Question 47
In a single-elimination tournament consisting of $2^{9}=512$ teams, there is a strict ordering on the skill levels of the teams, but Joy does not know that ordering. The teams are randomly put into a bracket and they play out the tournament, with the better team always beating the worse team. Joy is then given the results of all 511 matches and must create a list of teams such that she can guarantee that the third-best team is on the list. What is the minimum possible length of Joy's list?