[EM] Runoff terminology --> Seeded Condorcet

[LAYTON Craig]

Forest wrote:

>Would "instant voteoff" be too suggestive of elimination (even though it
>naturally includes full Condorcet through the round robin playoff analogy
>mentioned above)?

That sounds a bit Survivor.

>By the way, I'm no sports fan, but I understand that the playoff
>tournaments of the major leagues are "seeded" in such a way that the
>highest ranking teams do not get pitted against one another in their first
>games; otherwise some of the best teams could be eliminated too early, and
>the final games would not be as interesting on average.

It's a sensible rationale.  This is off the topic, so skip if you're not
interested - a football competition here uses a very refined finals system.
The top 8 teams (in terms of points) make it to the playoff.  1 vs 4, 2 vs
3, 5 vs 7, 6 vs 8.  The losers of 5 vs 7 and 6 vs 8 are eliminated.  The
winners play the losers of 1 vs 4 (contest A) and 2 vs 3 (contest B).  The
losers of the match between the 5 vs 7 & 6 vs 8 winners and the contest A &
B losers are eliminated.  The A & B winners play one another.  The winner of
this contest makes it to the final, and the loser plays the winner of the
final two uneliminated teams.  The winner of this match makes it to the
final.

That's probably not very comprehensible, but I just thought that their
system of ensuring that the top two teams make it to the final is pretty
neat.  I'm often amazed that sports organisations have a better grasp on
fair resolution of contests than political parties and other such groups
that should know better.

<snip explaination of seeded Condorcet>

>In other words, this version of the seeding idea is for those that
>appreciate Approval, but prefer Condorcet.

Yep, I can see the advantages of this.  It would also be very easy to count,
in comparison with Condorcet completion methods, making it proposable for
small committees or anyone without access to appropriate tallying
technology.

I wonder if there could be some kind of safeguard from electing a bad
Condorcet candidate.  Perhaps the bottom candidate (least approved) should
be eliminated.  There is a good argument that she shouldn't win, even if she
is the Condorcet winner.