Topic: How to run a 2v2 ladder?

[raydenuni]

We got a table at the office recently and are just finishing up a single-elimination tournament with randomly assigned teammates. Everyone has had fun but teammates were mismatched on skill level, some matches were even while others were blowouts, and elimination isn't fun. I would like to follow up the tournament with an on-going weekly ladder.

These are my goals:

* Players play with and against people of similar skill level
* Players team up with different people every week
* Supports 16-32 people
* Would prefer a simple system that everyone can understand

It sounds simple enough and my initial thoughts were that there has to be an elegant system that pseudo-randomly pairs people up with opponents, moves people up and down the ladder as they win or lose. But I've been thinking about this for a few weeks and the more I think about it the more I'm wondering if it's impossible.

Has anyone run a 2v2 ladder/league with random teammates? How did you do it?

[RobYates]

Single elimination isn't much fun;  you can lose 1 match and your done...... If time allows it, I would suggest to run a double elimination tournament (maybe make losers bracket 1 game to 7)...and do an "A/B draw". This is where you split the player base into 2 groups; A = better players and B = not so good players. Then you just match an A with a B randomly.  This is a simple way to have a competitive draw your partner event.

[raydenuni]

I've thought about that. I'd prefer to do an on-going system without elimination at all. I would also like to put better players together with better players, something a ladder would allow, but the logistics of a ladder just don't seem to work.

The best I can come up with at this point is to split players into 8-player brackets and run a round-robin tournament. After enough games, players are either bumped up or down a bracket and start again.

[sartre]

Any other thoughts on this?  I'm in nearly an identical scenario as the OP.