Hi Killiandredd,
There are a number of reasons for this. 1) A player probably have to win almost all the games in a given round to move on to the next round. So, they may well improve in rating above the initial range. 2) Some players do not have a well defined rating. They may have joined the tournament when they had just started playing and had an actual strength above their rated strength. This is my case, I joined a 1600-1800 tournament, but was on the way up. I'm in the upper 2000 range now. 3) Sadly, some players will loose games on purpose to lower their rating in order to get themselves into lower rated tournaments.
i am playing in a tournament for 1400-1600 players. why are all but one of my opponents rated above 1600. one is a 1729.i'm in the second round, have all these players improved this much?