When the easy matches ran out, and what two rounds of group play showed us

Both squad divisions completed their first group stage on Friday morning: 135 matches, 673 individual games, 16,485 points, across 34 men's squads and 26 women's squads. The figures are from 4 September, and results are corrected retroactively while a tournament runs.

How the squad tournament works

Two rounds of group play, then a bracket, and nobody goes home in between. That is the design: round one draws its groups from five buckets ranked by the world ranking, from the strongest nations down to the weakest, so one group spans the whole range. Round two then sorts squads by what round one produced. The tournament description says all places are played out, so round one decided nothing about survival. It decided what company a squad keeps in round two, and round two is what sets the bracket.

A squad tie is five individual games, each a single set, and the squad that wins more of the five takes one win. The tie then reads 5:0, 4:1 or 3:2. Round one played to 17 with the cap there, so no game could pass it. Round two went to 17 with the cap raised to 21.

All six men's group winners are in the two Diamond groups, three and three. Diamond A holds Germany (5-0), Canada (5-0), France (5-0) and Switzerland (4-1); Diamond B holds the United States (4-0), Italy (4-0), Austria (5-0) and Belgium (4-1). Three squads unbeaten in round one, in each of two four-squad groups. Below the Diamond groups, not one group winner appears in the round-two draw.

The women's draw did almost the same to almost the same nations. Its upper groups read France, Germany, Switzerland and Denmark, then the United States, Austria, Canada and Italy, and all five women's group winners are in them. Germany meets France in both divisions and the United States meets Austria in both, and those four are exactly the nations that came through round one unbeaten in both.

How one sided round one was

A tie is decided on games won, not on points. The points total is not a competitive quantity: a squad that wins twice 17-0 and loses three times 15-17 has the better points column and has lost the match. So the distribution that matters is this one.

In 94 of 135 matches the losing squad won no game at all, 69.6 percent. The women swept more than the men, and the men's field, 34 squads against 26, was the bigger one and also the closer one.

The close matches were the exception, and they were very close. Only 11 of the 133 matches played over five games stood 2:2 after four, and exactly one decider came down to a single point: Austria beat Switzerland 3:2 in the men's division, 16-17 in the fifth game. One squad in 135 matches came back from 0:2, Germany's women against Italy. At the other end 15 games finished 17-0, Germany's men played 25 and won 25, and the United States dropped nothing at all across both of its squads, 45 games to 0.

The second group round

Round two is the test of all that. Twelve ties in each top group, all played.

The reason sits in the draw, not in the rules. Round one drew its groups from five buckets ranked by the world ranking, so each group spanned the range from the top nations to the bottom, and a top squad met opponents it could sweep. Round two put the eight best men's squads into two groups of four, where every opponent is a peer, and peers go the distance. The women's top group moved less because the gap inside it is still wider: Germany and the United States are far enough ahead to sweep even their equals.

Twenty of the sixty games in the men's Diamond groups were decided by two points or fewer. Germany still won its group, and it took two 3:2 wins to do it, having taken none in round one.

The women's Gold groups moved the same way but nowhere near as far, and seven of their twelve ties were still sweeps. The one that was not is the result of the afternoon: Austria beat the United States 3:2, and the United States had not lost a single game in round one.

Men's Diamond, Group A

Men's Diamond, Group B

Women's Gold, Group A

Women's Gold, Group B

The lower groups of both divisions were still playing when this was counted. At the top the scoreboard had already noticed, within a single afternoon.

Every group table and every match is on fwango, which is the platform the federation points spectators to, and it is more current than this page.

FRESH 27 is in Palma, Mallorca in March 2027. If you want to be told when places open, put your name on the list at FRESH.

Corrections: spot something wrong? Write to contact@futureroundnet.com and I will fix it and say so here.

Quick guide: the world championship in brief

How many squads played?+

Sixty. Thirty-four men's squads and twenty-six women's squads, one per nation per division. Twenty-six nations entered both.

How many matches ended 5:0?+

Ninety-two of the 135 matches in the first group round, 68.1 percent. In the men's top group in round two it was three of twelve.

How is a squad match scored?+

Five individual games, each a single set. The squad that wins more of the five takes one win, so a match reads 5:0, 4:1 or 3:2. The points scored do not decide it.

Who won the groups?+

First round, men: Austria, Canada, Germany, Italy, France and the United States. Women: the United States, Austria, France, Germany and Switzerland. In the second round Germany and the United States took the men's Diamond groups, Germany and Austria the women's Gold groups.

Is anyone eliminated after the group stage?+

No. The tournament plays out every place, so each squad keeps playing for a final ranking.