How does scoring work?

The tournament runs in four rounds. You earn points for each pick that matches the actual result:

When do my picks lock?

• R1 + R2 lock together at the R1 start time. Once regionals begin, those picks become read-only.
• R3 + R4 + tiebreaker lock together at the R3 start time (start of the College World Series in Omaha). They only open after the admin records all 8 super-regional results.

R3 picks use the actual8 Omaha qualifiers, not whoever you predicted in R2. You can't pick a team that didn't make it.

Tiebreaker rule

The tiebreaker is your predicted total runs scored in the deciding championship game (sum of both teams). It is required when you submit R3 + R4 picks — the field pre-fills with 0, and your save keeps whatever value is in the box.

1. Leaderboards first sort by total points (highest first).
2. If two or more users are tied on total points after the championship game has been played, the tie is broken by whoever's tiebreaker guess is closest to the actual total runs (smallest absolute difference wins). Direction does not matter — over and under are weighted equally.
3. If multiple users are still tied on both total points AND tiebreaker proximity, they are all declared co-champions. There is no further tiebreaker — the title is shared.

What counts as the "deciding" game? The championship is a best-of-three series. The deciding game is the last game actually played — Game 2 if the same team wins the first two, otherwise Game 3.

What if a team is disqualified or a result changes?

The admin can edit any result at any time. Scoring is recomputed on every page render, so leaderboard standings update automatically the next time you load the page.

Do I have to join a group?

No. You can compete solo on the global leaderboard — fill out a bracket, save your picks, and you'll be ranked against every other player who has a bracket. Groups are an optional layer for a private friends-and-coworkers leaderboard.

You can join or create one or more groups at any time from the Groups page. Leaving your last group also works — you stay on the global leaderboard.

Can I see other people's brackets?

Yes. Any signed-in user can view another user's bracket at /users/[gamerTag]/bracket— you don't need to share a group with them.

To keep picks fair while rounds are still in play, what's visible depends on the tournament clock:

• R1 + R2 picks become visible to other viewers only after the R1 lock deadline (when regionals start).
• R3 + R4 picks and the tiebreaker become visible only after the R3 lock deadline (start of the College World Series).

The bracket owner's email is never exposed — viewers see the gamer tag and picks only.