Statistical tiebreakers

Statistical tiebreakers (or paper tiebreakers) is the use of statistics to break a tie in record, usually for final placement or advancement into playoff pools. This practice is generally frowned upon because it would be better to break the tie by additional gameplay, but sometimes limitations on time, available questions, team interest, or other resources require it. (When tiebreaker games are used for a tie involving more than two teams, statistics are used to seed the teams for the tiebreaker games.)

When statistical tiebreakers are used, the specific statistic used is usually points per tossup heard. (Some untimed tournaments, however, use the mostly equivalent points per game, or, for ease of computation, total points.) When breaking ties between teams who have played different opponents, some people prefer to use points per bonus.