A round-robin tournament is a sports competition where each player or team competes against every other player or team; each contestant faces off against the other contestant in turn. A round-robin tournament differs from an elimination tournament in that participants are eliminated after a set number of losses. The term round-robin comes from the French term ruban, which means “ribbon.”
Each participant plays every other participant once in a single round-robin schedule. When each participant plays the other twice, this is a double round-robin. When all players play each other more than twice, the word is rarely used. It is never used when one person plays others an uneven number of times, for example, In sports such as tennis or billiards, which generally feature knockout tournaments.
Round-Robin Format
The round-robin event works effectively with a limited number of teams and a big time frame. A handy little tool calculates the total number of games in round-robin tournaments to aid in planning. This will inform you of the total number of games that will be played and will assist you in deciding if your tournament should be divided into separate pools. Round-robin tournament events are ideal for league schedules or tournaments that need a set number of games. If there are several teams, they may be divided into divisions. Decide on the tie-breaker before the event starts. Typically, the tie-breaker will be determined by who won the head-to-head match.
Adding Teams to the Schedule
Each team will now be assigned a unique team number. Place the names of each team in a hat and begin drawing the teams one at a time, with the first team’s name drawn being assigned “Team 1,” the second team’s name chosen being assigned “Team 2,” and so on.
Tournament Time
The competition has officially begun. Begin with round one and complete all of the games before moving on to round two. Continue doing so until all of the games have been completed.
Keeping Track of Records
The team with the best record wins the event after all games have been played. Another frequent method is to seed a single or double elimination bracket based on the results of the round-robin play.
Different Round-Robin Tournaments
There are two types of round-robin tournaments:
- Single league tournament: Every single league tournament plays with every other team once in its pool + N(N-1)/2.
- Double league tournament: Every team plays with every other team twice in its pool N(N-1).
5-Team Round-Robin
The word came from a round-robin tournament in which each team played every other team in its group. If you choose five teams, you may make ten two-team parlays. There are ten three-team parlays. There are five four-team parlays.
Two fields and five rounds are required for a five-team tournament. There can be only one day of play in the most severe cases, just at Sectionals. Under the one-day scenario, the round-robin alone is four games for each side (in five rounds); any more would violate the four-game restriction.
For some of the forms with a large number of games, you can consider increasing the number of round-robin games to 13.
Regional Championships: Although there are only five teams, two days of play are anticipated for teams contending for berths at nationals. One of the two-day choices must be used.
As previously stated, a one-day tournament is only authorised under extraordinary circumstances and only at Sectionals. You may divide the round-robin over two days and six rounds if necessary. Each day, each side will get one bye and two games. This is superior to merely following the timetable and playing three rounds one day and two rounds the next.
For some of the forms with a large number of games, you can consider increasing the number of round-robin games to 13.
A 5-Team Round-Robin Divided into Two Halves
This is a two-part, five-team round-robin tournament. If you want to run the round-robin over two days, this schedule gives each team an equal number of byes and games each day. For example, this schedule may be utilised if you had a large three-day tournament with a limited field area. However, unless the games are very lengthy, teams are unlikely to enjoy travelling vast distances and playing two games in a day. This model was employed by the UPA for its Nationals a few years ago, when there were 10 Open Division teams and five Women’s Division teams, most recently in 1985. The round-robin format was used for the first two days, with semifinals and finals taking place on the third day. In 1985, the Open Division included 19 round-robin games.
Conclusion
Theoretically, a round-robin tournament is the most equitable approach to choose a winner from a known and set number of players. Because there is no previous seeding of players that will exclude a match between any specific combination, each contender, whether player or team, has equal odds against all other opponents. Many sporting events include direct competition between one man or team and another. While there are various variations, one kind of competition, the round-robin tournament, is used in many games like chess, cricket, football and other sports that fall within this category.