Talk:Badminton at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's doubles

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According to General Competition Regulation 16, Tian/Zhao will finish ahead of Maeda/Suetsuna and advance to the QF.

http://www.bwfbadminton.org/page.aspx?id=14915

16.2.3 If three or more players / pairs have won the same number of matches, ranking will be established by the difference between total games won and total games lost, with greater difference ranked higher.

16.2.3.1 If this still leaves two players / pairs equal, the winner of the match between them will be ranked higher.

16.2.3 eliminates the Japanese pair and 16.2.3.1 places the Danes above the Chinese.

The same rules also eliminate the Indian pair in group B

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This isn't exactly a direct suggestion for a way to improve the article, but perhaps it will be useful anyway. It's a narrative of what probably happened in the closing rounds of pool play. Of course, there's no proof of match-throwing by non-disqualified teams.

Following the conclusion of the morning matches of July 30, both Chinese teams were assured of making playoffs: In pool A, Canada and Russia were 0-2 in matches while China and S. Korea were 2-0, so with 2 matches still to play, the advancing teams were already decided. In pool D, meanwhile, Hong Kong was 0-2 and therefore could not overtake 2-0 China in the standings; neither could Japan, as the 3-way tie at 2-1 resulting after wins by Denmark and Japan (the only way Japan could equal China's match record) would be broken by W-L differential in games--China's was guaranteed to be at least +2, and Japan could do no better than +1.

As the top two seeds in the tournament, the Chinese teams aspired, probably even expected, to take gold and silver. However, meeting in the knockout rounds before the final would have precluded this. If both teams had won their final round robin matches, they would each have been seeded first in their respective pools, and would have placed into opposite halves of the bracket, successfully avoiding such a meeting. However, there was an easier way: by obtaining the 2-seeds in each pool, they would still place on opposite sides of the knockout bracket, and would not need to worry about a possible upset--the Korean team in pool A, with the third seed overall, was a particular threat in this respect. Throwing their final pool matches would save them both physical exertion and psychological stress.

In pool D, to successfully execute this plan, China needed to lose 0-2 to Denmark. A 1-2 loss would have opened the door for Japan to advance rather than Denmark, resulting in a 1-seed for China (since 2-way match record ties are broken by head-to-head results). In the 9:40 AM match on July 31, eventual gold medal team China duly lost 0-2, guaranteeing that Denmark would become D1 and China D2.

A few hours later, at 1:09 PM, Japan's final round robin match in pool B began. If Japan (the 4th overall seed in the tournament) had won this match, they would have played China in the quarterfinals. By losing it 0-2, they could ensure a 2-seed and an easier quarterfinal match against Denmark. Accordingly, Japan intentionally lost 0-2 to Taiwan, thereby avoiding the Chinese team until the finals, and so paving the way to a silver medal.

The final match in pool A, between China and South Korea, began at 7:07 PM. Neither team needed to win to advance. Neither team wanted to face the Chinese team from pool D in the semifinals. Perhaps South Korea planned to lose the final matches in both the A and C pools so as to keep its two teams from meeting before the final. In any case, both teams wanted an L rather than a W, and, for the first time, the intentionally poor play became obvious. China prevailed, losing the match 0-2.

The last round robin match of the tournament was between South Korea and Indonesia in pool C. Once again, neither team needed to win to advance, and both wished to avoid playing China in the first knockout round, preferring, apparently, to play the lower-seeded South Korean team instead. As in the pool A match, with both teams trying to lose, the level of play spiraled downward, revealing the tactic. Indonesia eventually managed to lose 1-2.

So, the gold and silver medal winning teams probably got away with the very same behavior that earned four other teams disqualification.

Results

The results here do not reflect the official definitive results as listed in the Official Results book, e.g. the Russians won all three matches. By all means include a note of the "results" of the DQ'd athletes before they were DQ'd, but the official results should have precedence. http://www.london2012.com/mm/Document/sport/General/01/34/12/31/BDResultsBookV2_Neutral.pdf — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.231.229.98 (talk) 16:02, 14 August 2012 (UTC)