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Discussion: Curious

When using a "pod" system for bracket play: (a) What determines which team is assigned which pod? And (b) Once placed in a "pod" is there any crossover between "pods", be it in the championship bracket or the elimination bracket? TY

The primary reason for the question is, "it's always fun to play different teams"....
H² ... Presuming your question is regarding your 36-team 60-Major bracket, SSUSA doesn't determine which teams go into each pod ... YOU do ... In some of the super-brackets, typically 50-AAA and 40-Major, I have a randomization scheduling sub-routine I wrote that separates the teams by both state and geographic region, dropping them in the pods prior to seeding and bracket play, but that's not the case for you this year ... That's a discussion for another day ...

• We're going to play the Thursday seeding games and those results become the basis upon which the teams are assigned to each bracket pod ... The teams are ranked from #1 through #36 ...
• The Winner of the USA game is the #1 Seed in the American bracket pod ... From there it is a "serpentine draft" ... USA game runner-up is #1 Seed in the National bracket pod ... Third seed is #2N, fourth seed is #2A, fifth is #3A, sixth is #3N, back and forth until all 36 teams are bracket slotted ...
• The pods remain separate until Sunday morning, where cross-over match ups occur in both the Championship and Elimination brackets ...
• Remember, I am solely responsible for who you play on Thursday, except for the USA teams who earned their own way on merit to their National Championship game ... But YOU are solely responsible for who you play after Thursday ... Even if that may be a team you played on Thursday! ... Good luck!

Dave
Just a suggestion
if you have a 36 team bracket with 2 pods...
You have 18 teams in each pod
Why don't you play:

(Not including the champions seeding)

pod A #1 vs pod B #18
Pod B #1 vs Pod A #18

Pod A #2 vs Pod B # 17
Pod B #2 vs Pod A #17
etc etc

That would solve the problem of playing the same team again that you played in RR.

Just an idea.

Coop
Coop ... I'm not dividing the teams ... YOU are ... Once it gets over 48 teams or so, then I'll run it through the sausage grinder and drop the teams into different spaghetti bowls ... But over the last couple of decades doing this, I can't recall a tournament where WE divided the teams and I didn't get an email, a phone call or post here along the lines of "..Why did you put US in the same bracket pod as THEM?.." ... This way, it's guaranteed objective on my end ... Your 36-team 60-Major bracket is a no-brainer ... Win your two seeding games and even if you do catch a Thursday team again on Friday, you've got the knowledge and confidence that you've already beaten them once and can do it again! ... Good luck!

Using Dave's format also takes away a few other popular complaints-

Great... BLD again tomorrow- We have to pay that ridiculous gate fee twice and those guys didn't have to pay it at all. OR- We got stuck at the Shadow Rock wind tunnel all weekend and that is _____ minutes back to the hotel.

I NEVER complain about who we play.
We played the same team 3 times 3 years ago, (we all joked about it)
I was just making a suggestion.
Coop
I'm just glad we get to play in a tournament with more than 3 teams
CYA in Vegas
Nothing but respect from here for you, Coop! ... You are NOT one of the self-appointed supervisors running the Complaint Dept. ... I try to get you all seeding games against teams that you seldom, if ever, play against other than in Las Vegas ... That's why you got the Top Gun Warriors from SoCal and the Washington Legends ... Truth be told, that's one of the fun things about writing this schedule ... I hope you enjoy every game! ... Good luck!
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