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BGonline.org Forums
Thoughts on Pittsburgh Swiss format
Posted By: Rich Munitz In Response To: Congratulations to Al Faller (Chuck Bower)
Date: Monday, 1 March 2010, at 5:33 p.m.
In general, I thought the tournament ran well, and the new format was interesting.
The tournament staff did an outstanding job recovering from the delays incurred by speech giving Saturday morning. As always, the Hospitality was ever present and well worth the extra fee charged.
The fact that there was nearly an exact 64 players in the Open (63 actual) and a 2-loss-and-out format meant that ultimately this tournament could have run with a conventional double elimination format with little difference. However, this field size was pure luck. I can certainly see that had attendance exceeded 64 that the Swiss format would have created flexibility and eliminated the huge equity swings due to byes.
I found the 5 player playoff bracket for the 8th prize position to be a bit odd, but it was a nice twist and added some life after death competition to the event.
What really bugged me was the 9 point matches throughout format. It is just too short a match length for a major ABT event. Madison also uses 9 pointers, but there you need 4 losses to be eliminated, not 2. It just seemed odd that there was not enough time to play 11 point matches in the main event, yet the two time losers were able to sign up for a jackpot that played 11 point matches. I think that next year, particularly with clocks mandatory, there ought to be a way to accommodate longer (e.g. 11) point matches in the main event, or to go to a 3 loss and out format (like nearly every other ABT event that is either 3 flight, or double elim with conso).
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