Outwitters WORLD CUP Winner - Alvendor (SWEDEN)

[awpertunity]

(09-27-2012 06:15 AM)CombatEX Wrote:  What was the reasoning for putting game point differential above head to head? It doesn't really matter since it doesn't look like tiebreakers are a big deal here (it's only been used once so far), but I'm interested to hear your thought process.

You could say that point differential shows a player's performance over a larger scale so it would be more accurate. However, since we know point differential is actually quite arbitrary it would seem like head to head would be a better reflection in the case of a tie. (By arbitrary I mean it depends immensely on which maps you play on and how long it really takes on average to win on a particular map). The point thresholds you set don't really have any firm statistical reasoning behind them as was brought up earlier in this thread (page 10 or 11?). Anyway, not suggesting anything be changed retroactively since this tournament has been under way for quite a while now, but I was curious =)

I was just following the actual World Cup rules

The ranking of each team in each group will be determined as follows:
a) greatest number of points obtained in all group matches;
b) goal difference in all group matches;
c) greatest number of goals scored in all group matches.
If two or more teams are equal on the basis of the above three criteria, their rankings will be determined as follows:
d) greatest number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned;
e) goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned;
f) greater number of goals scored in all group matches between the teams concerned;
g) drawing of lots by the FIFA Organising Committee.


I left out c) though because of exactly what you say.

It's funny though, apparently this exact point you brought up is an ongoing debate by World Cup spectators and I didn't even know about it.

"This all seems well and good, but personally I’d like to see more weight given to head-to-head results. If two teams finish with the same number of points but one team has beaten the other, I think the winning team deserves to go through. It should be as simple as that."


But you are definitely right in that goals in soccer are actually more true to the differential scale than the arbitrary point system we are using here.