A round robin is an arrangement of choosing all elements in a group equally in some rational

order, usually from the top to the bottom of a list and then starting again at the top of the list
and so on. A simple way to think of round robin is that it is about "taking turns." Used as an
adjective, round robin becomes "round-robin."

In computer operation, one method of having different program process take turns using the
resources of the computer is to limit each process to a certain short time period, then
suspending that process to give another process a turn (or "time-slice"). This is often described
as round-robin process scheduling.

In sports tournaments and other games, round-robin scheduling arranges to have all teams or
players take turns playing each other, with the winner emerging from the succession of events.

A round-robin story is one that is started by one person and then continued successively by
others in turn. Whether an author can get additional turns, how many lines each person can
contribute, and how the story can be ended depend on the rules. Some Web sites have been
created for the telling of round robin stories by each person posting the next part of the story as
part of an online conference thread .

Single-elimination tournament

A single-elimination tournamentalso called an Olympic system tournament,

a knockout (or, knock-out),single penetration, or sudden death tournamentis a type of elimination
tournament where the loser of each bracket is immediately eliminated from winning the
championship or first prize in the event.

This does not always mean that the defeated competitor will not participate further in the
tournament; in some such tournaments, consolation or "classification" contests are subsequently
held among those already defeated to determine the awarding of lesser places, for example,
a Third place playoff. Where more than two competitors can play in each match, such as in a
shootout poker tournament, players are removed when they can no longer play until one player
remains from the group. This player moves on to the next round.

Some competitions are held with a pure single-elimination tournament system. Others have
many phases, with the last being a single-elimination final stage called playoffs.

Evaluation]
The single-elimination format enables a relatively large number of competitors to participate.
There are no "dead" matches (perhaps excluding "classification" matches), and no matches
where one competitor has more to play for than the other.
The format is less suited to games where draws are frequent. In chess, each fixture in a single-
elimination tournament must be played over multiple matches, because draws are common, and
because white has an advantage over black. In association football, games ending in a draw may be
settled in extra time and eventually by a penalty shootout or by replaying the fixture.
Another perceived disadvantage is that most competitors are eliminated after relatively few
games. Variations such as the double-elimination tournament allow competitors a single loss while
remaining eligible for overall victory.
In a random knockout tournament (single-elimination without any seeding), awarding the second
place to the loser of the final is unjustified: any of the competitors knocked out by the
tournament winner might have been the second strongest one, but they never got the chance to
play against the losing finalist. In general, it is only fair to use a single-elimination tournament to
determine first place. To fairly determine lower places requires some form of round-robin in which
each player/team gets the opportunity to face every other player/team.
Also, if the competitors' performance is variable, that is, it depends on a small, varying factor in
addition to the actual strength of the competitors, then not only will it become less likely that the
strongest competitor actually wins the tournament, in addition the seeding done by the
tournament organizers will play a major part in deciding the winner. [8] As a random factor is
always present in a real-world competition, this might easily cause accusations of unfairness.

Double-elimination tournament

A double-elimination tournament is a type of elimination tournament competition in which a participant ceases

to be eligible to win the tournament's championship upon having lost two games or matches. It stands
in contrast to a single-elimination tournament, in which only one defeat results in elimination.

One method of arranging a double-elimination tournament is to break the competitors into two
sets of brackets, the winners bracket and losers bracket (W and L brackets for short; also
sometimes upper bracket and lower bracket, respectively) after the first round. The first-round
winners proceed into the W bracket and the losers proceed into the L bracket. The W bracket is
conducted in the same manner as a single-elimination tournament, except that the losers of
each round "drop down" into the L bracket. Another method of double-elimination tournament
management is the Draw and Process.

As with single-elimination tournaments, most often the number of competitors is equal to a power of
two (8, 16, 32, etc.) so that in each round there is an even number of competitors and never
any byes. The maximum number of games in a double-elimination tournament is one less than
twice the number of teams participating (e.g., 8 teams 15 games). The minimum number is two
less than twice the number of teams (e.g., 8 teams 14 games).

Conducting the tournament[edit]

If the bracket arrangement is being used then each round of the L Bracket is conducted in two
stages; a minor stage followed by a major stage. Both contain the same number of matches
(assuming there are no byes) which is the same again as the number of matches in the
corresponding round of the W Bracket. If the minor stage of an L Bracket round
contains N matches, it will produce N winners. Meanwhile, the N matches in the corresponding
round of the W Bracket will produce Nlosers. These 2N competitors will then pair off in
the N matches of the corresponding major stage of the L Bracket.

For example, in an eight-competitor double-elimination tournament, the four losers of the first
round, W Bracket quarter finals, pair off in the first stage of the L Bracket, the L Bracket minor
semifinals. The two losers are eliminated, while the two winners proceed to the L Bracket major
semifinals. Here, those two players/teams will each compete against a loser of the W Bracket
semifinal in the L Bracket major semifinals. The winners of the L Bracket major semifinals
compete against each other in the L Bracket minor-final, with the winner playing the loser of the
W Bracket final in the L Bracket major final.

The championship finals of a double elimination tournament is usually set up to be a possible two
games. The rationale is that since the tournament is indeed double elimination, it is unfair to
have the W Bracket champion eliminated with its first loss. Therefore, while the W Bracket
champion needs to beat the L Bracket champion only once to win the tournament, the L Bracket
champion must beat the Winners' Bracket champion twice.
A Draw and Process tournament requires less intervention by the manager. The competitors are
allocated their first round positions on the competition grid and this is played as if it were a
single elimination event. This grid is called the "Draw". A second competition grid called the
"Process" is then produced and again played as a single elimination event. The fixed
arrangement of the Process ensures that players who met in the first round of the Draw cannot
meet until the final of the Process. Similarly, players who meet in the second round of the Draw
cannot meet until the semi finals of the Process. If the same person wins both the Draw and
Process then they are the overall winner and the losing finalists will play each other for second
and third place. Otherwise the winners of the Draw and Process will play off to determine the
winner.[1]