The Official SMITE Magazine eSports Edition | Page 25

rounds could even be reduced to Bo1
matches, making chance a lot more of
a factor. This is generally considered
worth the price though, as the variety
of matchups is significantly greater
than with single-elimination brackets.
The last common tournament
type is a Round Robin. This means
that a team plays against all other
teams once, and the winner is the
team with the most games won. This
is seen as one of the fairest formats
available, as each team theoretically
has a chance to redeem themselves
from a loss. It is also one of the
most time consuming formats out
there. The reality often is that teams
that lose their first couple of games
stop trying, heavily influencing later
games against teams that still have
something to gain from a win and
forcing the team that’s already lost
to keep playing matches for the sake
of those that still have a chance.

Needless to say, this can be a very
demoralizing time for those teams.
As such, Round Robin is most
commonly used to determine seeding
prior to the main tournament, and
only in tournaments that have a
relatively low number of participants.
It allows for the greatest variety
of matchups, as every team
fights every other team once.

SMITE WORLD
CHAMPIONSHIP BRACKETS
Now that you have a basic
understanding of brackets, how they
work and how to read them, let’s take
a look at the brackets for the SWC!
The brackets for the biggest
tournament in SMITE history, with
the third highest prize pool in
eSports history, is a combination of
a double-elimination and singleelimination bracket with an added

consolation bracket for third and
fourth place. The event starts with
a double-elimination format of Bo1
matches in the placement stage,
moving on to Bo3 matches in the
knockout stage. Halfway through
the knockout stage, during the
semifinals, the brackets change
to single-elimination consisting
of Bo3 matches. The losers of the
semifinals drop to the consolation
bracket, which is essentially a tacked
on single-elimination to determine
third and fourth places. The winners
of the semifinals progress to the
finals where we will find out who the
best team is in SMITE this year!
And there you go. You are now
an initiate in the wonderful world of
brackets. Go forth and prosper, my
young eSports enthusiast, and spread
that passion for professional gaming
with your new found knowledge! ■
Written by Jorg van der Velden

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