>>10459676It depends upon what sort of outcome you want. If you want the early matches to be reasonably predictable, you'd maximise the differential between players at each stage, so the highest-seeded players don't meet until the final rounds. For this, you aim to pair seed x with seed x+2^n where n=0 for the final. So with 16 players and assuming that the higher seed always beats the lower seed, the final is 1-2, the semi finals are 1-3 and 2-4, the quarter finals are 1-5, 3-7, 2-6, and 4-8, and the first round is 1-9, 5-13, 3-11, 7-15, 2-10, 6-14, 4-12 and 8-16.
If you reversed the order, so you paired 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, etc in the first round, 1-3, 5-7, etc in the second, and so on (i.e. pair x against x+2^n where n=0 in the first round), the first round would be unpredictable then later rounds become more predictable as the opponents get farther apart, with a presumed 1-8 in the final.
Or you can mix it up and pair 1-16, 2-15, ..., 7-8, so you have some predictable and some unpredictable. Or you can just draw at random.
