[TheWamp]

Two things: I think that wins by large margins should get more points. Example: if you win by more than a 3:1 ratio, you get 3 points instead of 2.

Also, I think that we should instead take the top 4 lists and do a round robin between all of them (that's 6 battles simultaneously). The highest scorer (using the same system) would be the winner.

The thing is that if we use quarterfinals, (the current idea) there's still 2 chances for elimination based on bad luck. Also, taking the top third of the lists seems a little excessive. Only those who score really well after 5 rounds should go on to the last rounds. (though this still leaves room for bad luck, probably). Finally, EVERY top list fights EVERY other. This would be a bit more fair.

The biggest disadvantage of course is that we don't have the "final battle" which is always exciting. However, if we only have 6 battles with the top 4 lists, it would create quite a bit of interest IMO. Just my suggestion.

Alternately, we could take the top 5-8 lists and do larger round robins (if we had 8 lists, we'd have to do 2 rounds of 14 battles).

Just my $.02