Cascading all-around
Break all-around ties by progressively dropping the lowest apparatus score and comparing the remaining sums.
Visual guide: View the decision tree in Figma
How It Works
Two gymnasts have the same all-around final score.
Sort each gymnast's apparatus scores from highest to lowest.
Drop the lowest score from each gymnast and compare the sums of the remaining scores.
If different → the gymnast with the higher sum ranks first.
If still tied → drop the next lowest score and compare again.
Repeat until only one score remains.
If still tied after all comparisons → the gymnasts share the same rank.
This algorithm progressively narrows the comparison, finding the gymnast who performed more consistently across their best events.
Example (WAG — 4 apparatus)
Two gymnasts tie with an all-around of 52.000:
Vault
13.500
14.000
Bars
13.200
12.500
Beam
12.800
13.000
Floor
12.500
12.500
All-Around
52.000
52.000
Step 1: Drop lowest (12.500 each). Compare top 3: Alice = 39.500, Bob = 39.500. Still tied.
Step 2: Drop next lowest. Alice drops 12.800, Bob drops 12.500. Compare top 2: Alice = 26.700, Bob = 27.000. Bob wins (27.000 > 26.700).
Bob ranks higher because when narrowed to their two best events, Bob's total is higher.
When to Use
All-around tiebreaking — this is specifically designed for all-around ties.
Competitions where consistent performance across multiple apparatus matters.
When E/D comparison alone isn't sufficient for all-around context.
Compared to Cascading AA then E then D
This tiebreaker stops after the cascading comparison. If cascading doesn't break the tie, it declares a tie. See Cascading AA then E then D for the version that falls back to E then D comparison.
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