91.154.221.90: Number of Wins (Swiss Score) isn't a good tie breaker in a MacMahon Tournament (2018-05-17 14:09) [#11116]

As is always the case with tournament tiebreakers and scoring systems: "if it happens to be exactly what you want to reward for one reason or another, then sure, go ahead."

However, in the general case, there is no justification for using Swiss Score as a tie breaker in a MacMahon tournament. Here's why:

If you make an educated guess as to which of the tied players would be most likely to win a rematch, you end up with a pretty reasonable tie breaker.

The thing is, that guess was already made: it happened when the initial MacMahon points were assigned. Whenever Swiss Score would break a tie, it follows that one player must have gotten more initial points than another. Since the initial points have been distributed according to the organisers' best guess of playing strength, Swiss Score rewards exactly the people that were earlier considered less likely to win a mutual match.

You can probably work out a way to justify why it would be a good idea to guess differently this time around, and having other tie breakers in the mix of course complicates matters, but as far as general recommendations go, internally consistent tournament systems are always a safer bet than internally inconsistent ones.

So, please don't use Swiss Score as a tie breaker in a MacMahon Tournaments, unless you really know what you are doing.

 -Bass