Tournament seeding question

Surf Zombie

Surf Zombie

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Does anyone have experience seeding a tournament? For example, in a 24 team u- little division with three groups of 8, is there any widely used formula for seeding teams 1-8?

Im curious how much consideration is given to:

A) two teams from the same club (seed 1 & 8)

B) two teams from the same state who have traveled a good distance (seed 2 & 4)

C) Local teams who play each other quite a bit. (Seed 1, 5-8)

To be clear, I’m not seeding it, just interested in the process for an upcoming tournament my kid is playing in.
 
Surf Zombie said:
Does anyone have experience seeding a tournament? For example, in a 24 team u- little division with three groups of 8, is there any widely used formula for seeding teams 1-8?

Im curious how much consideration is given to:

A) two teams from the same club (seed 1 & 8)

B) two teams from the same state who have traveled a good distance (seed 2 & 4)

C) Local teams who play each other quite a bit. (Seed 1, 5-8)

To be clear, I’m not seeding it, just interested in the process for an upcoming tournament my kid is playing in.
Click to expand...

What tournament?
 
Surf Zombie said:
Does anyone have experience seeding a tournament? For example, in a 24 team u- little division with three groups of 8, is there any widely used formula for seeding teams 1-8?

Im curious how much consideration is given to:

A) two teams from the same club (seed 1 & 8)

B) two teams from the same state who have traveled a good distance (seed 2 & 4)

C) Local teams who play each other quite a bit. (Seed 1, 5-8)

To be clear, I’m not seeding it, just interested in the process for an upcoming tournament my kid is playing in.
Click to expand...
Tournament seeding is normally random and depending on the software used, they use whatever historical data they have from that software.
 
Having scheduled tournaments you do try and prevent teams from the same club playing each other, at least before championship. You also try not to schedule a team driving 2 hours to play the 8a game. If there is an A team and a B team from same club and you have two brackets you do try and separate them into appropriate bracket. Other than that it's pretty random other than of course trying to put the team in the level of bracket they requested. I never ranked individual teams. But then again all of my tournaments were on smaller scale, not show case type tournaments.
 
Teams associated with the club sponsoring the tournament get the easiest brackets. I would say that is supposed to be humor, but a lot of tournaments are run that way.
 
This is something I’ve always been curious about as my daughter’s 2007 team does a ton of tournaments every year.

We always play top bracket, but it just seems so random as to where I see some of the opponents get placed tournament to tournament. Was trying to figure out how they do it, YSR, Got Soccer Rankings?
 
@Surf Zombie,

Short answer is there is no "widely" acceptable formula. Most tournaments don't want to be tied to any set seeding formula because they always have to make exceptions. The better tournaments will take a hard look at team bracketing to ensure a few things:

1) The appropriate level teams are playing equal levels. This means ferreting out teams attempting to sandbag by dropping down (trophy hunters).

2) Teams from the same club/region/league are separated. Nothing ticks off coaches and parents more than learning they are playing the same damn teams they played in league in this tournament too.

3) Coaching conflicts are managed. Many coaches will enter 3 to 4 teams they coach into a tournament. Better tournaments try to accommodate those conflicts, however, State Cup does not because it is too big.

With regional or national tournaments its almost impossible to rely on any sort of ranking (GotSoccer or YSR) because there isn't enough cross-over data to make the rankings useful.

As you get to the higher level of play (D.A., ECNL, NPL, etc.), the DOCs and Coaches are no longer trophy chasing and simply want to play "showcase" formats because they get a guaranteed 4 games or more. These tournaments are all about training and development and playing teams outside their region. Seeding becomes irrelevant.
 
Cal South explains their draw system in State Cup and National Cup rules. For U11 and above, except for Mayors Division, the top 16 teams from last year's tournament are seeded so that they will not play each other in the opening rounds (unless there are not enough brackets), and all else is a blind draw.
 
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