UPA Manual of Tournament Formats

Five Teams

Copyright (c) The Ultimate Players Association, 1994

Please direct comments on this document to Eric Simon (70540.1522@compuserve.com).

5. Five Teams

A five-team tournament requires two fields and five rounds. Only under the most extreme circumstances should there be only one day of play, and that, only at Sectionals. Under the one-day scenario, the round-robin alone is four games for each team (in five rounds), and to do any more would be violating the 4-game limitation rule.

For some of the formats, where there are lots of games, you might consider making the round-robin games to 13.

For Regional Championships:
Even though there are only five teams, two days of play are expected for teams that will be competing for spots at nationals. You must use one of the two-day options.
For Sectional Championships:
As mentioned above, a one-day tournament is only permitted under extreme circumstances and only at Sectionals. (See the discussion on "A One-Day or Two-Day Format". Use the two-day options.

5.1. One team advances

5.1.1. Seven game option:
Use Table 5.1.1 (round-robin) on the first day. The top four teams qualify and use Table 4.2.1, the flexible four-team round-robin. Four of the five teams get to play seven games, and the last round almost always is a "finals," i.e., the game for first place. The only down side to this format is the potential problem of deciding first place on point differentials in a three-way tie.
5.1.2. Six game option:
Use Table 5.1.1 (round-robin) on the first day. The top four teams qualify and use 4.3, a single elimination on the second day. In this option three of five teams get only 5 games or less. No team enjoys sticking around overnight only to get eliminated the first round on the second day. This format could be made a bit less objectionable if the last round of the round-robin was on the second day, although a problem may arise because the team with the bye might have an unfair advantage. On the other hand, this option avoids the potential problem of deciding first place on point differentials in a three-way tie.

5.2. Two teams advance

Use Table 5.1.1 (round-robin) on the first day. The top four teams qualify and use Table 4.4, the modified double-elimination. This is a very exciting format because, on the second day, there is a game for first place (in the second round), and, in the third round, there is only one game: the match for second place. This format requires eight rounds, five for the round-robin and three for the modified double-elimination. The most games a team will play is seven.

5.3. Three teams advance

Use Table 5.1.1 (round-robin) on the first day. The top four teams qualify and use Table 4.2.1, the flexible four-team round-robin. Four of the five teams get to play seven games, and the last round almost always is a "finals," i.e., the game for first place. Additionally, the other game in the last round is usually to decide third and fourth place. This makes for a very exciting second day. This format requires eight rounds, five for the round-robin and three for the flexible four-team round-robin. All the teams involved in the second day will play seven games.

5.4. Four teams advance

Not written yet.

5.5. Five teams advance

5.5.1. Seven game option one:
Use Table 5.1.1 (round-robin) on the first day. The fifth place team takes fifth place. The other four teams and use Table 4.2.1, the flexible four-team round-robin. Four of the five teams get to play seven games, and the last round almost always is a "finals," i.e., the game for first place. The potential problem of deciding places on point differentials is not very relevant since all five teams qualify anyway.
5.5.2. Seven game option two:
Use Table 5.1.1 (round-robin) on the first day. The first place team takes first place. The other four teams and use Table 4.2.1, the flexible four-team round-robin. Four of the five teams get to play seven games. The potential problem of deciding places on point differentials is not very relevant since all five teams qualify anyway. This option may only be used if all the teams agree on it at the captains meeting. This format is probably preferable where there is one team that is clearly much stonger than the rest, and none of the other teams would want to play that team twice in the same weekend.
5.5.3. Eight game option:
Use Table 5.1.1 (round-robin) for both days. This gives every team eight games. The only problem is that this format requires five rounds each day, and teams that travel far may not want to stick around that long on the second day. At least a majority of the teams must agree to this format at least 24 hours in advance, or all five teams must agree to this format at the captains meeting before you can use this format.

5.6. One day format

Use Table 5.1.1. Only under the most extreme circumstances should there be only one day of play, and that, only at Sectionals. Under the one-day scenario, the round-robin alone is four games for each team (in five rounds), and to do any more would be violating the 4-game limitation rule.

Table 5.1.1. Five-team round-robin

The following is a straight five-team round-robin, which takes five rounds. Should circumstances require, you can split the round-robin over two days and six rounds. Each team will get exactly one bye and two games each day. This is much preferable to simply taking this schedule and playing three rounds one day and two rounds the other. The split schedule appears in Table 5.1.2.

For some of the formats, where there are lots of games, you might consider making the round-robin games to 13.

                 1  2  3  4  5
                 -  -  -  -  -
            1 _  4  2  5  3  B        1 v 5   2 v 4
            2 _  3  1  4  B  5        1 v 3   4 v 5
            3 _  2  5  B  1  4        2 v 5   3 v 4
            4 _  1  B  2  5  3        1 v 4   2 v 3
            5 _  B  3  1  4  2        1 v 2   3 v 5
    

Table 5.1.2. Five-team round-robin split into two parts

This is a five-team round-robin that is split into two parts. If, for some reason, you wanted to have the round-robin over two days, this schedule provides each team with an equal number of byes and games each day. This schedule might be used if, for instance, you had a huge three-day tournament with limited field space. However, unless the games are pretty long, teams will probably not like travelling far and only playing two games in a day. The UPA used this format for its Nationals, some years back, when there were ten Open Division teams and five Women's Division teams, most recently in 1985. The round-robin took the first two days, and semis and finals were played on the third day. Round-robin games for the Open Division in 1985 were to 19.
            first part:           second part:
             1 v 5   2 v 4         1 v 4   2 v 3
             2 v 5   3 v 4         1 v 2   3 v 5
             1 v 3                 4 v 5