Your tournament
One team per line, from 2 to 32. You can paste the list from your group chat.
Your teams stay on this page. Nothing is sent or saved.
Schedule
Type the scores as matches finish: the table and the next rounds fill in by themselves.
How to make a tournament schedule
- List your teams, one per line. Paste them from your group chat if you like: list numbers and bullets are ignored.
- Pick a format. Round robin has every team play every other team once, Home and away twice, and Knockout sends the loser of each match home.
- Set the pitches or courts you have, and if you like a start time and how long each match and each break lasts. The schedule shows where and when every match is played, and the total playing time.
- Share it. Copy the schedule for the group chat, or print it for the side of the pitch.
- Enter the scores as matches finish. A round robin keeps its table up to date; a knockout fills in the next round with the winners.
What is a round robin?
In a round robin every team plays every other team once, and the team with the most points at the end wins. Nobody goes home after one bad game, which is why leagues are played this way. With n teams there are n × (n − 1) ÷ 2 matches. With an even number of teams that takes n − 1 rounds in which everyone plays; with an odd number it takes n rounds, and one team rests in each.
| Teams | Matches | Rounds | Matches per round | Matches each team plays |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| 4 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 3 |
| 5 | 10 | 5 | 2 | 4 |
| 6 | 15 | 5 | 3 | 5 |
| 7 | 21 | 7 | 3 | 6 |
| 8 | 28 | 7 | 4 | 7 |
| 10 | 45 | 9 | 5 | 9 |
| 12 | 66 | 11 | 6 | 11 |
The schedule maker builds the rounds with the circle method, the same one Rostara's tournaments use: the first team stays in place and the others move round one place each round, so no pair meets twice and nobody plays twice in a round. Home and away are then shared out so that every team is at home about as often as it is away.
Home and away: a double round robin
A double round robin plays the whole round robin twice. The return matches come after the first half, with home and away swapped, so every pair meets once at each end. It doubles the matches: 30 for six teams instead of 15. It suits a season with one match a week more than a single day.
Knockout brackets and byes
A knockout needs 2, 4, 8, 16 or 32 teams to come out even. With any other number, some teams get a bye and go straight to the second round. The number of byes is the gap to the next of those numbers: six teams play in a bracket of eight, so two teams get a bye. They go to the teams at the top of your list, as seeds, and the seeds are spread through the bracket so the top two can only meet in the final. To make the draw fair rather than seeded, press Draw the order at random first.
A knockout always has one match fewer than the number of teams, because every match sends one team home and one team is left at the end. Add one more for the third-place match between the two losing semi-finalists.
How long will the tournament take?
Each match takes its own length plus the break before the next one. The matches of a round share the pitches, and the next round starts once the whole round is over, so nobody has to play two matches back to back. Six teams in a round robin with 12-minute matches and 3-minute breaks:
| Pitches | Playing time |
|---|---|
| 1 | 3 h 42 min |
| 2 | 2 h 27 min |
| 3 | 1 h 12 min |
A third pitch saves more than a second one here, because a round of three matches fits on it in one go. If it's still too long, shorten the matches or the breaks: the playing time updates as you type.
How the table is ranked
A win is worth 3 points and a draw 1. Teams level on points are split by goal difference, then by goals scored. The final and third-place match option, for a round robin of four or more teams, adds a final between the top two and a match for third place between the next two, filled in when the last league match has a score.
For other rules, such as 2 points for a win, bonus points or head-to-head results first, see how scoring works in Rostara's tournaments.
Questions
Is the schedule maker free?
Yes. It's free, needs no account and works in any browser, on a phone or a laptop. Personal tournaments in the Rostara app are free too.
Does it save my schedule?
No. Your teams and scores stay on this page and are gone when you close it. Copy the schedule or print it to keep it. To keep a tournament and its table on everyone's phone, run it in the Rostara app.
How many teams can it schedule?
From 2 to 32 teams, on up to 8 pitches or courts at once.
What happens with an odd number of teams?
In a round robin one team rests in each round, and every team rests exactly once. In a knockout the teams at the top of the list get byes into the second round.
Can I make groups followed by knockout rounds?
Not here: the schedule maker plays one league or one knockout, and a league can finish with a final and a third-place match. Rostara's tournaments add a group stage of 2, 4 or 8 groups followed by knockout rounds.
What does the page count?
It sets no cookies and never sends your teams or scores. To see whether the tool helps, it counts visits (and whether a visit came from a search, a link or straight in) and which features get used, and adds that to daily totals. It doesn't know who you are. If your browser asks sites not to track you, it counts nothing.
