Example of “advantage” given by Standard Snake.
A: 1,8,9,16
B: 2,7,10,15
C: 3,6,11,14
D: 4,5,12,13
We will look specifically at pools A and D.
In pool A, in order to hold their spot in the top 2, team #8 must (essentially) beat two of these three teams: #1 (who is the best team at the event), #9 (who is the best team below them), and #16 (worst team at the event). Yes they are given an easy win with #16, but since they most likely need to win a second match to move on, #1 and #9 are the hardest teams they could possibly face.
Let’s now look at pool D. In pool D, in order to hold their spot in the top 2, team #5 must (essentially) beat two of these three teams: #4 (who is the worst team above them), #12 (who is the worst team of the next four below them), and #12 (the best of the bottom 4). In this case, two of these three teams they have to face are the closest to their skill level as possible.
Team #5 holding their seed is immensely easier than #8 holding their seed, however it is still challenging to them both.
With reverse snake seeding the pools look like this:
A: 1,8,12,13
B: 2,7,11,14
C: 3,6,10,15
D: 4,5,9,16
In this case, the match-ups between the second and third level teams are balanced. Let’s look at our two examples.
Team #8 now plays #1, #12, and #13.
Team #5 now plays #4, #9, #16.
The #4 team still has an advantage of playing a lower top seed, however now the match-up between them and the team below them is the same relative skill that it is for team #8. All second vs. third seed matches have a difference of 4 in seed. Of course this is worse for #5 and a little better for #9, however this is counteracted a little bit my reversing the bottom seeds and giving #5 the chance to now play #16 versus #13.
These changes, even the matches between the second and third seeds, while still maintaining an advantage for the higher seeds.