The small number of teams in the tournament resulted in an unusual competition format being adopted that featured 16 games. There was an opening group
round-robin round, and a modified
double-elimination bracket. For the group round, there were two pools of three teams each. Each team played the other two teams in its pool once. A total of six games were played in the group round. In the knockout round, the first three games featured teams that each finished in the same position in their respective pools (A1 vs B1, A2 vs B2, A3 vs B3). The loser of the A3 vs. B3 game was eliminated (with only one loss in the elimination round, plus one or two in the group stage). After this, play continued in double-elimination format until there is one team left in each of the winners and losers brackets. Those two teams played in the gold medal game (a single game; the losers bracket representative does not need to beat the winners bracket representative twice). The last two teams eliminated from the losers bracket played in the bronze medal game. In total, 10 games are played in the knockout round: • A3 vs B3 (loser eliminated) • A2 vs B2 • Winner of #1 vs Winner of #2 • A1 vs B1 • Loser of #2 vs Loser of #3 (loser eliminated) • Loser of #4 vs Winner of #5 (loser to bronze medal game) • Winner of #3 vs Winner of #4 (winner to gold medal game) • Loser of #7 vs Winner of #6 (winner to gold medal game, loser to bronze medal game) • Bronze medal game: Loser of #6 vs Loser of #8 • Gold medal game: Winner of #7 vs. Winner of #8 Thus, the best two teams from group play face each other in the quarterfinals, with a possible rematch later in the tournament (including the gold medal game, if the winner also wins its next game and the loser wins its next two). ==Group stage==