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To understand a modified swiss tournament, you must first understand what"non-modified" (or"standard") swiss is. It's fairly simple.
Round One of standard swiss tournament: All players are paired randomly.
Round Two of standard swiss tournament: The winners from round one are paired against each other, while the losers of round one are also paired against each other
Round Three of standard swiss tournament: The players with 0-2 records are paired against each other, while the 1-1s, and the 2-0s are also paired against each other.
Round Four of standard swiss tournament: The 0-3s play each other, as do the 2-1s, the 1-2s, and the 3-0s.
Sometimes, however, it is not possible to pair players with exactly the same records (due to players having dropped or drawn), so you may have to"play up" or"play down". This means playing against an opponent with a *slightly* better or worse record than you.
After an amount of rounds set at the beginning of the tournament (based on the number of players), the player with the best record wins. Ties are broken by how tough your opponents were.
In a modified swiss tournament, the tournament runs the same as above until the last round is finished. At that point, instead of the player with the best record winning, the top eight (this number may vary depending on the event) go on to play a"single-elimination" playoff. Pairings are decided based on their tournament ranking at the end of the swiss rounds:
1 vs. 8
2 vs. 7
3 vs. 6
4 vs. 5
When a player wins in the quarterfinals, they advance to the semi-finals while the losers are then eliminated. The semi-finalists then play to determine the two finalists, who then play to determine the winner of the tournament.
Modified swiss is designed to ensure that the top players of the day meet in finals of the tournament.
