It's 2020 and everyone's doing it...
Hopefully that headline has captured your undivided attention. More and more tournament directors are turning to Scoreholio to manage brackets and the crown jewel of the software suite is the partner swap format called Switcholio. Those of us who have been playing in the Ocean State Cornhole League already know the benefits of such a format. It's nice to now have software to facilitate the process. At the same time, there are several ways to configure Switcholio. Are you getting it right? Fortunately, the guy who has yet to run a Switcholio event (that will change soon) is here to tell you how to do it for your weekly sessions. Keep scrolling for some deets that you'll probably disagree with!
How many matches per night?
This is probably an easy one that all directors can agree on. The Switcholio magic number is four. That is, regardless of the number of competitors, everyone gets four matches and life is good! So, let's set the number of rounds to four.
Win/Loss Record or Total Points?
I like to view weekly events as sparring sessions that serve as preparation for bigger tournaments. With that in mind, wins and losses matter! I would rather win all four matches by the score of 21-19 than go 2-2 with two blowouts. In my configuration, I'm going with Win/Loss Record followed by Total Points.
Play to 21 or beyond?
Nobody likes ties and to avoid that it may appear as if playing beyond 21 would be the right choice. Well, you would be wrong as it opens up a loophole for players to game the system. I have witnessed a few instances of players deliberately not winning the match in a frame with the hopes of achieving more points in subsequent rounds. In my opinion, if this happens once, it's one time too many. I'll save you a potential yellow card at Boston Cornhole events and we'll play to 21. Scoreholio's second tiebreaker is point differential and in most cases, this is how ties would be decided.
Playoffs
The Scoreholio creators have provided the option of transitioning from Switcholio into a final single or double-elimination bracket. Americans love playoffs and typically, tournament directors have exercised this option. However, I would passionately prefer to forego the playoffs for several reasons.
I love the partner swap format for everything that it is and the one thing that it's not which is double-elimination. It's a different dynamic with chance playing a very different role in the results. However, when coupled with a traditional bracket to determine a final outcome, it sort of loses its luster for me.
As a tournament director, with Switcholio, I can guarantee everyone four matches and probably finish faster than double-elimination. Yay! As a player, I can play four matches on a school night and still be able to catch up on my beauty sleep. Even better! But, when a final bracket follows Switcholio, it's gonna be a long night! Often, I voluntarily end the hostage situation and bounce after round robin, but it would be nice to not forfeit potential winnings especially when playing well. Just Switcholio not enough cornhole for you? You could still run a second bracket that is not predicated on the round robin results.
I applaud what the California brain trust has provided with Switcholio, but my biggest critique is their attempt to create a "fair" playoff draw by equitably pairing players based on the round robin results. On the surface, it's a pretty good scheme, but too often it has led to sandbagging. Falling to the top of the second tier usually translates into a better chance of winning the bracket and sometimes this is done deliberately. And if the point shaving listed above is a yellow card, then sandbagging is an automatic red! I have seen cornhole sororities recognize sandbagging and put methods in place to combat it with varied success. The only bulletproof option is to eliminate the playoff bracket.
Conclusion
If you are using Scoreholio to run your events, you are providing a great service to your players. This post is not intended to chide you for doing something wrong. It's really an apropos attempt to shamelessly plug Boston Cornhole's upcoming weekly events in Attleboro and Brighton that will use Switcholio! However, following the outlined configuration will create an environment where every match, frame, and toss matters. And if you have that mentality in practice, you will see the results on the big stage!