Everyone plays everyone
Who plays whom — and can it all fit? Plan matches, courts, rest and a realistic finish time.
What's under the hood
The circle method stays intact: one slot remains fixed while the others rotate. Every pair appears once per leg; an odd field receives one BYE per round and one per team per leg. Double round robin reverses the first leg's matchups.
A separate timing engine assigns actual courts and start/end times within those rounds. It favors earlier-ready teams, considers time already rested, and never double-books a team or court. Every round finishes before the next begins. That makes the plan easy to run, but can leave courts idle.
Rest is measured from a team's last finish to its next start, including changeover. Waiting for requested rest is the default. “Keep play moving” instead reports shortfalls. This deterministic heuristic is not a proven fastest schedule or a guarantee of equal rest.
Worth knowing
Try it on paper first
Real inputs, real outputs, and the assumption that changes the answer.
Four teams, two courts
With 18-minute games, 5-minute changeovers and no added rest request, 6 matches in 3 rounds take 64 minutes. A 9:00 AM start finishes at 10:04 AM. A 10:04 deadline fits exactly, without a buffer.
Five teams and BYEs
On two courts with the same 18-minute games and 5-minute changeovers, 10 matches in 5 rounds take 110 minutes. Starting at 9:00 AM means a 10:50 AM finish. Every team receives one BYE.
Playing twice
Four teams on two courts with 18-minute games and 5-minute changeovers need 12 matches in 6 rounds, taking 133 minutes. A 9:00 AM start finishes at 11:13 AM. No extra rest is requested.
Ten teams, three courts
With 18-minute games, 5-minute changeovers and no added rest request, this round-based plan needs 45 matches and 409 minutes, finishing at 3:49 PM. A fourth court still needs two waves per round; five courts reduce the plan to 202 minutes, finishing at 12:22 PM.
Short answers
Yes. In a single round robin, every unique pair appears once. In a double round robin, each pair appears twice with the listed order reversed.
An odd field produces one BYE each round. The rotation ensures each participant receives exactly one BYE in a single round robin.
No. Correct round-robin scheduling is deterministic. Reordering the input list changes the sequence if you want a different arrangement.
Teams cannot play twice at once, and this planner keeps round boundaries intact. If an extra court does not remove a wave within a round, or teams are still waiting for rest, it may not move the finish time much.
No. Enter a fixed team or an individual competitor on each line. Each entry plays every other entry. Mixing partners each round requires a different scheduling model.