A tip of the hat to Robert Davis, who spotted this article in Slate about "bracketology". While the concept has been further developed with the introduction of seeding players, the origin of tournament brackets appears to go back to the famous chess tournament in London back in 1851. (Chalk up another feather in Howard Staunton's cap, who made some genuine contributions to the game outside of his dubious actions vis-a-vis Paul Morphy.)