On The Up

I think the draw for the 1st round of the On The Up has really highlighted the point that Harri has been trying to make for a while now. The way players are drawn needs to be altered.

In the 1st round of On The Up mwest is playing dustnrogers, 2 of the strongest people in the whole tournament. As one moves lower and lower down the page it is apparant that the standard of the players in the pairings is quite some way below that of the first few pairings.

At the moment, it follows the system where the highest rated (call him/her Seed 1) is drawn with say Seed 11. Seed 2 with Seed 12, 3 with 13 and so on. Clearly, Seed 9 vs Seed 19 is a long way different from Seed 1 vs Seed 11.

So what's your suggestion?

My earlier suggestion was to rank the players1, 2, 3, .....n.
Then deside how many groups there is going to be needed.
Then place the players, let say there are 85 players and 20 groups, the 20 highest ranked players first, one in each group, then the second 20 (ranked as 21-40) and place them in the groups in the reverse order, then the players ranked 20 and 21 end up in the same group. That is the "weakest" on the paper, but at least the most competitive.
Then place the players ranked 41-60 in the groups 1-20 respectively and then the player 61-80 in the reverse order again. When there are more players left like now, place the players 81-85 in the groups 1-5.

Sincerely,

Harri,
a.k.a. Luck