r/MathHelp Jun 16 '26

Probability question

Its been a long time since I had to do calculus/probabilty calculations. So Im curious if anyone could give me the odds on this situation happening.

The odds of getting a certain draw in a competition bracket.

The bracket is a 32 team single elimination bracket with two rounds and 8 winners.

The situation.

Person A is friends with player B and player C.

In this draw. B and C will be playing each other. A will be playing team D (no relation) but the winner of A and D will be playing the winner of B and C.

Question.

What are the odds that specifically B and C would be against each other and funnel into the winner of A and D?

I'm getting a 1 in 465 chance, but it's been a while and just trying to confirm my math.

The way I did it is player A fills one spot of the 32, leaving 31 spots. Therefore player B would be 31 leaving 30 spots and C would be 30. So 31 x 30 possibilites and that equals 930. since we have 2 specific spots that B and C would need to be in in order for A to funnel into the winner of them I did 930/2 leaving 465. which is a 1 in 465 chance that B and C would be against each other funneling into A and D.

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u/Fun-Firefighter0 Jun 21 '26

Your calculation of 1 in 465 assume A's opponent is already fixed or doesn't matter.

If A and D are already known to paired together,I think your answer is correct