After the groups at the NJF were clearly unfair, I made a tool on the FNC website that could calculate much fairer qualification groups. I had this ready for the EJC, as it worked like a charm, and everyone was amazed (including me) at how smoothly the qualification ran.
See here for an example: http://fightnightcombat.com/tournament-EJC-2015-Bruneck-qualification-guide.html
It ranks all players, based on a number of factors. First it puts all top 25 players in order. Then it adds anyone who has been in the top 10 since 2013. Then it adds in anyone who was in the top 4 before 2013. Then it adds everyone else currently ranked, in order. Then it adds everyone else randomly.
Next, with two groups, it puts every other player into one or other of the groups randomly. It just runs down the list, picking A or B for odd numbered players, then putting the following even numbered player into the opposite group. With four groups, it does something similar.
It repopulates the groups on refresh, so if even if the groups look a bit lopsided with the first try, keep hitting refresh until it looks good. Or keep hitting refresh until you are in a group that doesn't have to play Jochen.
At the EJC we split into 4 groups, and each group played everyone within that group. Then we took the top four players from each group. It was as fair as I could make it! There weren't any complaints.
The good thing with that system is that due to being able to get rankings points for qualifications, those who did well but didn't qualify could still get about 90 points, just from qualification. The wasn't a huge benefit from reaching the knockout and losing in the round of 16, or not in terms of points.
I like that score sheet. I'm going to steal it, because I'm going to write up the eternally empty round robin qualification guide next month: http://fightnightcombat.com/running-rr-qualification.html
by lukeburrage, in response to this post 2015-09-30 09:25:58