LogFAQs > #936558669

azuarc posted...

I've always wondered how one computes eliminations. It's a math puzzle I've never really been able to figure out. At least not from an efficiency perspective. Obviously brute force is a thing.

But it sounds like the main method is simply to say if, between two brackets, (remaining points difference) - (point differential) > 0, then an elimination has occurred. No idea how that computes joint eliminations, though. Those can only happen when someone has a null spot in their bracket, right?

Yeah, I basically use a program to brute force all differences between all brackets. If I had infinite time, Id maybe convert my Java program that reads in a .csv every time to something using a database, but it hasnt broken so far and execution is still reasonably quick.

For joint eliminations, it checks instances where someone lost their pick at least a round early (and are guaranteed to be wrong), then checks the possible combinations of winners.

My first run with real data has no one eliminated, and no one in danger for the next 4. Im going to try to output some statistics (how many risks vs the cookie, primarily) and a spreadsheet of bracket similarity in the next couple days.