Idea Tournament

A structured framework for generating diverse research ideas through tree-based expansion, then selecting the strongest candidate via Elo-rated pairwise tournaments across four quality dimensions.

When to Use This Skill

• User has a research direction from research-ideation and needs concrete, ranked ideas
• User wants to systematically compare multiple research ideas before committing
• User asks about idea ranking, competitive selection, or proposal generation
• User wants to explore variations of a research concept and select the best one
• User mentions "idea tournament", "rank ideas", "compare approaches", "research proposal", "which idea is best"

From Direction to Proposal

The gap between "I have a research direction" and "I have a concrete proposal" is where most researchers stall. They either commit to their first idea (missing better alternatives) or endlessly brainstorm without converging (analysis paralysis).

The tournament solves both problems. Phase 1 forces breadth — you generate up to N_I=21 candidates (the paper's maximum) by systematically varying technique, domain, and formulation. Phase 2 forces convergence — pairwise Elo comparisons identify the strongest idea without requiring you to hold all candidates in your head simultaneously.