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TSL3 Bracketology 101
Hello all, this is my first time using the blog feature of TL, so bear with me. I've started this series of blogs to follow and detail the TSL3 bracket progression. More specifically, I've decided to see how accurate some rather odd methods of choosing victors in each particular match will end up being. Since this is TSL3 Bracketology 101, like most 101 classes, I will be explaining theory, methods, and reasoning. Application will be added in TSL3 Bracketology 102.
Some of you may be wondering what I mean exactly when I say "odd methods of choosing victors." Well, you may or may not know this, but pretty much every time there's a big bracket for anything (like college basketball over in the US) a lot of news and sports stations will have some sort of segment where the bracket is filled through odd ways, such as: having an animal "choose" the winner of each match, throwing darts at a board, using the weather, and a multitude of other weird ways. Almost without fail, one of these nonsensical methods of filling out the bracket is more accurate than many "experts" were at filling out their own brackets.
Because I don't have access to any exotic animals or anything equally awesome, I'm going to for quantity over quality here. Thus far, I've decided on nine methods to use (though a lot are similar to one another), but this is an exploratory blog and I'm open to suggestions; so, if you can think of one that I like, I'll gladly undertake that one as well. To give a small sample, here is one such method:
This first one is really simple. The player who's ID comes first alphabetically is the winner. Here's what the bracket looks like using this rudimentary formula.
+ Show Spoiler [Method 1 Bracket] +
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/B0jxM.jpg)
Under this format, the Danish Zerg hero Ciara would take the bronze medal. The Emperor Himself, Boxer, would take second, falling to the champion Adelscott.
Obviously, most people would see this result as a highly, highly unlikely podium. And they're right. Looking at the massive pool of talent, I don't think anyone legitimately thinks that this is the likely finish.
However, having a silly system like this has two advantages that you don't. It's not afraid of picking upsets, and it doesn't second guess. There's a good chance this bracket will have a higher score than some people that fill out their brackets. It's not guaranteed or anything, but I'd be surprised if it was actually the worst out of the thousands of brackets that are going to get filled out.
This concludes TSL3 Bracketology 101. Keep an eye out for TSL Bracketology 102, where I'll reveal all of the methods I'll be using to fill the brackets. I'll try and have it up tonight/tomorrow morning--if not, it probably won't be up for a few days (although, that will allow for people to give some more ideas I suppose).
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/I6BMT.png)
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/b5d8v.png)
