Due to the superb technical backbone provided by the Berlin worlds planning committee, we have been able to get a head start on seeding the competition. The first step in seeding is based on rankings points. Add up the points for each teammate to get a team score. The top team score has a provisional #1 seed. But that’s only the first step.
The number of teams in each category determines how many rounds will be played. For instance, in Open Pairs we will have a Preliminary round for seeds 25 and lower to determine the last 8 spots in the Quarterfinal.
Once we get to Berlin, each division will have an international committee. The committee will look at the seedings and determine if any teams deserve to be wildcarded up in the list – either due to the merit of their play or in order to create equitable pools. After the committee agrees on the post-wildcard seeding list, they make provisional pools.
Worlds athletes have some time (usually 30 minutes) to review the provisional pools and give feedback to the committee about any concerns. After the committee rules on the feedback, the pools are locked in and we play! Help our volunteer international committee members by providing not only your concern but also a possible solution if you have one.
All these procedures are detailed in the FPA Competition Manual.
This year, the provisional seedings will be based on the latest open and women’s rankings lists. For Open Pairs and Open Co-op, points from the open rankings list are used. For Women’s pairs, points from the women’s rankings. For Mixed Pairs, the male teammate’s points come from the open list, and the female teammate’s points come from the women’s list.
Below are all the teams currently registered through the FPA Worlds website. If you haven’t already registered your team, do it now. Team registrations close very very soon.
As you can see below, we currently have 37 Open Pairs teams, 22 Open Co-op teams, 18 Mixed Pairs teams, and 8 Women’s teams. There will be four rounds of competition in Open Pairs, three in Open Co-op and Mixed Pairs, and two in Women’s Pairs. There is a big opportunity in Open Co-op. If 3 more teams register, the final will be expanded from 6 teams to 8 teams.
Hope this window into the seeding process has been interesting and the update provides us all with greater levels of transparency in tournament administration.
As if they haven’t done enough, Bo Bul from the worlds planning team is working on automating updates to these seeding numbers. When he’s finished with that function, we’ll add a link here.
And now, the provisional seedings…
Continue reading “FPAW2009: A Sneak Peek At The Seeding Process”
