Tournament Series Scoring

Points are awarded to players based on how they finish in tournaments during the tournament series. Starting with 1 Point awarded for making the tournament, each round of further advancement is worth twice as much, plus one point. The exception is winning a tournament. Winning a tournament in the series is worth 1000 points - enough to guarantee advancement.

Tournament FinishPoints AwardedDescription
Winner1000This large number of points guarantees that winning a single tournament will advance a coder to the next level.
Finalist63Points for the second place finisher who played in the championship match
Semi-Finalist31Points for those who played in a semi-final (second-to-last-round) match, typically top 4
Round of 815Points for those who played in the a quarter-final (third-to-last-round) match, typically top 8
Round of 167Points for those who played in the a fourth-to-last-round match, typically top 16
Round of 323Points for those who played in the a fifth-to-last-round match, typically top 32
Round of 641Minimum points for those who played in the tournament, typically top 64
Tournament with Points

Example Series

In this example series, eight competitors are playing in a three-week series. The three winners of the three tournaments will advance. However, if a single player wins multiple tournaments, the point system decides who will advance. In this case, we will give an example where Maddie R wins multiple tournaments, leading to points being the final factor in who advances to the next level.

Player NameWeek 1Week 2Week 3TotalResult
Ammarah R156331109 Advances
Charlie Z15151545 Does not advance
Lilly-Mai M31311577 Does not advance
Daniel A631531109 Advances
Dan S31151561 Does not advance
Usaamah L153110001046 Advances
Maddie R10001000632063 Advances
Rowan J15151545 Does not advance

Important Notes

  • Points do not compound for a single tournament, meaning that first place winner does not receive 1000 points, plus 63 points for making the Round of 2, plus 31 points for making the round of 4 etc. That has already been taken into account, so first place takes 1000 points for the single tournament.
  • Points accumulate throughout the tournament series, so a player who takes 3rd place in each tournament during the series would end the series with a higher score than a player who took second in a single tournament and then 64th in all other tournaments.
  • If two players are tied on points for the last spot to advance to the next level, both players advance to the next level.
  • An unbalanced tournament (where any player is given a bye), may mean that there may not be a player in all positions. Points are still awarded by finishing round. For example, the tournament below does not have a 4th place player, so only Dan S is awarded 31 points.
    Tournament with Points

Background and Feedback

We used to advance only those who won a tournament during a series, but when a few players continued to win tournaments, each additional win really felt like a loss for everyone. Even our best players want other great players to make it to the next level. This updated scoring is our way of allowing more pathways to the next level.

We are always open to feedback and we plan to continue iterating on this scoring process. Please let us know what you think!