The Bracket Positions

[Alolan_Apples]

Many of you are familiar with bracket tournaments, where the winner moves to the next round while the losers are disqualified once they lose a round. But once they lose, that’s it. There’s no position. Only the last remaining competitor wins.

But what if we did rank all of the items in a bracket tournament? If that were the case, then it would depend on not just how many rounds they win, but how far a competitor of theirs progressed. And if everyone each of them lost to loses, they will fall in last place.

According to this logic:

• When there are two players in a bracket tournament, there is a winner and a loser.
• When there are four players, the top two are in the finals as the bottom two are those who didn’t make it to the finals. If one wins the finals, whoever they beat in the finals is the runner-up, and whoever they beat in the semifinals is the second runner-up. Whoever lost to the loser of the finals is in last place.
• When there are eight players, those who win the first round are in the top four as those who lose the first round fall in the bottom four. The position of the bottom four players depends on how their competitors do in the future.
• When there are sixteen players, those who win the first round are in the top eight as those who lose the first round are in the bottom eight. Their position is determined based on how their competitors do in the future.

The list goes on and on. Now what if there are 32 players? This would be the full list of positions, as there are five letters (that are either W or L). The order of the Ws and Ls depend on what round they win or what round their competitors win. Like if the third letter is W, they won the third round, or a competitor in their side of the bracket won the third round.

1. W, W, W, W, W
2. W, W, W, W, L
3. W, W, W, L, W
4. W, W, W, L, L
5. W, W, L, W, W
6. W, W, L, W, L
7. W, W, L, L, W
8. W, W, L, L, L
9. W, L, W, W, W
10. W, L, W, W, L
11. W, L, W, L, W
12. W, L, W, L, L
13. W, L, L, W, W
14. W, L, L, W, L
15. W, L, L, L, W
16. W, L, L, L, L
17. L, W, W, W, W
18. L, W, W, W, L
19. L, W, W, L, W
20. L, W, W, L, L
21. L, W, L, W, W
22. L, W, L, W, L
23. L, W, L, L, W
24. L, W, L, L, L
25. L, L, W, W, W
26. L, L, W, W, L
27. L, L, W, L, W
28. L, L, W, L, L
29. L, L, L, W, W
30. L, L, L, W, L
31. L, L, L, L, W
32. L, L, L, L, L

So basically, if you win all five rounds, you win the contest. If you lost the first round, then whoever you played against lost the second round to whoever lost the third round to whoever lost the fourth round to whoever lost the finals, you’re in last place.

You may or may not agree with me, but this is something I wanted to share on my blog.