[eugenebrooks]

I'll speak up on this one more time on this matter. We don't need a "match scheduling algorithm" that springs its results on us Thursday morning, only to have a statistical analysis demonstrate that it is totally messed up.

We need a set of match scheduling tables, one for each possible team count at an event. The entries in these tables should be 1 to N where N is the number of teams at the event. These tables should not be held secret and in fact should be published for all to inspect, and possibly improve upon. The table for 47 teams (to pick an example) at an event need never be changed, unless an alternative table is found that is better, replacing the prior one after it is vetted publicly.

On that Thursday that we actually know how many teams actually make it to the event, one can use popsicle sticks labled with team numbers shaken in a jar, or any other high quality random permutation of the team number list (I urge care here, as low quality computer based random number generators abound), to map the indices in the match scheduling table to the team numbers to create the match schedule.

So, the match schedules can be vetted publicly and the mapping of the team numbers to the indices in the schedule can be completely random. The complaints can then stop and we can then spend more time in this forum helping students.

Eugene