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unfair medals

so in some events, like soccer, when its down to four teams or ppl, say a b c and d, it can to like this:

a beats b
c beats d
then in finals a beats c
and in bronze match, b beats d
c gets silver, b gets bronze

but look, c and b did not play each other, and had identical records, beating d and losing to a. so why should c get a higher medal? hasn't anyone noticed this?


Elliot Temple on August 25, 2004

Messages (6)

Nope. You're the first one ;-)

I don't know of a better way to sort 4 teams with 4 games. Do you?


Blixa at 6:44 PM on August 25, 2004 | #1087 | reply | quote

no. you need five games half the time.


Elliot at 7:12 PM on August 25, 2004 | #1088 | reply | quote

Why just focus on the last two rounds?

There are too many teams and too few matches to perfectly determine an unambiguous ranking. So, they have to set up a system that doesn't do that, and cuts some corners.

In this case, it's just very important to win the semi-final match and if you draw the best team as your opponent, then you're screwed.

But, consider that the third best team might not even make it to the semi-final round, because it had to play the first and second best teams in earlier rounds and has been eliminated.

Unfortunately, the luck of the draw matters.


Gil at 9:34 AM on August 26, 2004 | #1089 | reply | quote

focus on last two rounds makes point easier to illustrate

and also its only b/c of bronze medal match that the IDENTICAL RECORDS claim comes in. other screwed teams never show in the matches actually played they were screwed.


Elliot at 9:38 AM on August 26, 2004 | #1090 | reply | quote

A resolution here would be to simply eliminate the silver & bronze medals.


Blixa at 11:29 AM on August 26, 2004 | #1091 | reply | quote

Or, have a final match between b and c in these cases.

I suspect that they don't think it's worth it. There isn't that much interest in distinguishing between second and third place to have such matches.


Gil at 11:55 AM on August 26, 2004 | #1092 | reply | quote

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