The Tie-Breaker Situation

Going into the last draw of the round robin at the 2011 Men's World Curling Championship, the situation is not terribly complex:

• If both Norway and France win this evening, they and Sweden will all have 7-4 records, and there will be one tie-breaker.
  
• If both Norway and France lose this evening, they will be tied with Germany at 6-5, and if Switzerland wins, it will also have a 6-5 record.
• If only one of Norway and France wins and the other loses, there will be no tie-breaker games. Whoever wins is in the playoffs, and all the others are out.

All those draws to the button at the end of each formal practice session may come into play in determining who plays and who has a bye if there are three-way ties, but I can't find the data for those results.

Log Jam..... Again

Wow, isn't it fun to speculate about the standings, the play-offs, and potential tie-breaker games?

After Wednesday night's play, the BC rink had clinched a spot in the play-offs of the 2009 Scott Tournament of Hearts, but after that, there were two rinks tied at 6-3, followed by FIVE (count 'em, 5) rinks tied at 5-4.

When Alan and I were covering the Scott for CHRW news a few years ago in London, Ontario, this type of situation led to all sorts of fun, speculation, mathematical computations, etc. among the media as we discussed all the options. I'm sure it will be no different this morning in Victoria, and I'm sure the TSN telecasters will be going into orgasmic delight over the possibilities. It is loads of fun!

Unfortunately, I'll have to miss the first two draws today (on the road, again; first in Hanover, then in London; sadly, both in Ontario, not Europe). And after all the day's activities, I'll probably fall asleep before the 17th draw this evening at 9:30pm EST.

Maybe I'll take a nap when I get home...

If NL and Alberta Each Lose

As we go into the 3pm 16th draw of the 2007 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, we can see that the only way we will get a mass of play-off possibilities is if both Alberta and Newfoundland/Labrador lose at least one game each, so there would be no teams left with just four losses. If that were to happen, the maximum possible number of teams ending round-robin play with five losses is five -- wouldn't that be fun!!!

Update: Well, they weren't supposed to lose this afternoon. Now with BC playing Alberta and NL playing Ontario this evening, even though there are five teams with 5-5 records, at most only three (and at least two) teams will be tied for "the fourth and final play-off spot".