It's never a great feeling to travel to an event, lose the first two matches, and be eliminated quickly. The CSI Group Play format was developed to eliminate that problem and provide all teams more play. Stage 1 is a group stage and Stage 2 is a single elimination final bracket. In Stage 1, teams from the entire field are randomly drawn into 5 separate matches and the teams that perform the best advance to the Stage 2 single elimination bracket.
Although this format has been used since 2022 in our state/regional events, many teams experienced it for the first time at the 2024 CueSports International Expo in Las Vegas. One area of confusion for some came when the Stage 2 single elimination brackets were posted with byes included. The immediate reaction from some was, "Stage 2 should never have byes. It should be a full bracket." Are they correct?
Although this format has been used since 2022 in our state/regional events, many teams experienced it for the first time at the 2024 CueSports International Expo in Las Vegas. One area of confusion for some came when the Stage 2 single elimination brackets were posted with byes included. The immediate reaction from some was, "Stage 2 should never have byes. It should be a full bracket." Are they correct?
SCENARIO: 8-BALL TEAMS - SILVER DIVISION (229 teams)
Let's use the 8-Ball Teams - Silver division of the 2024 BCA Pool League World Championships, which had 229 teams, to examine this question. The Player Guide for each event specifies how many teams will advance to Stage 2. The Player Guide for the 2024 BCA Pool League World Championships specified that a maximum of 40% of teams would advance. Therefore, 91 teams (40% of 229) advanced from Stage 1.
Single elimination brackets must be sized for 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, or 512 teams. With 91 teams advancing, a bracket size of 128 had to be used, which included 91 teams and 37 byes. The 37 teams that performed the best in Stage 1 received the byes in the first round of Stage 2. Some of the teams that fell just short of the top 91 in Stage 1 became frustrated and proclaimed that the entire 128-team bracket should have been filled with teams. The sentiment was "there should never be byes in Stage 2."
While it is certainly possible to structure the event in that manner, we have intentionally chosen to not do so based on the following goals and philosophies:
In this particular event, we chose 40% as the correct threshold to balance all of these factors. Stage 1 would eliminate 60% of teams while 40% would continue into Stage 2.
Some have suggested that in this scenario, we should advance 64 or 128 teams with no byes in Stage 2. Advancing 64 teams would mean that 72% would be eliminated in Stage 1. In our opinion, that makes Stage 1 far too critical. Advancing 128 teams would mean that 56% would advance from Stage 1. In our opinion, that makes Stage 1 too unimportant and could also lead to table availability or time problems. Instead, we chose to create a standard and those teams that performed the best in Stage 1, could get rewarded with a first round bye in Stage 2, which is done in many other sports.
SUMMARY
Although the number of teams to advance from Stage 1 to Stage 2 could be any reasonable number, we believe it is important to set a standard that balances the goals and philosophies above and provide that standard in the Player Guide for that specific event. To help accomplish this, each event's Player Guide will contain a Stage 2 Advancement Table similar to what is shown below. This shows, based on the number of teams registered, exactly how many teams will advance to Stage 2, how many of those will be wild card teams, the Stage 2 bracket size, and how many teams will receive prize money. In this particular example, a maximum of 50% of teams advance to Stage 2.
Let's use the 8-Ball Teams - Silver division of the 2024 BCA Pool League World Championships, which had 229 teams, to examine this question. The Player Guide for each event specifies how many teams will advance to Stage 2. The Player Guide for the 2024 BCA Pool League World Championships specified that a maximum of 40% of teams would advance. Therefore, 91 teams (40% of 229) advanced from Stage 1.
Single elimination brackets must be sized for 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, or 512 teams. With 91 teams advancing, a bracket size of 128 had to be used, which included 91 teams and 37 byes. The 37 teams that performed the best in Stage 1 received the byes in the first round of Stage 2. Some of the teams that fell just short of the top 91 in Stage 1 became frustrated and proclaimed that the entire 128-team bracket should have been filled with teams. The sentiment was "there should never be byes in Stage 2."
While it is certainly possible to structure the event in that manner, we have intentionally chosen to not do so based on the following goals and philosophies:
- All teams should have the opportunity to play more than is possible in a double elimination format.
- More teams should have the opportunity to play into the final day than is possible in a double elimination format.
- Stage 1 should be meaningful. If too many teams advance from Stage 1, playing hard and performing well becomes less important. In our opinion, there should never be more than 50% of teams advancing from Stage 1.
- Although Stage 1 should be important, not overwhelmingly so. If fewer teams advance from Stage 1, it becomes a more critical aspect of the event. In our opinion, there should never be less than 33% of teams advancing from Stage 1.
- Table availability & allotted time must also be considered. If too many teams advance from all of the various divisions, there may not be enough tables and/or time to complete the event within the allotted time.
In this particular event, we chose 40% as the correct threshold to balance all of these factors. Stage 1 would eliminate 60% of teams while 40% would continue into Stage 2.
Some have suggested that in this scenario, we should advance 64 or 128 teams with no byes in Stage 2. Advancing 64 teams would mean that 72% would be eliminated in Stage 1. In our opinion, that makes Stage 1 far too critical. Advancing 128 teams would mean that 56% would advance from Stage 1. In our opinion, that makes Stage 1 too unimportant and could also lead to table availability or time problems. Instead, we chose to create a standard and those teams that performed the best in Stage 1, could get rewarded with a first round bye in Stage 2, which is done in many other sports.
SUMMARY
Although the number of teams to advance from Stage 1 to Stage 2 could be any reasonable number, we believe it is important to set a standard that balances the goals and philosophies above and provide that standard in the Player Guide for that specific event. To help accomplish this, each event's Player Guide will contain a Stage 2 Advancement Table similar to what is shown below. This shows, based on the number of teams registered, exactly how many teams will advance to Stage 2, how many of those will be wild card teams, the Stage 2 bracket size, and how many teams will receive prize money. In this particular example, a maximum of 50% of teams advance to Stage 2.