Repêchage

Repechage (/rəpɛʃˈɑːʒ/; French: repêchage, "fishing out, rescuing") is a practice in series competitions that allows participants who failed to meet qualifying standards by a small margin to continue to the next round, in a similar way as wild card system works out.

Different types of repechage can occur. As a basis for the examples below, assume that 64 competitors are divided into four pools of 16 competitors, labeled A, B, C, and D. The first three rounds of the primary championship bracket winnow the field down to eight competitors for the quarter-final.

In full repechage, a competitor who loses to the pool winner drops into the repechage bracket. The theory is that a worthy competitor who is paired with another worthy competitor should not be unduly penalized by luck of the draw, but have an opportunity to fight for at least third place. In our example, four competitors from each pool (the loser to the pool winner in the first, second, third and quarter-final rounds) drop into the repechage bracket. A larger pool results in a longer wait for first-round losers to determine if they will compete in repechage.

Quarter-final repechage pulls losers from the quarter-final round only. The prior rounds are single-elimination. Losers in the quarter-final from two pools (e.g., A and B) are entered into one bracket of the repechage first round. Quarter-final losers from the other two pools are entered into the other bracket. Repechage losers are placed in seventh place. Winners of these matches play against semifinal losers of opposite bracket. Losers are placed in fifth place and winners are awarded with bronze medal each.

In double-elimination repechage, any loser in the championship bracket drops into the repechage bracket. Typically the losers from the championship bracket's first round compete against each other in the repechage first round for the right to compete in the repechage second round (against the championship bracket second round losers). In full double-elimination repechage, the eventual repechage bracket winner competes against the championship bracket winner to determine the winner of the overall competition, but the repechage bracket winner must win two matches to win the competition whereas the championship bracket winner needs only win one match. In a partial double-elimination repechage bracket, the bracket winner(or winners in dual third-place scenario) will take third place.

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Wikipedia