Ah I knew it was familiar! I actually wrote about your bracket design for Nightingale a year ago!

https://nightingaledvs.com/bracket-carousel-discovering-the-next-generation-of-bracket-design/

could you share what the regular bracket looked like? I'm trying to create a viz to capture playoff leverage (how much does winning / losing the next game affect playoff chances)

Unique chart! Great work! Really interesting layout