Round-robin tournament
tournament in which each contestant meets every other participant once (single round robin) or twice (double round robin)
A round-robin tournament or all-play-all tournament is a competition format in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn. A round-robin contrasts with an elimination tournament, where participants are eliminated after a certain number of wins or losses, as well as with a Swiss-system tournament, where participants are matched according to their running score.
Terminology
The term round-robin is derived from French: rond ('round') ruban ('ribbon') meant a petition signed in circular format, so no name is first or last. Over time, "ruban" became idiomized or corrupted to "robin".
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. Equivalent terms are seldom used when all participants play one another more than twice, and rarely when one participant plays others an unequal number of times, as is the case in almost all of the major North American professional sports leagues.
In the United Kingdom, a round-robin tournament has been called an American tournament in sports such as tennis or billiards which usually have single-elimination (or "knockout") tournaments, although this is now rarely done.
A round-robin tournament with four players is sometimes called "quad" or "foursome".
Applications
Pure round-robin
In sports with a large number of competitive matches per season, double round-robins with no post-seasons are common.
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