Consider a deterministic tournament amongNplayers in which the bestMare to be found and ranked. A tournament design is presented in which the ratio of the number of comparisons to the minimum number required asymptotically approaches one. At any given stage,n− 1 players have been considered. The rath is compared with the player with temporary rank min (M, [n/2]). If, as a result, thenth is determined to be possibly one of the firstM, then further comparisons are made by halving the set of temporarily ranked players within which thenth may be.