Bracket manipulation: Difference between revisions

This is when a player acting on their own accord intentionally loses a set and enters the loser bracket before they legitimately lose and enter the loser bracket naturally. This is a very risky tactic, as the manipulating player could have underrated a player they're set to play against in losers and/or unforseen the character that player was going to use against them, resulting in an earlier elimination and lower overall placing. Additionally, upsets can occur in tournaments, and the manipulating player can mispredict the result of future matches, resulting in them playing a player in the loser bracket they intentionally entered losers early to avoid playing. This type of bracket manipulation is more apt to occur in [[bracket pool]]s than in actual tournament brackets. Due to their much smaller size, having greater variety in player skill, and the goal being to obtain a minimum placing to advance (where then a player's performance in their bracket pool has minimal effect on their actual bracket progression), the situation of intentionally entering losers early being beneficial in overall tournament progression is more common in bracket pools.