3-Team Round Robin Schedule

The Schedule

Three matches: 1v2, 1v3, 2v3. Only one match can run at a time no matter how many surfaces you have, and one team is idle in each — give the idle team scorekeeping duty and the format runs itself. Three games at 30 minutes is a tidy 90-minute event.

The 1-1-1 Problem

The three-team round robin's known failure mode: A beats B, B beats C, C beats A. Everyone is 1-1, head-to-head is a perfect circle, and no rematch schedule fixes it in principle. Decide the tiebreaker before game one:

• Point differential across both games — the standard answer, so record scores, not just winners.
• Double round robin — play the cycle twice (6 games). More data, still no guarantee.
• Sudden-death mini-game — one quick decider each (game to 7, one inning, one end) seeded by differential.

When You Have 3, Consider Inviting a 4th

Genuinely: the jump from 3 to 4 teams doubles the games (3 → 6), removes the idle team, and makes the tie math far friendlier. If a fourth team exists, get them in and use the 4-team schedule. If not, three works — just with scores recorded.