BBBR: 128s

It may seem overkill to discuss bracket shifts on a 128 bracket. There are precious few double-elimination tourneys run on a bracket that big, and it’s pretty easy to extrapolate the results from 16s, 32s, and 64s to make a pretty good guess what will happen with 128s. But there are some distinctive things about 128 bracket shifts that make them worth a look.

The main point of interest is that there aren’t just one or two possible shifts of a 128, but a bunch of them.

For 16s and 64s, there is really only one shift – it saves one round in a 16, and two in a 64. For the 32s there are two shifts: A.B.C.D.|.|.E.X, and A.B.|.C.D.E.|.X – you can either shift the Cs and Ds together, or the Ds and Es together.

With a 128 bracket there are more options. For reference, here’s the unshifted 128:

{A.B.|.C.|.D.|.E.|.F.|.G.X} (128unshiftedopt).

As with the 64 bracket, you can shift the Cs and Ds and then shift the Es and Fs:

{A.B.C.D.|.E.F.|.|.G.X} (128shiftedearly);

or you can shift the Cs and Ds, but then leave the Es alone, and save the second round with a shift of the Fs and Gs:

{A.B.C.D.|.|.E.F.G.|.X} (128shiftedends);

or you can leave the C alone, and make two shifts with the Ds and Es and the Fs and Gs:

{A.B.|.C.D.E.|.F.G.|.X} (128shiftedlate).

But that doesn’t exhaust the possibilities. On a 128 bracket, you can also do what might be called a “super shift”:

{A.B.C.D.E.F.|.G.|.X} (128supershift).

This last is rather an awkward-looking shift – one that I haven’t considered before. I won’t vouch for the line structure or the drops on the attached file. But it saves an additional round, so I certainly won’t dismiss it out of hand.

I’ll show the f(b:X) tables for each of these in the next post, and offer some suggestions as to how and when they might be used.