Round robin generator
Make a schedule where every team plays every other team, with byes for odd numbers, courts or tables assigned, home and away balanced and rounds split over days. Enter scores as games finish and the standings sort themselves with the tiebreakers you choose. Pool play, king of the court and Swiss rounds are here too. No sign-up; the event lives in your browser and in the link you share.
1. Teams and format
2. Play it out
Standings
Round 1
Schedule
Share, print and save
How the round robin schedule is made
The schedule uses the circle method: picture the teams seated around a table with one team fixed in place. Each round, the team across from you is your opponent; then everyone except the fixed team moves one seat. After n − 1 moves every team has faced every other team once. With an odd number of teams, an empty chair joins the table and whoever sits across from it rests that round, so each team rests exactly once.
| Teams | Games | Rounds | Games per team | Byes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 6 | 3 | 3 | none |
| 5 | 10 | 5 | 4 | one each |
| 6 | 15 | 5 | 5 | none |
| 8 | 28 | 7 | 7 | none |
| 10 | 45 | 9 | 9 | none |
| 12 | 66 | 11 | 11 | none |
| 16 | 120 | 15 | 15 | none |
- Home and away alternate, so every team's home and away counts differ by at most one (exactly equal with an odd number of teams). Our tests check this for every count from 2 to 64.
- Courts or tables: when a round has more games than courts, it is played in waves. The starting court turns each round so the same teams are not always on court 1.
- Days or sessions: set rounds per day for a league that plays a few rounds a week; each game shows its day.
Pool play that feeds a bracket
Pool play splits a big field into groups of 2 to 8. Teams are dealt into groups in snake order from your list (1st to group A, 2nd to B, then back the other way), so each group gets a fair spread of strong and weak seeds. Inside each group, every team plays every other team once, and all groups play at the same time. When the groups finish, the top teams go on: group winners are seeded first, then runners-up, crossed so a team does not meet a group mate in its first bracket game.
Two ways to hand over: send only the qualifiers once your groups are done (your tiebreakers decide the places), or send the whole setup and play the groups inside the bracket generator, which deals the same groups and fills the bracket as the group games are entered.
King of the court rules used here
Common in volleyball, pickleball and spikeball meetups. Every court plays at the same time. After each round, the winner on each court moves up one court and the loser moves down one; the winner on the top court stays (the king). With more teams than places on court, the loser on the bottom court goes to the back of the waiting line and the first waiting team steps on. With one court it is the classic "winner stays on". Scoring options: wins on higher courts score more (top court worth the number of courts, the bottom court 1), only top-court wins score, or every win scores 1. Play as many rounds as your time allows; the standings update after each round.
Swiss rounds
A Swiss event plays a set number of rounds and nobody is knocked out. Round 1 pairs the top half of your list with the bottom half (with 8 teams: 1 v 5, 2 v 6, 3 v 7, 4 v 8). After that, teams are sorted by the standings and paired top down, so records stay close, and no pair meets twice while a pairing without a rematch exists. With an odd number of teams, the lowest team that has not rested yet gets a bye, which counts as a win. Opponents' points (often called Buchholz) is the usual first tiebreaker, because it rewards the team that beat stronger opposition.
Tiebreakers, stated
- Head-to-head (points in games between the tied teams). Points from the games between the tied teams only. With three tied teams, the mini table of their games decides.
- Point difference (scored minus allowed). Points scored minus points allowed over all games; needs scores.
- Points scored. Total points scored; rewards attacking play.
- Fewest points allowed. Total points allowed, fewest first.
- Most wins. Useful when ties earn points, so two teams can have equal points with different wins.
- Opponents’ points (Buchholz). The sum of the points of every opponent a team has played. Swiss events use it most.
- Wins on the top court. King of the court only: wins on the top court.
- Seed order is always the last step, so the table never shows two teams in the same place.
What this page adds
Most schedule makers stop at a list of games. This one keeps the standings with tiebreakers you choose and can see, handles four formats from the same team list, and connects pool play to a real bracket with the same seeding rules. Share links carry the whole event inside the address, so there is no account, and the CSV opens in any spreadsheet.
Schedule and standings questions
How many games are in a round robin?
Every pair plays once, so n teams play n × (n − 1) ÷ 2 games: 28 for 8 teams, 66 for 12, 120 for 16. A double round robin (everyone twice) doubles it.
How does a round robin work with an odd number of teams?
Each round one team sits out (a bye), and over the whole schedule every team sits out exactly once. Seven teams play seven rounds of three games, with a different team resting each round.
What is the fairest tiebreaker for league standings?
Head-to-head is the most common first tiebreaker because it uses the game the tied teams played against each other. When three or more teams are tied it counts only the games among them. Point difference is next if you record scores. Here you choose the order, and the standings show which rule placed each tied team.
How do I turn pool play into a bracket?
Pick Pool play, choose the number of groups and how many teams go on from each. When the group games are done, send the qualifiers to the bracket generator: group winners are seeded first and teams from the same group are kept apart in their first bracket game.
What is king of the court?
A format for many teams and a few courts. Winners move up a court and losers move down, and the top court is the king court. The loser on the bottom court goes to the back of the line and the next team steps on. Points come from wins, with the king court worth the most.
How many Swiss rounds should I play?
Enough for one team to finish unbeaten: 3 rounds for up to 8 teams, 4 for 9 to 16, 5 for 17 to 32. More rounds sort the middle of the table better.
Bracket sizes: 8, 16, 32 and 64 teams. Planning a big day of games? See large group games and game night ideas.