generated in random order (there are no seeds). Then player number 1 on the list plays a match against player 2, player 3 against player 4, etc. A player gets 3 points for a victory, 1 point for a draw and 0 points for a defeat. Based on the results of these matches, a league table is generated. The player with the most points is placed on top, the player with the least at the bottom. If players have the same number of points, they are ranked according to goal difference. If that is equal, then they are ranked in alphabetical order. In the second round the new player number 1 plays against player 2, player 3 against player 4, etc. There is however an exception to this scenario. If, for instance, player 1 has already played a match against player 2, he will not play against him again, but will have player 3 as his opponent. Player 2 will then play against the next player he has not met before, being player number 4 or 5, etc. Thus you never play another participant twice and a player will encounter as many opponents as there are rounds. The above-mentioned process will be repeated during each round. The number of rounds that has to be played in order to achieve a fair ranking is (in most cases) equal to the number of rounds that would have been played in a knock-out system. In case of an odd number of participants, the player at the bottom of the ranking list is free that round. He is awarded a 1-0 victory, and so gains 3 points for the 'bye'. A player never has two rounds in which he does not play. Adapted from following
website: |