Olmo let the silence sit for a moment longer before he opened the file again.
"Before we begin," he said, "you will know exactly what you are walking into."
No one moved.
He looked down at the bracket—twelve names organized into six first-round matches, the structure already decided, already finalized. He had spent time on this arrangement. Not arbitrarily. Every pairing had a reason behind it, even if the students in front of him wouldn't see the reason clearly until they were standing across from their opponent and the opening exchange had already happened.
"Six first-round matches," Olmo said. "The six winners advance. From there, the bracket narrows. Three second-round matches. Three winners move forward. One gets a bye."
He paused.
"From those four, two semifinal matches. Two winners enter the final. The top four from this entire tournament become the official representatives of Class One."
He let the structure land.
