Do team names affect Pool pairings

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Jun 11, 2013
2,624
113
I'm not going to give our team name, but it's one that suggest that we are loaded with top talent. In our first tournament we would up playing the gold finalist and the silver champion in pool. this last tournament we played the 1st and 3rd and 4th seed in pool. I'm not really complaining, but especially in mixed A and B events it would be nice to play a couple of B teams in pool to have a shot.
 

marriard

Not lost - just no idea where I am
Oct 2, 2011
4,315
113
Florida
I know when we do our tournament we use the auto-bracket function and then adjust the schedule based on things like distance to our fields, team reputation, team registered class, team record and so on.

I wouldn't be shocked that a team with an 'elite' or 'gold' tacked on the end might be rescheduled based on that until their real level is determined by recorded performance.
 
Feb 4, 2015
641
28
Massachusetts
I feel like club reputation plays a part in the pools. In our last tourney all the host state teams played in separate pools from four very strong clubs from out of state. We all battled each other trading wins and ties and all ended up with lower seeds, which also caused us to play again in early rounds.

We were fine with it. This early in the year we'd much rather be playing top competition and getting better than racking up wins in an easy pool.
 
Feb 20, 2015
643
0
illinois
I think it does affect the pool pairings. My DDs team last year (first year 14U) was a lower level B team. There were also two other teams from the same organization that were another first year 14U , and a second year 14U. Both of the other teams were much better teams than my DD's team. One should have been an A level, and the other was a solid B team, that could compete with A level talent. Just based on the name of the team, tournament directors, other coaches, etc, expected our team to show up and be as good as the other two teams of the same name.
 
Apr 25, 2010
772
0
I think certain organization names tend to lend themselves to the assumption that they are a "top" or "bottom" team. There are organizations in our area that you know any team from that organization is nothing to worry about and other organizations that you know the teams are going to be strong. So yeah, I would imagine it would affect pool pairings. Especially when you play a tournament where the hosting team/organization tries to set themselves up with the easiest route to the championship (which happens a lot around here).
 
May 4, 2014
200
28
So Cal
If you have Elite, Gold, Travel, A or any other term that would suggest you are heavily loaded with talent (or not) why would you be surprised if it was used to determine pool... tournament that is doing its job will not just go by team name but also if its A or B and if mixed tourny would try to balance the A and B across the pools... but I can see when in doubt the name biasing the selection....
I think team names tell me more about the competing coach than their talent... I see "Elite Super Duper Platinum Diamond Diva Lady Killers" and its either an arrogant swine on the other side that is asking for a whoopin or a very insecure team that is trying to intimidate with the name.... show me a team with "Bad News Bears, misfits, Oddballs etc" in name and Im seing a team that likes to have fun and/or is trying to undersell their real talent... Im more intimidated by the ones confident enough to have stupid names then the ones with Elite on them....
 
Oct 22, 2009
1,529
0
PA
We've played in tournaments where the TDs put all the top teams in pools separate from weaker teams, tournaments where the TDs did a straight blind draw, and others where the TDs stacked the tournament to give the team from their own organization an edge. If you want to win a tournament, you've got to beat the top teams at some point anyway.

Now about the name - if you've named the team Elite, Gold, Futures, etc. to try and attract the best players, expect to be treated like one when you enter a tournament. You can't have it both ways.
 
Jul 16, 2013
4,659
113
Pennsylvania
Now about the name - if you've named the team Elite, Gold, Futures, etc. to try and attract the best players, expect to be treated like one when you enter a tournament. You can't have it both ways.

I was reviewing tournaments last weekend trying to finalize our schedule for the summer. I noticed a team with "Elite" in their name classified as a "C" team?!?!?
 

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