Note, the round-robin is not an acceptable format if less than three teams are qualifying, because of the three-way tie for first place possibility. See Section 9.6 for more details about this option.
Three pools of three is never acceptable. Simply too much depends upon seeding in such a format.
On the second day, the top four teams in each pool play an eight-team single elimination. (Note, the brackets and the initial pairings for the single elimination is the same as the upper half of the 8-team double elimination format, see Table 8.1.1).
Note, it is not acceptable to take only the top two teams from each pool and have semi's and finals, because of the possibility of a three-way tie for first in one of the pools.
On the second day, the top team in each pool play each other. The winner takes first place. The loser still has another game to play. The second and third teams in each pool play a four-team loser's bracket; i.e., a semis and a final. This takes two rounds. The winner of this bracket, then, plays the loser of the game for first place. The winner of this game takes second place. The brackets for this second day are shown in Table 6.5.
Start with two unequal pools of four and five (see Section 9.5).
On the second day, the top four teams in each pool play an eight-team double elimination. (See Table 8.1.1).
This involves an awful lot of games for some of the teams. It is possible that one or two teams will play five games the second day. Note, too, that one of the pools will have played four games on the first day. (In women's play, the first round of the double elimination could be an abbreviated game to 11, (since no one gets eliminated after only one game). Otherwise, all of the games should be to 13 (except for the winner's bracket final, which is to 15).
On the second day, the top three teams in each pools play a six-team modified double elimination (see Table 6.4).
On the second day, the top four teams in each pool play an eight-team double elimination. (See Table 8.1.1).
This involves an awful lot of games for some of the teams. It is possible that one or two teams will play five games the second day. Note, too, that one of the pools will have played four games on the first day. (In women's play, the first round of the double elimination could be an abbreviated game to 11, (since no one gets eliminated after only one game). Otherwise, all of the games should be to 13 (except for the winner's bracket final, which is to 15).
To ease things, you might consider eliminating the very last round of the double elimination. The last round is for second and third place, which may not be very relevant if four or more teams are qualifying anyway. If this game is not played, use the tie-breakers for double elimination (Section 2.6). In the Mid-Atlantic, a format similar to this was used, and this game was optional. I.e., the team that wanted to play was given second place; if both wanted to, they played; if neither wanted too, or it was too late, we used the tie-breakers.
Pool A: Pool B:
Seed #1 Seed #2
Seed #4 Seed #3
Seed #5 Seed #6
Seed #8 Seed #7
Seed #9
Certainly it is unfair that all the teams in Pool A have to play one more game than those in Pool B, but there is no alternative, other than to have a round-robin of nine teams, or to have three pools of three. A mitigating factor, however, is that the two weakest teams are in Pool A. Furthermore it is acceptable to play to Pool A games to two fewer points than Pool B games (i.e., play Pool A games to 13 and Pool B to 15, or, for women, 11 and 13).
Another potential problem is that Pool B's games require only three rounds, and Pool A's games require five. One can, however, stretch Pool B's games over four rounds, using a schedule like the following:
A1-A5 A2-A4 B1-B3 B2-B4
A1-A3 A4-A5 B1-B4
A2-A5 A3-A4 B2-B3
A1-A4 A2-A3 B1-B2* B3-B4*
A1-A2 A3-A5
* this game could be given some extra rest time before the round.
When a team does drop out, the only fair course of action is to not count any game in which the offending team has played. This will surely elate those teams which now get to remove a loss from their record (and frustrate those teams which must remove a win from their record), but the alternative, giving a win-by-forfeit to any team that has not played the team that has dropped out, is worse. This is unfair to any team which has lost to the offending team. And for teams getting a win-by-forfeit, what should the score be? Suppose a team getting a win is involved in a tie-breaker situation and the score of the win-by-forfeit comes into consideration?
Lastly, it should be restated that it is official UPA Policy that if a team does not finish the tournament (i.e., drops out and loses by forfieting), they can not qualify for the next event. So, for example, if a team at sectionals is 5-1, then drops out, thinking that they will finish at 5-3 and qualify for regionals, forget it. None of their games count. They aren't even 0-8, they are 0-0, and it's almost as if they didn't even show up to the tournament. (Their appearance will count, however, for the purposes of dues, memberships, and "years of qualification," etc.).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
- - - - - - - - -
1 - 8 3 7 2 6 B 5 9 4
2 - 7 B 6 1 5 9 4 8 3
3 - 6 1 5 9 4 8 B 7 2
4 - 5 9 B 8 3 7 2 6 1
5 - 4 8 3 7 2 6 1 B 9
6 - 3 7 2 B 1 5 9 4 8
7 - 2 6 1 5 9 4 8 3 B
8 - 1 5 9 4 B 3 7 2 6
9 - B 4 8 3 7 2 6 1 5
1 v 3 4 v 9 5 v 8 6 v 7 bye: 2
1 v 7 2 v 6 3 v 5 8 v 9 bye: 4
1 v 6 2 v 5 3 v 4 7 v 9 bye: 8
2 v 9 3 v 8 4 v 7 5 v 6 bye: 1
1 v 2 3 v 9 4 v 8 5 v 7 bye: 6
1 v 5 2 v 4 6 v 9 7 v 8 bye: 3
1 v 9 2 v 8 3 v 7 4 v 6 bye: 5
1 v 4 2 v 3 5 v 9 6 v 8 bye: 7
1 v 8 2 v 7 3 v 6 4 v 5 bye: 9
First Day
1 v 5 2 v 4 6 v 9 7 v 8 bye: 3
1 v 9 2 v 8 3 v 7 4 v 6 bye: 5
3 v 9 5 v 7 bye: 1, 2, 4, 6, 8
1 v 4 2 v 3 5 v 9 6 v 8 bye: 7
1 v 8 2 v 7 3 v 6 4 v 5 bye: 9
Second Day
1 v 3 4 v 9 5 v 8 6 v 7 bye: 2
1 v 7 2 v 6 3 v 5 8 v 9 bye: 4
1 v 2 4 v 8 bye: 3, 5, 6, 7, 9
1 v 6 2 v 5 3 v 4 7 v 9 bye: 8
2 v 9 3 v 8 4 v 7 5 v 6 bye: 1