TYPES OF

TOURNAMENTS
SHER SINGH
 ‘WHAT’ AND ‘WHY’ OF
TOURNAMENET
TOURNAMENT
Tournament is a series of games or matches played among players or
teams to determine the winner.

Significance of any tournament

It provides an opportunity to demonstrate skills, evaluate one’s
performance and motivate players to perform well, attract people
towards sports to make sports popular and provide healthy
entertainment.
TYPES OF
TOURNAMENTS
 Knock – Out Tournament

League or Round Robin

Combination

TOURNAMENTS
Tabular Method
 Knock – Out Tournament
In a Knock-Out Tournament, a player or team continues to play matches
until it is defeated.
In this type of format, players or teams have to consistently give their best
performance to avoid elimination.
Such a tournament saves cost and time and makes each match intensive
because of fear of elimination.
Fixtures are drawn on the basis of lots.
There is the possibility of a match between two good teams or players
even in the early stages.
 League or Round Robin
In League or Round Robin Tournament, a player or team will play the
matches that are allotted before the start of the tournament.
Fixed number of matches are given to players and teams, and losing
one or all can put them out of the tournament.
Players or teams will get equal chance to play with each other.
Thus, the true winner emerges from this format and ranking can be
prepared for all participating players or teams.
However, this format involves more money, time and facilities as
compared to the Knock-Out Tournament and there is no provision of
seeding for extraordinary teams and players.
 Combination
These are the combination of Knock-Out and League format.
Depending upon the need and importance of the tournament, Combination
Tournaments can be Knockout- League, League-Knockout, Knockout-League-
Knockout etc.
These tournaments are conducted when there are
(a) a large number of participants,
(b) participants are spread in different areas,
(c) venues are in different zones/places etc.

In this format some of the demerits of Knockout and League Tournaments can be
eliminated.
 Tabular Method

In sports tournaments, odd teams often face the problem of not having a
balanced number of matches to play.
This can lead to unfairness and imbalance in the tournament.
To overcome this problem, the tabular method of fixing fixtures is used.

It involves creating a table with rows and columns,

with each row representing a team and each column representing a match day.
 Fixtures, Byes and Seeding

• Fixture is a process of arrangement the team in systematic order in various groups

for competitive fights for physical activity.

• Bye is the position of a participant in a tournament who is not paired with an

opponent, usually in the first round, and advanced to the next round without
playing.

• Seeding is the process of placing strong teams at such a place in the fixture so
that they do not face each other in the very preliminary round of the
tournament.
In Special Seeding method, the seeded players or teams directly play in quarter-
final or semi-final without playing in initial rounds of the tournament.
 Procedure for Drawing Knock -
Out Fixture
Step 1: To determine the total number of teams that will participate in
the Knockout tournament.

Step 2: To determine the total number of matches to be played in the

tournament, following formula will be used:
Total Number of Matches= Number of teams – 1
In case of 8 teams then 8-1= 7 matches
Step 3: The total number of teams are to be divided into two halves (Upper Half and Lower
Half).
If the total number of participating teams are even in numbers the Formula will be:
Number of teams/2 = Teams in Upper Half or Lower Half
If total number of teams is 8 then, 8/2 = 4, i.e., 4 teams will be placed in Upper Half and the
remaining 4 will be placed in Lower Half.

If total number of participating teams are odd in numbers then Formula will be
Number of teams+1/2= Teams in Upper Half
Number of teams-1/2 = Teams in Lower Half

If number of teams is 11 then

11+1/2 = 6 Teams in Upper Half
11-1/2 = 5 Teams in Lower Half
Step 4: After determining Upper and Lower Half Teams, byes will be given.
We can determine the byes by finding the difference between the number of teams participating in the Tournament and next
power of 2 of participating Teams in the Tournament.
Total no of teams = 11
Next higher no to the power of 2 = 16
Total no of byes = 16-11 = 5 byes
No of byes in upper half = No of byes-1/2 = 5-1/2 = 4/2 = 2 byes
No of byes in lower half = No of byes+1/2 = 5+1/2 = 6/2 = 3 byes

Step 5: Allotment of byes in the fixture should be given in following order:

First bye will be given to last team of Lower Half.
Second bye will be given to first team of Upper Half.
Third bye will be given to first team of Lower Half.
Fourth bye will be given to last team of Upper Half.
Same pattern will be followed after fourth bye till the remaining byes have been given.

Step 6: To determine the total number of rounds

If number of teams is 11, then take next power of i.e. 16
2X2X2X2 = 16= 4 rounds
Procedure to Draw League or Round
Robin Fixture
Step 1: Determine the number of matches by applying following
formula-
n(n-1)/2
If there are 6 teams then no. of matches : 6x(6-1)/2 =15
This means, 15 numbers of matches will be played in league
tournament.

Step 2: Here, we will study two types of methods to fix the team in
league tournament namely Cyclic Method and Stair Case Method.
 Cyclic Method
In Cyclic Method, one team will be fixed in position and the other will be
placed in rotation to complete the cycle.
In this method, two situations may arise, first if teams are even
numbered, second situation if teams are odd numbered.

Even number of teams in tournament does not require giving of any bye
to any team.
To find out number of rounds, formula will be number of teams – 1. Total
number of teams= 6
Total number of rounds = 6–1 = 5
In order to draw fixture for odd number of teams one bye will be given
to one team in one round and in next round another team will get a
bye.
Rounds in the tournament will remain the same.
Total number of teams = 7
Total number of rounds = 7
 Staircase Method
In Staircase Method, one team will be fixed on the highest step, and
that team will play with all the teams of the tournament.
In next step down, the next team will be fixed to play with other
remaining teams and so on.
Total no. of teams = 6
Procedure to Draw Combination
Fixture
These fixtures are the combination of Knockout and League
Tournaments.
Same steps will be followed as are followed in Knockout and League
fixtures.
The combinations can be as follows:
Knockout cum League
League cum Knockout
 Procedure to Draw Tabular
Method
In this method, the fixtures are drawn in a tabular form.
The numbers of columns to be drawn horizontally as well as vertically
are—
a) For even number of teams, N+1 columns
b) For odd number of teams, N+2 columns
 Procedure to Draw Tabular
Method
Procedure for entering the numbers inside the squares indicating the rounds—
(i) In the squares of the horizontal columns immediately below the teams,
enter the numbers serially from number 1 onwards.
(ii) In each vertical column except the last one, enter the numbers serially
starting from the number next to that round at the teams.
 Procedure to Draw Tabular
Method

(iii)Note the number entered in the top square of the last vertical column. In the
next square, enter 2. Then precede entering numbers in the other squares every
time adding 2, i.e., 4, 6, etc., until the number becomes 1 less than the number at
the top-most square.
(iv) After this, enter number 1, 3, 5, etc., i.e., by 2 every time until the bottom-most
square is filled up.
(v) The number of bottom-most square will be 2 less than the number of the top-
most square.
 Procedure to Draw Tabular
Method
Procedure for entering the numbers inside the squares indicating the rounds—
(i) In the squares of the horizontal columns immediately below the teams,
enter the numbers serially from number 1 onwards.
(ii) In each vertical column except the last one, enter the numbers serially
starting from the number next to that round at the teams.
 Procedure to Draw Tabular
Method

(iii)Note the number entered in the top square of the last vertical column. In the
next square, enter 2. Then precede entering numbers in the other squares every
time adding 2, i.e., 4, 6, etc., until the number becomes 1 less than the number at
the top-most square.
(iv) After this, enter number 1, 3, 5, etc., i.e., by 2 every time until the bottom-most
square is filled up.
(v) The number of bottom-most square will be 2 less than the number of the top-
most square.