playBunny: Because they're the 8th rated player. Out of 8, in this example. I'm with alanback--I've never heard of any system but this for a single elimination, bracketed tournament. I think we have different definitions of "fair." In a tournament where one loss puts you out of it, those with higher ratings should be protected against one another in the early rounds. Just as in multi-section tournaments, the same thing is accomplished by "balancing" the sections (#1 overall seed is #1 in sec. 1, #2 is #1 in Sec. 2, etc...)