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A tournament is an organized competition in which many participants play each other in individual games. After each game, each participant is either dropped from the tournament, or advances to play a new opponent in the next "round". Usually, all the rounds of the tournament lead up to the "finals", in which the only remaining participants play, and the winner of the finals is the winner of the entire tournament.
A tournament is suitable for any competition in which two opponents (or two teams) face each other, such as tennis, basketball, contract bridge, or . Tournaments are popular for these competitions because they allow very large numbers of players to compete against each other, even though each particular game played is a competition between only two sides.
There are several popular tournament varieties. In the following examples, the term "player" is used, but the word "team" could of course be substituted if a team sport is being played. Likewise, some tournaments use a "game" for a single round, but some use a "match" which is best 2 games of 3, best 3 games of 5, or whatever is appropriate.
Single-elimination tournaments are considered rather cutthroat. The loser of each game is dropped from the tournament. The winners move on to the next round. This continues until only two players are left, in which they play the round called the "finals", and the winner of this game is the winner of the entire tournament.
See the article entitled single-elimination tournament for a more detailed description.
Double-elimination tournaments are less cutthroat than single-elimination tournaments, as a player is allowed to lose one game without being dropped from the tournament. The winners of the first round move on to play each other in the "winners' bracket" in the second round; the losers of the first round move on to the "losers' bracket" and play each other in the second round. In each subsequent round, those players in the "losers' bracket" who lose a game are dropped from the tournament, whereas those who win get to advance to the next round in the losers' bracket. Those players in the "winners' bracket" who win advance to the next round in the winners' bracket, and the losers drop down into the losers' bracket, to face opponents in that bracket. This continues until the finals, in which the winner of the winners' bracket, who is undefeated, faces the winner of the losers' bracket, who has lost one game so far. If the undefeated player loses this finals match, the match is repeated with the same two players to determine the winner once and for all, as a player is not dropped from a double-elimination tournament unless he has lost twice. Sometimes, however, the second final-round match is not played, meaning that the player entering the finals undefeated can indeed lose only once and not win the tournament.
One notable event that uses a double-elimination tournament is the College World Series, the NCAA baseball championship in the United States. In Division I, the highest level, the tournament proceeds in double-elimination format until only two teams are left with fewer than two losses; the remaining teams then play a best-of-three series for the title.
For a more detailed treatment, see double-elimination tournament.
Swiss style tournaments seem more inclusive than single- and double-elimination tournaments, in that no player is ever forced to drop from the tournament. After each round, all players are matched up against other players with the same win-loss record. So in the fifth round of play, all the 4-0 players compete against each other, all the 3-1 players compete against each other, etc., down to the players who are all 0-4, playing against each other. Generally the tournament continues until there is only one undefeated player, or sometimes for one or two rounds beyond that, in order to ensure that players who have previously lost a round (or two) could still win the tournament. (For fairness' sake, the number of rounds must be announced after the number of entrants is known but before the tournament begins.)
If the number of players is large, Swiss-style tournaments are easy for tournament organizers to run because there is less need to fill in slots of a bracket with "byes" (see below). A maximum of one bye is needed per round of a Swiss tournament, and that is only needed if there is an odd number of players competing in that round.
In some Swiss tournaments, the tournament continues for a certain number of rounds, at which point the main tournament ends and the top 8 players continue on to play an 8-player single- or double-elimination playoff tournament for the victory.
At a certain point in a Swiss-style tournament, it becomes obvious to players when they have been mathematically eliminated from being able to win or place high, but they can continue playing if they choose -- perhaps to boost their rating, if the tournament organizer reports player ratings to the sport's ratings authority.
A common variant of the Swiss-style tournament is known as the round-robin tournament.
More details can be found on Swiss system tournament.