In online tournies, the bye goes to the person who has the median rating. Assuming heads up. I think you are referring to live tournies
Getting a "bye" in a tournament round
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Currently, when there are an odd number of players, the system will give a "bye" and a win point to whoever is in last place. The reasoning is that the guy in last place needs the win the most. This is completely flawed thinking; this actually HURTS the guy in last place, because it takes away from him the opportunity to win tiebreaker points. Without those, a bye "victory point" in a 5 round tournament is worth less than nothing! It actually guarantees that you cannot come back to compete for a top 3 spot anymore!
Has anybody else noticed this? Would chess.com ever consider changing the rule?
You can't give it to the top player, because usually he already has tiebreaker points,so the only fair solution I can think of is giving the bye should to a random player.This would make tournaments much more fun and fair.