The Page playoff system is a playoff format used primarily in curling at the championship level. Teams are seeded using a round-robin tournament and the top four play a mix of a single-elimination and double-elimination tournament to determine the winner. It is identical to a four-team McIntyre System playoff, first used by the Victorian Football League in Australia in 1931, which was originally called the Page system (or Page-McIntyre system) after the VFL delegate Percy Page who advocated its use.

History

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The Page playoff system was first used by the Canadian Curling Association in the 1995 Labatt BrierDalla Costa, Morris (March 3, 2006). Page playoff system prompts much debate. London Free Press., the men's championship, and was adopted the next year at the 1996 Scott Tournament of Hearts, the women's championship.Soudog's Curling History Site. 1996 Scott Tournament of Hearts. Retrieved March 23, 2006. It gained acceptance and in 2005 the World Curling Championships started using it, but it has not yet been adopted in curling at the Olympic Games.

Outside of curling, the system is used by the International Softball Federation in qualifying for world championships and the Olympic Games.International Softball Federation. Technical & Venue Manual (PDF). Retrieved March 23, 2006 The format has also been used in some much lower-key, internet gaming events, such as chessFischer Random Chess Email Club. FRCEC’s Annual Championship Tournament. Retrieved March 23, 2006. and backgammonNew Horizons Backgammon. New Horizon Ladder Super League. Retrieved March 23, 2006..

Format

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The system requires teams to be ranked in some way, as the top two teams have an advantage over the bottom two. This is usually accomplished through a round-robin tournament, which eliminates all but the top four teams.

Round-robin

A standard round-robin tournament is used, in which all teams play each other once. Because the number of total games increases quadratically with respect to the number of teams, scheduling too many teams will result in an unwieldy number of games, particularly when there are a limited number of playing surfaces (curling rinks usually only have four sheets). Therefore, the number of teams is usually capped at around a dozen; if this is not possible or desirable, teams may be separated into groups playing separate round-robins and either having the top teams combining for the Page playoff or playing separate ones in each group and having the winners play each other after.

Page playoff

The top four teams advance to the Page playoff. In what's sometimes called the quarter-finals, the first- and second-placed teams and the third- and fourth-placed teams play each other. The winner of the 1 vs. 2 game gets a bye to the final. The loser of the 1 vs. 2 game plays the winner of the 3 vs. 4 game in the semi-final. The winner of the semi-final plays the winner of the 1 vs. 2 game in the final, with the winner of that game winning the competition.

This has the effect of allowing the top two teams to lose a game and still win the tournament, producing a similar effect to a double-elimination tournament. This gives the top two teams a large advantage over the next two; for example, in 12 years at The Brier, 11 years at the Scott and one year at the Worlds, only once, at the 2000 Scott Tournament of Hearts, has the third- or fourth-placed team won the tournament.Canadian Curling Association. Archived Statistical Summaries. Retrieved March 24, 2006. However, to ensure that the first-placed team does get some advantage for finishing at the top of the pack, that team is often given a home-ice advantage; since curling teams rarely play national or international tournaments at their home rink, the advantage in curling is that the first-placed team is given the hammer (last rock), which is a reasonable advantage between comparably skilled teams.

Example

Page playoff results from the 2006 Tim Hortons Brier:

Reaction

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Players and fans alike have had a mixed reaction to the system. Broadcasters also enjoy it as it produces one more game than the single elimination format. Considering the format is expanding to more curling events and more sports and games, it's reasonable to say its popularity and acceptance is increasing.

References

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Curling | Sports terminology | Tournament systems | Page-Playoff-System