The World Crokinole Championship (WCC) Committee has decided to revise the playoff format used at the WCC tournament, and has come up with two proposals for the singles competition. The WCC Committee is seeking player input to help make the decision on which of the two proposals should be implemented for the 2024 edition of the tournament.

The descriptions of the proposals are outlined below. Players wishing to share their opinions on the matter should do so by January 10th, by submitting an email to crokinolecentre@gmail.com.

Objective

The WCC Committee has embarked on this process to modify the tournament format after receiving noticeable competitor feedback of a desire to expand the playoff format to include more players. Of key consideration as well for the WCC is a strong desire to maintain the current tournament schedule, given that the tournament offers both doubles and singles competition and serves nearly 400 players.

Singles

The format for the competitive, cues, and recreational divisions in 2023 and in prior years was the following:

• 10-game preliminary round of random opponents
• 16 players advancing to playoffs, split into two pools to play 7-game round robin
• 4 players advancing (top two from each of the groups in the round of 16) to semifinal best-of-3 games head-to-head match
• 2 winners from previous round competing in a best-of-3 games head-to-head for 1st/2nd, and 2 losers competing for 3rd/4th

That format has been mostly unchanged since the first year of the tournament in 1999. The only change of note was in 2019 when the semifinal head-to-head matches were introduced, replacing the prior format where the final 4 consisted of a 3-game round robin.

Proposal #1

If the number of competitors is less than 50 then the format remains unchanged. If the category has more than 50 competitors, then the following format is used:

• 10-game preliminary round
  • The top 10 players (1st-10th) advance directly into playoffs
  • The next 24 players (11th-34th) enter a play-in round. The players are split into 6 pools of 4 players each, and play a 3-game round-robin. The 1st-place finisher in each of the 6 pools advances to the playoffs.
• 16 players advancing to playoffs, split into two pools to play 7-game round robin
• 4 players advancing (top two from each of the groups in the round of 16) to semifinal best-of-3 games head-to-head match
• 2 winners from previous round competing in a best-of-3 games head-to-head for 1st/2nd, and 2 losers competing for 3rd/4th

Here is the proposal described in a visual format:

Proposal #2

For the competitive division:

• 10-game preliminary round
  • The top 16 players (1st-16th) advance into an Upper Bracket
  • The next 32 players (17th-48th) advance into a Lower Bracket
• All Upper Bracket games are head-to-head first-to-7 points matches, with the winner advancing to the next round, and the loser getting knocked down into the Lower Bracket.
  • The player with 4 match wins in the upper bracket advances to the final
• All Lower Bracket games are head-to-head first-to-5 points matches, with the winner advancing to the next round, and the loser eliminated from the tournament
• The winner of the Lower Bracket meets the winner of the Upper Bracket in the championship match

For the cues and recreational divisions the same format is used, but with the top 8 players (1st-8th) advancing into an upper bracket, and the next 16 (9th-24th) advancing to a lower bracket.

Here is the proposal described in a visual format:

Doubles

Also worth mentioning is the WCC committee will implement a change to the doubles competitions. Currently the top 6 teams from the preliminary round advance to the playoffs, in which a 5-game round robin determines the champion.

The new doubles format will see the top 12 teams from the preliminary round advance to the Round of 12 playoffs. The 12 teams will be split into two pools of 6 teams each, where a 5-game round robin will be played. The top 2 teams from each pool will advance to the Final 4. In the final 4 the teams will play 2 games (crossing-over to play one game each against the teams from the other pool). The total points scored through all 7 playoff games (5 games in the Round of 12 plus 2 games in the Final 4) will determine the champion.