BlitzChamps Week 6: Time for a championship bracket explainer

It's quite the lengthy slog from point A, when we began this tournament six weeks ago, to point B, when the playoff rounds can begin in earnest. To some, it may feel like an eternity. But we're now two-thirds of the way through that slog, and I'm starting to hear more and more chatter about the championship bracket.

Who will make the playoffs? Who will they face? What will the competition look like? The closer we get to bracket time, the more these questions start popping up.

So today, I thought I'd give a few answers.

Before we get into it, a little preamble about the format: I wanted a bracket that would maximize drama, excitement, and fair competition. I wanted to avoid repeat pairings (because they're boring), and I wanted to create a scenario where the top players are likely to square off at the very end (because that's awesome). I also wanted a little bit of randomness (because, hey, variety is the spice of life).

Here's the system I came up with:

• After the conclusion of 9 pool play rounds, the top 2 players in each group advance to the playoffs, and the bottom 8 are eliminated. Match record is used to determine standing, with game record as the first tiebreaker and total point spread as the second tiebreaker.

• We'll then take the 8 groups and put them in a numbered order, from 1 to 8, ranked by the record of their top player. For example, if Will Anderson and Edward Okulicz have the two best overall records in the tournament, then Will's Emus will be Group 1, and Edward's Buffaloes will be Group 2.

• All 16 playoff competitors will be seeded from 1A to 8B. The B seeds will be the second-place finishers in each group. For example, if Ben Schoenbrun and Chris May finish second behind Will and Edward respectively, then Bnjy will be seeded 1B and Chris will be seeded 2B.

• From there, we'll arrange the 16 seeds in a bracket, as shown in the image above. The 16 players will compete in a single-elimination tournament over the final 4 weeks. In each match, the winner advances and the loser goes home.

• Matches will still be best of 9, but there's no longer any need to use game records or spread. This means that resignations are allowed, and that playing the full 9 games is not necessary - it's simply first to 5 wins.
  
  

I think this is the fairest and best way to decide our World Blitz Champion. There are definitely other approaches that would work, but I went with this system for a few reasons:

• It minimizes repeats. If you look closely at the way the seeds are arranged in the bracket above, you'll notice that the left side of the bracket and the right side each have one player each from Groups 1 through 8. This means that no one will face the same player twice in this tournament - unless, of course, two players from the same group advance all the way to the finals.

• It maximizes drama. Another thing you'll notice: Players 1A, 2A, 3A and 4A are in four different corners of the bracket. This means that potentially, you could see an epic final four where the top performers in the event all duke it out in the final two weeks.

• It's all very fluid. Even for those players who are pretty confident they'll make the playoffs, it's extremely hard to predict what seed they'll end up with in the end - and even harder to predict who else will be seeded next to them in the bracket. No one will know who they're playing until the very end of Week 9, basically. Good luck trying to game the system and get the opponent you want!

Now that we've got an established bracket, why not have a little fun with it? Let's take a look at one possible playoff scenario. Here's what the bracket would look like if the season ended today:

Before I go on, a disclaimer: This is just one possible scenario. The tournament is extremely unlikely to unfold exactly like this. There will probably be some players in this group of 16 who fall out, as well as some outside this group who sneak in. The order of the seeds will probably change a lot.

Having said all that, it's fun to take a quick snapshot of the playoff picture at this moment in time, with three weeks still to go. Let's run through the current top 16 contenders to win the tournament and briefly analyze where each one of them stands:

Currently seeded 1A: Will Anderson (6-0, 49-5)

Will has been the most dominant player in the tournament so far. Before his 6-3 win over Lukeman Owolabi this past week, he hadn't lost more than a single game in any match. So far, Will looks poised to comfortably secure a playoff spot - but his schedule does get tougher from here. He's got Ricky Purnomo, Doug Brockmeier, and Ben Schoenbrun coming up in his final three matches.

Currently seeded 2B: Chris May (6-0, 46-8)

Chris has been the top player in the Buffalo Group for much of the tournament, and he's still undefeated in matches, but he's fallen slightly behind Edward Okulicz in the race for first in the group. His last three matches are against Amit Chakrabarti, Brian Bowman, and Edward. He may need to run the table to reclaim first place in the group, as Edward has been pretty unstoppable.

Currently seeded 8A: Jackson Smylie (5-1, 41-13)

Jackson is in first place in his group, but not by much. The Chipmunk field has been absolute chaos - there are now four players with equally strong match records of 5-1, separated by just a handful of games. Jackson is heading into an absolutely crucial showdown this week with Jesse Day, another of the 5-1 players. A win would put him in a great position to make the playoffs; a loss would make things really, really interesting. (Not that they aren't already.)

Currently seeded 7B: Matthew O'Connor (5-1, 37-17)

Matthew has the most tenuous playoff position of anyone in the field. He's in second place right now, but that may only be because of a scheduling oddity. Piotr Andronowski has his eye on second, but he had to postpone his match by a few days, and he finishes Week 6 on Tuesday. If Piotr wins, he overtakes Matthew for second. In any event, Matthew is very much alive in the playoff race, and he'll be even more so if he can take down Paul Gallen this weekend.

Currently seeded 4A: Conrad Bassett-Bouchard (6-0, 47-7)

Conrad needed an epic comeback this past week to stay undefeated - he was down four games to two against Cedric Lewis and had to win three straight. He just barely did. Now that he's 6-0, he's in a solid position to make the playoffs, though he does have the top three seeds still to go. His remaining opponents are Peter Armstrong, Jakob Teitelbaum, and me. If he wins two out of three of those matches, he's probably in; if he loses two out of three, the path becomes more difficult.

Currently seeded 3B: Aaron Bader (6-0, 33-21)

Aaron continues one of the most bizarre undefeated seasons imaginable - every single match is close, but every single match is a win! He improved to 6-0 this weekend with yet another 5-4 victory. Right now it looks pretty likely that Aaron and Austin Shin both make the playoffs, as they're two matches up on Enoch Nwali and Idorenyin Anthony, both 4-2. But Aaron hasn't yet played Austin or Geoff Thevenot, so there are no guarantees just yet.

Currently seeded 5A: David Eldar (6-0, 46.5-7.5)

David, Anand Bharadwaj, and Weibin Toh are locked into an absolutely epic playoff race. All three players are undefeated, and they've all won at least 44 games! It's a shame one of them has to miss the playoffs. Right now David has the advantage, but it's only a slight one. This coming week, he goes head to head against Anand - that match will tell us a lot about who comes out of the Aardvark Group.

Currently seeded 6B: Dave Wiegand (6-0, 42-12)

Dave and Andrew Fisher have both been crushing everyone in their path in the Giraffe Group. Currently Dave's in second place, a few game wins back from Andrew. In all likelihood, first place in the group will come down to who wins in Week 9, when the two top seeds meet face to face. Either way, Dave looks like a strong contender for a playoff spot.

Currently seeded 3A: Austin Shin (6-0, 47.5-6.5)

Austin has been leading the Hippo Group from wire to wire - if he keeps going at this rate, it's a safe bet he's heading for a playoff spot. In fact, he's a strong competitor for the 1A spot in the whole field, only 1.5 games behind Will as of this writing. Austin's last three matches are against Aaron, Enoch Nwali, and Geoff. We'll see if he can run the table, or if one of the Hippos can trip him up these last few weeks.

Currently seeded 4B: Peter Armstrong (5-1, 42-12)

Pete is currently slated for a playoff spot, but only by the narrowest of margins. He and I entered last week tied for second place exactly, and we played our matches back to back - first I won 7-2, then he won 8-1! So Pete's up one game. In the next two weeks, his opponents are Conrad and then me, so obviously this is a crucial stretch for him. He probably needs to win at least one of those two matches to remain in playoff position. (Both is preferable!)

Currently seeded 6A: Andrew Fisher (6-0, 46-8)

Andrew and Dave have been in total control of the Giraffe Group, and currently it's Andrew with a four-game advantage in game wins, 46 to 42, so he's in first place. He'll close out his schedule with Ryan Sutton, Hubert Wee, and then Dave - a tough stretch, no doubt. It'll be mighty impressive if Andrew can go undefeated in the so-called Group of Death.

Currently seeded 5B: Anand Bharadwaj (6-0, 46-8)

It's pretty insane that Anand is 6-0, 46-8, yet somehow isn't in first place in his group. Then again, it's also pretty insane how good David Eldar is. Anand remains neck and neck with David and Weibin in the Aardvark playoff race, and his next two opponents are ... *checks notes* ... David and Weibin. If he can survive these next couple of weeks, he may just make it through.

Currently seeded 2A: Edward Okulicz (6-0, 48-6)

Up until now, Chris has been the most dominant player in the Buffalo Group, but he's been overtaken by his own friend and Australian countryman! Edward just keeps on crushing everyone in his path - in the last three weeks, he's gone 9-0, 8-1, and 9-0 again. He's now got the second-best record in the whole tournament, just one game behind Will. Edward does still have to face Amit and Chris in the final two weeks, so it won't be smooth sailing to an undefeated finish.

Currently seeded 1B: Ben Schoenbrun (6-0, 42-12)

Like Edward, Bnjy has also gone undefeated so far as a 2-seed - but also like Edward, he knows that the 2-seeds still have to play the 4's and 1's. Bnjy's final two matches of the season will be against Ricky Purnomo and Will, so he'll definitely have his undefeated record put to the test. Meanwhile, Doug Brockmeier is in a very competitive third place at 5-1, so the pressure is on.

Currently seeded 7A: Paul Gallen (6-0, 45-9)

With Matthew's loss over the weekend, Paul is now the only undefeated player left in the Falcon Group - but he's also had the softest schedule so far. His final three matches will be against Matthew, Josh Sokol, and Piotr - will he continue to run the table? Or will he slip up here at the end, allowing Matthew or Piotr to sneak into the top spot? We'll find out over the next few weeks.

Currently seeded 8B: Christopher Grubb (5-1, 39.5-15.5)

The Chipmunk Group is absolutely bananas, but Chris is currently holding onto second place by a slim margin, a few game wins ahead of both Janul de Silva and Jesse. His final two matches of the season will be against Jackson and Jesse, back to back - obviously, two crucial tests for him. Of these four 5-1 guys, only two of them can advance, so Chris will need to win every game that he can. This one's going down to the wire, I bet.

Then again, just about every race is looking that way! All of these groups are crazy competitive, and I don't think we'll have very much clarity on the playoff field until the bitter end. For more details on who's playing who in Week 7, along with all the stats and standings and whatnot, head over to our live coverage page. It's all there.