A knockout is quick, but half the players are done after one game. A round robin keeps everyone playing: each team meets every other team once, and a points table decides the winner. It suits a darts night, a chess club or a five-a-side league. This guide covers how a round robin is laid out, how points work, and how to run one with Bracket Cat, our tournament bracket maker for iPhone, which builds the schedule and keeps the table for you.
How a round robin works
- Everyone plays everyone once. With n teams that's n × (n − 1) ÷ 2 matches: 6 teams play 15 matches, 8 teams play 28.
- Matches go in rounds. In each round, every team plays at most once. With an even number of teams, everyone plays every round, and 6 teams need 5 rounds.
- An odd number means a sit-out. With 5 teams, one team rests each round, so you need 5 rounds of 2 matches, and each team sits out once.
- A table ranks the teams. Each row counts games played, won, drawn and lost, and the points.
Working out the rounds by hand is the fiddly part. The usual way is the circle method: one team stays put while the others move round one place each round, so every pair meets once. Bracket Cat uses that method.
How points work
Bracket Cat scores the table the common way: 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw, 0 for a loss. The table is sorted by most points, then most wins, then the order the teams were entered.
Bracket Cat records who won or whether it was a draw, not the score of each game, so there's no goal or point difference in the table. If two teams finish level on points and wins, the one higher in your list goes first. If your league breaks ties another way, like the result between the two teams or a play-off game, settle it yourself before you announce the winner.
Set it up
- Open Bracket Cat and tap New bracket.
- Type a name, like "Tuesday darts league".
- Under Format, tap Round robin. The footer reads "Everyone plays everyone once. Most points wins."
- In Teams, type one team or player per line. Empty lines are skipped.
- Check the count under the list, like "6 teams, 15 matches." If a name is typed twice, Listed twice names it.
- Tap Shuffle if you want a random order. The order of your list sets who plays whom in each round.
- Tap Create.
The screen opens with the Table at the top (columns P, W, D, L and Pts), then each round's matches under Round 1, Round 2 and so on. With an odd number of teams, each round's footer says who sits it out, like "Lee sits this round out."
Record the results
Each match is a row with one team on each side and a Draw button in the middle.
- Tap the team that won. Its name is highlighted, the other turns grey, and the table updates straight away.
- Tap Draw if the game was tied.
- Tap the same team, or Draw, again to take a result back. Tap the other team to change it.
- Undo steps back one change at a time, even after you close and reopen the app.
You don't have to play the rounds in order. If two teams are free early, enter their Round 4 match whenever it's played. Every change is saved as you go, so a league that runs over several weeks keeps its results.
Spelling fix or a team that renamed itself? Tap More (the ⋯ button), then Rename. Results stay with the team, so renaming changes no results.
Print the schedule and the table
Tap the share button (Share or print):
- Print prints portrait pages on Letter or A4, picked by your region. The table comes first, then every round's matches.
- Share PDF sends the same pages as a file, for the club's group chat or email.
- Share image makes one picture of the table and all the rounds.
A match not played yet prints with a blank line between the two names, so a printout before the first night works as a fixture list to fill in. Played matches print as "beat", "lost to" or "draw", and each round shows who sits out. Print it again later for an updated table.
At the end, the top row of the table is your winner. For a printed award, see how to make a certificate of appreciation.
Seeds, logo and colour (Pro)
With Bracket Cat Pro, Seeds in the More menu lets you drag teams into a new order or type a number, which changes who plays whom each round, and Show seed numbers shows them next to each name. Seeds lock once the first result is in. Logo and colour puts your club's logo next to the bracket's name, on screen and in print, and picks the colour for the winners on screen.
What it costs
Round robin and knockout brackets for any number of teams, the table, Draw, Undo, Rename, Print, Share PDF and Share image are free, with no limit on brackets and no watermark. There are no ads and no account. Bracket Cat Pro is an optional one-time purchase that adds double elimination, the seed editor, and a logo and colour. Your brackets are kept on your phone and leave only when you share them. More on the Bracket Cat page.
Quick answers
How many rounds is a round robin?
One fewer than the number of teams when the count is even (6 teams, 5 rounds). With an odd count, as many rounds as teams, and each team sits out once (5 teams, 5 rounds).
How many games are in a round robin with 8 teams?
28: each of the 8 teams plays the other 7, and each game counts once.
What do you do with an odd number of teams?
One team sits out each round. Bracket Cat says who in each round's footer and on the printout.
How are points counted?
3 for a win, 1 for a draw, 0 for a loss. Ties on points are split by wins, then by the order the teams were entered.
Can I enter scores?
No. Bracket Cat records a win, a loss or a draw for each match, not the score.
Try Bracket Cat
Try Bracket Cat: free, no watermark, no sign-up → iyio.com/apps/bracket-cat