On Controlling Knockout Tournaments Without Perfect Information

Abstract

Over the last decade, extensive research has been conducted on the algorithmic aspects of designing single-elimination (SE) tournaments. Addressing natural questions of algorithmic tractability, we identify key properties of input instances that enable the tournament designer to efficiently schedule the tournament in a way that maximizes the chances of a preferred player winning. Much of the prior algorithmic work on this topic focuses on the perfect (complete and deterministic) information scenario, especially in the context of fixed-parameter algorithm design. Our contributions constitute the first fixed-parameter tractability results applicable to more general settings of SE tournament design with potential imperfect information.