[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Problem is extremely poorly stated.

For instance:

CASE I: It assumed that the outcome is causal, that any individual has fixed and completely repeatable, but unknown a priori ranking against all individual.

CASE II: Alternately the outcome of any round (heat) completely random, any individual has the same chance of achieving any particular outcome on a given trial as any other.

CASE III: Each individual has a different and distinct skill level, put the operation of chance will produce somewhat different outcomes in any one trial.

Even with this smoothed d out you may only have a parmetric solution. BTW, where did the other six competitors come from for the second round of third round of the hurdles competition?

[mtbopfuyn]

Yes, agreed it’s poorly stated. Yes, there are outside elements to which a value can’t be assigned. No, it’s not a level playing field as each round will raise the level of skill.

The other competitors come from their perspective local competitions and move up as in any elimination chart.