https://imgur.com/a/OHzZLMk Bracket VisualThe seeding stayed on the board for about an hour, and during that time, the mess hall orbited around it. Swathes of kids moving around, poking and watching it.I watched from our table as recruits cycled past the display, tracing brackets, running mental matchups, arguing about who belonged where.“Third, huh?” Sato said, staring at the board from across the mess hall. “Jin at the third seed. all the way above the rest of us, even Marcus. That’s not bad.”“The algorithm weighted the combined performance across phase one and two,” Park said, “Jin’s phase one contribution was exceptional. Eliminations in all three squad matches and then in all the duo matches.”“There were plenty that had similar results; there must be an extra mechanism in there somewhere,” Tomás added. “That’s our Jin, always at the front.”I looked at Jin. She was eating paste and pretending the conversation was happening to someone else. But the tips of her ears had gone red.“So the seeds determine the fights?” Hsu said, “Higher seeds get a favourable bracket path?”“Correct, the first two rounds are against lower seeds,” Park confirmed. “Jin’s likely facing opponents in the low twenties until the quarter-finals. After that, the bracket converges, and it gets real.”“So she gets to coast to the quarters?” Sato asked.“I don’t coast,” Jin said without (...)