Combination Tournament

You must have heard about the world cup tournaments for sports like football, hockey, cricket and rugby. But there are tournaments of different kinds as well. They can be held at the global level, of course, but also at smaller levels like national, state, district, even inter-school or between neighbourhoods. 

A tournament is essentially a battle between multiple teams in any sport that follows a set timetable and ends with a champion. Some of the most common types of tournaments are Knock-out or Elimination Tournament (Single Knockout or Single Elimination, Consolation Type I and Type II, C Double Knock-out or Double Elimination), League or Round Robin Tournament (Single League, and Double League), Combination Tournament (Knock-out cum Knock-out, Knock-out cum League, League cum Knock-out, League cum Knock-out, League cum Knock-out, League cum Knock-out, League cum Knock-out, League (Ladder, and Pyramid).

Planning

Planning is critical to the success of any tournament. It involves thinking ahead of time about creating goals and devising methods to achieve them.

Objectives:

i) To maintain control over all activities, implying that planning and control are intertwined.

ii) To minimise mistakes by ensuring that all the committees, teams and volunteers are properly aligned to the same plan and timelines. 

iii) To encourage new ideas.

iv) To point people in the right direction.

v) To reduce stress and panic closer to the start of the tournament. 

vi) To improve productivity.

vii) To help in decision making.

In this chapter, we will discuss various kinds of tournaments, their benefits and drawbacks, and the mechanism for determining matchups.

Elimination or Knockout Tournament

Single Elimination or Single Knockout: Single knockout tournaments are those in which teams get eliminated after their first defeat and don’t get another chance to compete. The total number of matches in the tournament equals N – 1, where N is the number of competing teams.

For instance, if N = 13, the total number of matches equals 13 – 1 =12.

Fixture Drawing Techniques

1. For a certain number of teams playing, the drawing fixture is determined by the power of two, i.e. 2, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, etc., i.e. 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64,…, etc.
2. Suppose 16 teams have entered a tournament, there will be no byes, i.e. 16 – 16 = 0.
3. If the number of teams playing is not a power of two, a certain number of teams will be awarded byes in the first round.
4. The number of ‘Byes’ to be given is decided by subtracting the number of teams from its next higher number, which is the power of two. For example, if 13 teams entered for a competition, number of Byes = 16 – 13 = 3 and for 25 teams, number of Byes = 32 – 25 = 7

The procedure of giving byes

Ist Bye — Bottom of the lower half

IInd Bye — Top of the upper half

IIIrd Bye — Top of the bottom half

IVth Bye — Bottom of the upper half

If there are more than four byes, the procedure will continue.

A knock-out fixture is normally selected by lot. Suppose it is drawn only by lot without regard for the teams’ standards. In that case, strong teams may face each other early, allowing inferior teams to advance to the semifinals resulting in an unfair and dull tournament. Seeding is done to avoid this. Seeding is the process of identifying strong teams and placing them in the schedule so that they do not meet in the early stages.

Consolation Tournament

A team may get eliminated early in an event and might not have another chance to compete. Consolation tournaments are recommended to avoid this.

“Consolation” refers to a losing team’s willingness to play again to prove their worth and achieve secondary honours. This competition allows for more matches, superior to a single knockout event.

There are two sorts of consolation tournaments:

• I Consolation Tournament Types 
• II Consolation Tournament Types

Double Elimination or Double Knockout Tournament

• To be eliminated, a team must be defeated twice.
• The tournament continues until all but one team has been conquered twice. 
• It is better to single-elimination and consolation tournaments because it determines the genuine victors.
• Consolation type II is extended into double elimination.
• To determine the champion, the regular winner competes against the consolation winner.
• This competition will have a total of (2n – 2) or (2n – 1) matches.

Competitors Tournaments

• Challenge tournaments are frequently held for sports such as badminton, table tennis, squash, etc. • Challenge tournaments can be held at any time without a set timetable.
• In individual or dual games, this event aids in the selection of the greatest players.

There are two sorts of challenge tournaments:

1. a) Ladder Competition
2. b) Pyramid Tournament

Combination Tournament 

• Combination tournaments are highly recommended for conducting Inter-School tournaments in a district, state, or zone to save time and money. 
• Combination tournaments are usually conducted whenever matches are played on a group or zonal basis.

There are mainly four types of combination tournaments: 

1. Knock out cum Knock out

2. League cum league

3. Knock out cum league

4. League cum Knock out

Competitions

International sports competitions such as the Olympic Games, Asian Games, and Commonwealth Games help people get to know one another and give them opportunities to see others. It encourages camaraderie amongst individuals from all around the world. 

Sports involvement in international events is quite important because: 

1. Sports participation fosters mental and physical oneness, resulting in optimal health.
2. It contributes to societal harmony and fairness.
3. It contributes to the promotion of social democracy.
4. It aids in the dismantling of social and national boundaries.

Conclusion

Sports are held worldwide by way of tournaments. They are conducted by federations, state governments, non-governmental organisations, and others to raise public awareness of health and encourage individuals to participate in health-related sports. These entice people to participate by motivating them. People become more health-conscious and strive to be as active and healthy as possible.