Tournament Formats

Scrabble Association, Singapore
Mailing address: Scrabble Association, 14 Robinson Road, #08-01A Far East Finance Building, Singapore 048545
Web master: webmaster at toucanet.com

Tournament Formats

All tournament details are subject to changes. Division cutoffs and actual format used are subject to practical constraints such as time and venue availabilities. Prize allocations are subject to enough prize funds being secured.

TOURNAMENT PAIRING METHODS

The following are brief summaries of the tournament pairing systems commonly used singly or in combination in SA rated tournaments.

Round Robin: every player in the group plays every other player once. Repeated round robins are playable. The number of rounds played in a full round robin is the number of players less one.
King-of-the-Hill (KOTH): players in the field are ranked in order of games won with (usually) cumulative margin as a secondary ranking. The player currently in 1^st position plays the player currently in 2^nd position, the player currently in 3^rd position plays the player currently in 4^th position and so on.
No repeat KOTH or "Australian Draw": Going down the current standings the computer program will pair an unpaired player against the next highest player he has not previously played.
"Swiss" Pairing: This is normally used for the first round before standings have been determined. Players are seeded in order of ratings. In a field of N players the 1^st-seeded player plays Player (N/2)+1; the 2^nd-seeded player plays Player (N/2)+2 and so on.
Progressive Round Robin: the field is seeded by ratings and then divided into equal sized groups which play a round robin within each group. Those finishing at the bottom of their group are demoted to the next lower group for the next round and those finishing at the top of their group are promoted.

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