?
Team vs. individual tournament: An organizer’s dilemma
Tournament theory has been supported by many pieces of empirical research in different fields. However, tournament theory literature focuses largely on the incentives of individual competitors. In our paper we develop a model the organizer choice between team and individual tournament and suggest a model of rank-order tournaments between teams. We test its implications using eSports (competitive video gaming) data. We show that both team and individual results follow tournament theory, however, there is a difference between the motivation of groups and individuals. Our study provides insights on the optimal reward structure, which should maximize effort of contestants, and, in the case of sports tournaments, entertainment value of the events.