Post by boysbeachvolleyball on Feb 15, 2018 19:01:52 GMT -5
Rankings are better when teams play less lopsided matches vs weaker opponents. I think a 3x pools of 3 format would be more fun for all teams at large events plus self designation or ranking into upper and lower groups woild also help. I think the USA and OPEN split is great to improve the quality of each of the matches played. It is the equivalent of removing the entire first day, but we could still do more to speed toward getting equal teams together with pools of 3. I think a better format is 2 pools of three on Day#1, it just takes up 33% more court space on Day #1 and about 30 extra minutes in pool finish delays. I would seed an event into upper power pools of three and lower pools of 3. After the first round, 1 team is eliminated from winning in the upper pools and 2 from the lower pools. Teams are shuffled to repeat and this time, only 1st in the upper goes to gold with the best 2nds filling out the playoffs in pools of three format. Pools of 3 play for Bracket, with the two winners playing head to head for finals. 2nds play for third, etc.. short 2 day event with power pools and everyone gets 6 appropriate matches out of 7 total and saves a day of hotel, etc.. This suggestion works well for 18 teams to 36 teams. After 36 and up to 54, you add lower bracket pools up to 12, so that only winners advance from lower bracket to give 8 upper pools of 3. You have 8 matches total for the very few teams that add a challenge match in the Day2 morning, to get into 1 of the 2 three team Gold Pools from Pool 5 vs 8 and 6 vs 7 round two upper pools. Shortening to two days can still allow the same overall fill of courts in a three day event, as some ages skip day 1 and some skip Day 3.