Group Pool Play Bracket

A group pool play bracket is a draw format that breaks up competitors into smaller round robin tournament brackets or flights. The top finishers of each flight advance to a Playoff division to determine final standings.

A group pool play bracket is displayed by round and is ideal for use in a tournament. pool play group schedules are more frequently used for leagues and seasons.

A group pool play bracket can be used as a qualifier where top finishers from each group advance to their spot in the playoff bracket.

The winner or winners of each group can advance into either a pool single playoff bracket, or into pool multi bracket playoff.

Advantages:

Too many competitors in the division sometime make a round robin schedule unfeasible. The group pool play bracket format determines a reliable champion with fewer matches.

Like a round robin, participants compete in multiple matches regardless of whether they win or lose.

Disadvantages:

When a team loses and can no longer win a qualifying spot in the playoff bracket, there is no incentive to continue in the group play, which often results in no show matches, or participants not playing as hard.

When there is more than one participant that advances from each separate flight, it can sometimes be an advantage to lose a match, in order to qualify into a different spot where you would play a weaker competitor. This could result in 2 teams playing each other that are both trying to lose, which is not an ideal situation!