Fix "balanced" arena picks
I frequently encounter the system picking the same games when some games have not been selected at all when using the Balanced option. I'm to the point of using random for fewer redraws as we have plenty of machines. I typically run 3 strike knockout tournaments with about 7 players and 20 machines, if that helps. Perhaps I am just not understanding the Balanced option? I thought it would try to select games that haven't been drawn in the tourney yet.
There’s a bit of a misunderstanding of what the balanced arena setting does. The balanced setting’s only goal is to make sure players do not play the same machine multiple times.
It does not attempt to spread out games over all the available arenas in the tournament. Players are assigned a random arena they haven’t played before.
Because of that you can end up in the situation you describe if you have many more arenas available than is “needed” to play the tournament. With 7 players and 20 machines you only “need” 3 machines so you have a massive surplus.
You’ll be no better off choosing random. You’ll most likely see more repeats than with balanced since balanced is really just “random with restrictions”.