Organizing successful tournaments

184 Pages·2014·1.468 MB·English

by  John Byl

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Tournaments
FOURTH EDITION
John Byl, PhD
Human Kinetics
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Byl, John.
Organizing successful tournaments / John Byl, PhD, Redeemer University College, Ancaster, Ontario.
-- Fourth edition.
pages cm
1. Sports administration. 2. Sports tournaments--Management. I. Title.
GV713.B95 2014
796.06’9--dc23
2013015443
ISBN-10: 1-4504-6027-5 (print)
ISBN-13: 978-1-4504-6027-9 (print)
Copyright © 2014, 2006, 1999 by John Byl
Copyright © 1990 by Human Kinetics, Inc.
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Organizing Successful Tournaments, Fourth Edition: pp. 19, 25-38, 39-43, 49-61, 62-68, 74-87, 88-93, 109-118,
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To my grandchildren, Zachary, Janae, Daniel, Anna, Peter, Elijah, Ainsley, Anaiah, Lynelle,
and Caleb, and to the grandchildren we still look forward to. May you be blessed through
physically active lives.
Contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgments ix
Accessing Tournament Templates xi
1 Types and Selection of Tournaments and Leagues 1
Understanding Tournaments and Leagues 2
Selecting Tournament and League Type 5
Establishing Seeds and Byes 9
Using the Draw Sheets 16
Assigning Game Numbers and Locations 17
2 Single-Elimination Tournaments 21
Advantages of a Single-Elimination Tournament 22
Disadvantages of a Single-Elimination Tournament 22
Draw Sheets 25
Playing Schedules 39
3 Multilevel Tournaments 45
Advantages of a Multilevel Tournament 47
Disadvantages of a Multilevel Tournament 47
Draw Sheets 49
Playing Schedules 62
4 Double-Elimination Tournaments 69
Advantages of a Double-Elimination Tournament 72
Disadvantages of a Double-Elimination Tournament 72
Draw Sheets 74
Playing Schedules 88
5 Round Robin Tournaments and Leagues 95
Round Robin Double Split 97
Round Robin Triple Split 97
Round Robin Quadruple Split 98
Round Robin Seeding for Divisions and Play-Offs 98
Round Robin: Splitting Into Two Divisions 99
Round Robin: Splitting Into Three Divisions 103
Round Robin: Splitting Into Four Divisions 105
Advantages of a Round Robin Tournament 107
Disadvantages of a Round Robin Tournament 107
iv
6 Extended Tournaments 119
Ladder Tournaments 120
Pyramid Tournaments 121
Level-Rotation Tournaments 123
Tournament Board Construction 124
Advantages of an Extended Tournament 124
Disadvantages of an Extended Tournament 124
7 Creative Tournament Solutions 125
Semi–Round Robin Tournaments 125
League of Tournaments 130
Round Robin Ladder Tournaments 132
Very Large Tournaments 137
Interleague Tournaments 139
Golf or Card Tournaments 139
8 Seeding and Byes 141
Understanding Byes 141
Assigning Seeds 142
Seeding Entries Who Have Not Played Each Other 145
9 Tiebreaking Procedures 147
Tiebreaking Procedures for Games 147
Tiebreaking Procedures for Tournaments 151
10 Planning and Conducting Tournaments 157
Planning Ahead 157
Attending to Game-Day Duties 160
Providing a Tournament Summary 161
Assigning Committee Responsibilities 161
Staging a Safe Tournament 162
About the Author 167
v

Preface
This book and the schedules on the accompanying website make creating even the
most complicated tournaments and leagues an efficient process. The text explains the
scheduling process and offers more than 55 photocopy-ready forms. Online are over
2,600 schedules, spanning more than 15,000 pages, which take little time to complete;
the forms can be readily printed or saved to your website. As the event host, you will be
organized and efficient, and, most important, you will be able to provide the participants
with a great schedule.
Whether you are a physical educator, a coach, or a director of athletics or are in charge
of intramurals or involved in organizing a community league, you often use tournaments
and leagues to help organize people at play. Without a doubt you have experienced some
of the frustrations associated with organizing and participating in tournaments and
leagues, such as finding that a player or team has dropped out at the last minute, finding
an error in the schedule halfway through a league that has resulted in great confusion,
one or two teams playing most of their games on the worst court or field, or becoming
discouraged about a tournament format because it eliminated poor players too quickly
or because the tournament took too long or had too many games. You might have even
avoided using an organized system because the preparation was too time consuming.
This book and the schedules on the accompanying website are designed to alleviate
some of these problems and to assist you in several ways. The most commonly used
tournaments are presented in this book: single and double elimination, multilevel, four
different round robins, three round robin variations, and several extended tournaments
such as the ladder or pyramid.
The section on accessing the tournament templates in the front of this book gives
you detailed instructions on how to access the accompanying website (including the
required pass code), which contains over 2,600 schedules. The section also includes a
screenshot to show you how the website is organized.
Chapter 1 explains the major strengths and weaknesses of each type of schedule. This
will help you select the type that best suits your goals. Once you have selected the most
appropriate type, you simply need to turn to the chapter and go to the corresponding
schedule on the accompanying website that is devoted to that type of tournament or
league. There you will find your work made considerably easier. Chapters 2 through
7 begin with an explanation of relevant details involved in implementing a particular
tournament. A seeding chart is also provided to ensure the best possible quality of
play. Finally, the actual draw sheets and the playing schedules for the relevant number
of playing areas are included. Once you have selected a scheduling type, a ranking of
the participants should be completed; participants’ names are then placed on the draw
sheet according to the seeding table, and the schedule is ready and play can begin. Your
problem-free tournament and league are prepared simply and quickly.
Chapter 8 explains the process of assigning seeds and understanding byes. Tiebreaking
procedures for a variety of sports and tournaments are provided in chapter 9, and chapter
10 gives you hints on how to plan and conduct a worry-free tournament.
I wish you well in your exciting role as tournament director.
vii

Acknowledgments
This book was made possible through the assistance of several institutions and people. I
first wish to thank Redeemer University College and its support community for making
it possible for me to work on this book. In particular, I would like to thank Jeannette
Grasman, Christine Mantel, Matt Byl, and Aleida VanderWoerd, who helped with a lot
of the more tedious computer entries and calculations.
The website at www.humankinetics.com/OrganizingSuccessfulTournaments is a major
breakthrough in providing a way to quickly and easily produce schedules. Frank Byl,
from www.powerconcepts.ca, was most helpful in teaching me some of the applications
that make these schedules so powerful and easy.
I am also very appreciative of the work that Human Kinetics is doing and the kind of
support they are providing for people involved in physical education and sport. Their
careful assistance in the production of this book is also appreciated. In particular, I want
to thank Tom Heine and Amy Stahl for their assistance.
I owe a lot of thanks to the following people who double-checked the thousands of
pages of schedules: Christine Mantel, Julianne Bosman, Carrie Heidbuurt, Dawn John-
son, Winona Siebenga, and Marieka Van Walderveen.
I wish to thank my wife, Catherine, who, in the preparation of this book and always,
has given so much to me in so many ways. Thanks for your love.
ix