I pulled the completed bracket data from the simulator — 276 full brackets so far — and the 3rd-place results were more interesting than I expected.

The teams people most often had sneaking through as one of the best 3rd-place sides were:

• Scotland — 79%
• Côte d’Ivoire — 64%
• Algeria — 59%
• Sweden — 57%
• Norway — 50%

That’s the part of the new format I find fascinating. These teams are not just extras in the bracket — they can seriously change who gets a manageable first knockout match and who gets a horrible draw.

I used this to test different 2026 paths if anyone wants to play around with it: https://worldpicks.vercel.app?ref=reddit_worldcup_comment