Just curious but why the byes, especially with an even number?
Why not pair them all up too?
I'm sure there's a simple, logical reason I'm missing.
Thanks.
wrongway
Because no matter what you do you're going to end up with a bye. Lets make it simple. For two people to reach the final four have to fight; two on each side of the bracket. If there's only three signed up one gets a bye to the final while the other two fight to get there. If only two sign up then you just put them both in the final.
We'll take another step. To get to the semifinal (4 players) eight have to fight. If there's seven one gets a bye. If there's six you could match them all up but when you get to the semifinal there will only be three players left, thus creating a bye for one of them.
I could go another step out but the same repeats. I've simply made the decision to get all the byes out of the way in the first round rather than delaying them but regardless of what I do they will be there at some point.
The bracket has to work on 2x compound multiples because each round one person wins and one loses or put another way half the participants are eliminated. So it has to be 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, etc. Anything else creates byes.
