Defending playoffs.

I won't argue with what is said in favor of round robin, since there is value in that statement. However, I think that the premises laid out aren't the complete set of assumptions. To my mind, we are omitting the psychology of tournaments. It is not unreasonable to note that teams play emotionally differently when there is nothing to play for, and round robin is often little more than single elimination. One loss and you lose your power to affect the outcome to your favor. The problem is, you now have the rest of the tournament to play. This is the trap. We'd love to assume that a game that would happen before that would produce the same results, that people would function as machines. Doesn't work. Note that this doesn't necessarily make playoffs any better or worse, it merely blurs that division, and spreads out the disappointment over a longer period. If the only concern of the tournament is who won, that's fine. If you actually have interest in the order of teams all the way down, spreading out that effect is not a bad idea.

The other argument that's missing is tied in with the "tournament end as event" issue, but it's more practical and less emotional. That is the issue of being able to run a tournament, and end it practically. If you are going to award prizes, having a playoff allows you to get people together to watch the finals, while you get the stats together. Good value. It also allows the hosts to break down rooms, and organize equipment so that people don't lose their buzzers. If the buzzers and clocks get moved to a central location, you won't have people frantically emailing on Monday asking who has their stuff. It also helps prevent the bizarre but commonplace phenomena where teams leave without even finding out, or caring, who won. Are all these accomplishable without playoffs, somewhat. But a playoff facilitates this a lot better.

Basically, the way I see it, round robin alone does one thing very well, produce a winner with minimum fuss. If that is your only consideration, that's fine, no one will fault you. If you have other additional goals, then playoffs may be better. I for one, think that playoffs, or more accurately, what goes on around playoffs, allow you the possibility of social interaction, which if people were more familiar with each other, might have reduced a mini flamewar between screen names, to a better discussion.

The fundamental problem: there are a number of formats which are fair, there is no absolute one format. Choose what works.