IMPORTANT POLL QUESTION: Double Elimination
In the first nomination topic, a few posters suggested the tournament be made double elimination. At first glance, without thinking about it much, I said, "eh sure, why not?"
Since that time, I've thought about "why not."
PROS TO DOUBLE ELIMINATION
* A game that loses in round 1 to a soundtrack that's more of a one-hit wonder will be allowed to continue.
* It extends the tournament, leading to more excitement.
* It ensures the alternate song comes into use, since it would be needed during the loser's bracket.
CONS TO DOUBLE ELIMINATION
* It undercuts some of the strategic elements of planning whether a game's strong songs should go early or late.
* The loser's bracket for a 64-team tournament is rather messy, and could lead to one game potentially playing as many as 11 times.
* The loser's bracket cannot be displayed on bracketmaster easily, since their highest double elimination bracket is for 32. (And no, you can't just do two of them.)
That second point is a significant concern, since there are already some 70+ nominations, and I am not about to ask for those games to submit additional songs. But then that means we would need some reasonable method for choosing which songs would get repeated.
HOW THE LOSER'S BRACKET WOULD GO
In the winner's bracket, 32 games would lose in round 1, 16 in round 2, 8 in round 3, 4 in R4, 2 in R5, and 1 in R6.
To make the numbers work correctly, and be fair to games that won a round or more in the winner's bracket, every game would receive a number of byes in the loser's bracket equal to their wins in the main bracket. Losers from rounds 5 and 6 would receive an extra bye. However, this means that the bracket would require *NINE* additional rounds.
R1: 32 losers -> 16
R2: 16 from before, plus 16 new losers = 32 -> 16
R3: 16 from before, plus 8 new losers = 24 -> 12
R4: 12 from before, plus 4 new losers = 16 -> 8
R5: 8 from before -> 4
R6: 4 from before, plus 2 new losers = 6 -> 3
R7: 3 from before, plus 1 new loser = 4 -> 2
R8: 2 -> 1
And then the loser's bracket winner would play the winner's bracket champion. If it should win once, then a rematch would occur. This means that a game losing in the first 4 rounds of the main bracket that goes on to win the loser's bracket will play in 10 or 11 matches.
So, I'm going to listen to popular opinion here. Do you think double elimination will be more exciting, and allow us to enjoy the tournament longer, or just create a logistical nightmare and not be worth it?