From January 2023 Newsletter--

By Erica Tran
NCTTA Media Committee

For the 2023 NCTTA National Championships this spring, there will be a new format for the Coed and Women’s Teams events. In short, the team competitions will be progressive knockouts, replacing the previous system where we had a round robin stage followed by a single elimination stage.

Check out diagrams of the format here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WsJNQmJkAGTdjQzeSuU1GkA4W5SyEvJj...

Within that file, the tabs “2022 WT” and “2022 CT” illustrate the format we used at last year’s championships, and “2023 WT” and “2023 CT” show the new format we will use this year.

In the old format, teams played in round robin groups of four teams. The top two finishers from each group advanced to the championship elimination bracket, and the remaining teams would move to a second or third bracket where they would compete for a lower level of placement.

The new format does not have a preliminary stage; all teams start directly in the knockout bracket. This format is called a progressive knockout. It is similar to a single elimination, except when a team loses, they are not eliminated – they instead move to another section of the bracket where they continue to play for a lower position. After each match, both the winner and the loser continue to play until the end of the tournament. Every team plays for a final position; not only will there be a match to determine who places 1st or 2nd, but also matches to see who will place 3rd or 4th, 5th or 6th, etc.

One clear advantage of this format is that it’s easy to follow, for both competitors and spectators. When live streaming our championships on YouTube, it was difficult to show round robin group matches because we don’t necessarily know what the importance of the match is – the winner might advance to the championship bracket, or they might not. The match might not matter at all.

In the progressive knockout format, every match is consequential. The winner of every match will advance further in the tournament, with no ambiguity. There will be no meaningless matches played at this tournament.

In this new format, teams will need to make some adjustments. Because every match is consequential, teams need to be ready to go from the start. There are no warmup matches – hopefully everyone had enough warmup in their divisional and regional events. This will be the first time we’re using this format. After the tournament we will review the results and consider what further adjustments should be made.

This format change will only apply to teams. We expect the singles and doubles event formats will be similar to last year.