A
round-robin tournament (or
all-play-all tournament) is a competition "in which each contestant meets all other contestants in turn".
Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (1971, G. & C. Merriam Co), p.1980.
Terminology
In a single round-robin schedule, each participant plays every other participant once. If each participant plays all others twice, this is frequently called a
double round-robin. The term is rarely used when all participants play one another more than twice, and is never used when one participant plays others an unequal number of times (as is the case in almost all of the major
United States professional sports leagues - see
AFL III and
All America Football Conference for exceptions).
A round-robin
tournament with four players is sometimes called a "quad". In
croquet and
tennis clubs in the
United Kingdom, a round-robin tournament is often called an
American tournament. The term
round-robin is derived from the French term
ruban, meaning "ribbon". Over a long period of time, the term was corrupted and idiomized to
robin.
Use
In sports with a large number of competitive matches per season, double round-robins are common. Most
association football leagues in the world are organized on a double round-robin basis, in which every team plays all others in its league once at home and once away. This system is also used during qualification for major tournaments...
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