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An unexpected characteristic of tournament predictive power

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 June 2021

Leonard M. Wapner
Leonard M. Wapner*
Affiliation:
Division of Mathematical Sciences, El Camino College, 16007 Crenshaw Boulevard, Torrance, CA90506, USA e-mail: lwapner@elcamino.edu
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Extract

A tournament is a series of games (matches) among competitors for an overall prize. Beyond sporting events, tournament structure can relate to elections, applicants competing for an employment position, etc. Tournament structure also exists within certain species of birds and mammals where dominance relations develop, forming a tournament-like pecking structure [1]. The format of the tournament depends on the tournament’s objective giving consideration to time, financial, geographical, and other constraints. The two most common formats where players compete pairwise are the single elimination (knockout, sudden death) tournament and the round robin tournament. Our discussion includes both. A third popular format is that of a contest, where all players perform simultaneously only once. Examples of this type include most golf tournaments as well as track and field athletic events. A detailed analysis of contests as they relate to topics discussed here is given in [2].

Type
Articles
Information
The Mathematical Gazette , Volume 105 , Issue 563 , July 2021 , pp. 201 - 208
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Copyright
© Mathematical Association 2021

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References

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