Circle of death

A circle of death is a three-way tie in which each of the three teams has beaten one of of the other two teams and lost to the remaining team. Such ties cannot be broken by a head-to-head result (not that any ties should be) and require a relatively complicated tiebreaking procedure (or the use of statistical tiebreakers). The term sometimes refers to other types of three-way ties and occasionally to five-way (or even higher-order) ties that are analogous to the original meaning.

Resolving a three-way tie

In many cases, it is not necessary to break a tie, and it is common for ties that do not involve first place to be left unresolved. However, some formats (or participant preferences) require the breaking of ties. If three teams are tied for one spot, the generally agreed compromise between fairness and time is to have the teams ranked by a statistic (typically points per tossup heard) and then the lower two teams play each other for a chance to play the upper team, the winner of which takes the top spot. If three teams are tied for two spots (e.g., in a preliminary pool the top two spots of which go to a specific playoff pool), the best procedure is for the top two teams play each other and the winner gets one of the better two spots, after which the lower of that game plays the originally lowest team, the winner of which gets the other better spot. Frequently, half-games are used instead of full games.

Sometimes statistical tiebreakers are used instead of additional gameplay, which is not ideal but is sometimes necessary for reasons of time, question availability, or other constraints.

In situations where there are fewer constraints on available questions or time, such as the finals of an important tournament, an alternate format that does not privilege the PPG statistic as much has the top two teams by PPG playing first, with the winner advancing to a one-game final, and the loser playing the third-place team for the second spot in the final. The advantage of this format is that every team has to win exactly two games to win the overall title, rather than immediately giving the first-place team a bye to the final. The comparatively minor disadvantage is that it necessarily takes three full games compared to two. In most situations, the best available reader at an "important" event should be able to complete the third game in very little time. This format was notably used to resolve the three-way tie for first place at the 2015 NASAT among California, Illinois, and Virginia.

Very occasionally, a game is played with all three teams playing at once, which is very much not a best practice. The basic rules and equipment of quizbowl are categorically not designed for this scenario. Situations such as two teams frantically hitting the buzzer while it is cleared to rebound a neg or a third mathematically eliminated team "spoiling" a team's chance to overtake the scoring leader on the last question are inherent to multi-team matches. To some extent, formats designed for more than two individual players such as History Bee and IPNCT have modified the rules to avoid these issues. As of 2025, there is no set of alternate rules for 3+ teams playing regular quizbowl, and it should be regarded as fundamentally unfair and at the bottom of any ranking of potential three-way tie resolution methods.

Other uses

The term "circle of death" is also used by the NAC to designate the double-elimination playoff at the end of the tournament.