UPA Manual of Tournament Formats

Six Teams

Copyright (c) The Ultimate Players Association, 1994

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

6. Six Teams

A six team tournament is still small enough to handle a round-robin. The problems with setting a six-team tourney up as two pools of three are (1) not enough games; and, (2) too much can depend on seeding. Actually, the worst problem is the possibility of a three-way tie. There are no tie-breakers that work for a three-way tie in a three-team pool (but see "The three-team tie-breakers problem").

A round-robin of six teams must be spread out over two days. Play four rounds the first day, and the fifth game as the first round on the second day. Because no team has a bye during the round-robin, no team has an unfair advantage for the games that follow the round-robin. For some of the formats, where there are lots of games, you might consider making the round-robin games to 13.

Commonly, tournament schedulers like to pit the top two seeds against each other during the last round of a round-robin. This is not a good idea, however, when the round-robin is spread over two days because then the top two seeds might be playing each other twice on the second day. Make sure that these two teams play each other on the first day.

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.

6.1. One Team Advances

6.1.1. Seven round option
Use Table 6.1 (round-robin) split over the two days. The top four teams qualify and use 4.3, a single elimination when the round-robin is finished. The teams that make it to the finals will be playing seven games over the weekend.

Be sensitive to the fact that some teams might be sticking around overnight only to play in a single round-robin game when they have already been eliminated on the first day. Such a team may not show up, and this creates all sorts of problems. One way to avoid this is to have a leisurly start on the first day and only play three round. Then, the second day involves two games of round-robin, and two rounds to finish the four-team single elimination. Another possibility, is to use the option below.

6.1.2. Eight round option
Use Table 6.1.1 (round-robin) over the first two days, playing four of the rounds on the first day. After the round-robin is completed, use Table 6.2 (6-team single elimination) for the last three rounds. Although this format takes eight rounds, most teams will play only six or seven games.

There are two advantages to this format. First, a team can only get eliminated by losing a game (i.e., there is no possiblity of a team going home an account of a point-differential). Second, a team can lose all four games on the first day and still have an incentive to show up the second day, because, theoretically, they can still win the tournament.

6.2. Two Teams Advance

Use Table 6.1.1 (round-robin) over the first two days, playing four of the rounds on the first day. After the round-robin is completed, use Table 6.2 (6-team single elimination) for the last three rounds. Although this format takes eight rounds, most teams will play only six or seven games.

6.3. Three Teams Advance

Use Table 6.1.1 (round-robin) over the first two days, playing four of the rounds on the first day. After the round-robin is completed, use Table 6.3 (6-team modified elimination) for the last three rounds.

6.4. Four Teams Advance

Use Table 6.1.1 (round-robin) over the first two days, playing four of the rounds on the first day. After the round-robin is completed, you have a bunch of options:
6.4.1. Option one
The top two teams play each other for first and second place. The bottom four teams play a modified double elimination, Table 4.4. This can be pretty exciting, because the last game of the entire tournament is for the last and final spot. (Of course, when you look at Table 4.4, the teams that come in first and second are actually coming in third and fourth here, since the top two teams have already been separated out and are playing each other for first and second place).
6.4.2. Option two
Use Table 6.3 (6 team modified elimination).

6.5. Five Or Six Teams Advance

Use Table 6.1.1 (round-robin) over the first two days, playing four of the rounds on the first day. After the round-robin is completed, use Table 6.3 (6 team modified elimination).

Table 6.1. Six-Team Round-Robin

The following is a straight six-team round-robin, which takes five rounds. Should circumstances require, you can split the round-robin over two days. As mentioned in the introduction to this section, when the round-robin is split over two days, and it is to be followed by some sort of elimination, do not schedule the top two seeds to play against each other. If you do, it is likely that they will be playing against each other twice in one day.

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 - 5  4  3  2  6        1 v 5   2 v 4   3 v 6
            2 - 4  3  6  1  5        1 v 2   3 v 5   4 v 6
            3 - 6  2  1  5  4        1 v 6   2 v 5   3 v 4
            4 - 2  1  5  6  3        1 v 3   2 v 6   4 v 5
            5 - 1  6  4  3  2        1 v 4   2 v 3   5 v 6
            6 - 3  5  2  4  1

Table 6.2. Six Team Single Elimination

                    1 -----
                        C  -
            4 -----        -----_
                A  --------     _
            5 -----          E  _ ___________
                    2 -----     _ first place
                        D  -    _
            3 -----        -----
                B  --------
            6 -----

Table 6.3. Six Team Modified Elimination

                    1 -----
                        C  -
            4 -----        -----_
                A  --------     _
            5 -----          E  _ _____
                    2 -----     _
                        D  -    _         winner E: first place
            3 -----        -----          loser E:  second place
                B  --------               winner F: third place
            6 -----                       loser F:  fourth place
                        LC -----          winner G: fifth place
                             F  -----
                        LD -----
    
                   LA -----
                        G  -----
                   LB -----

Table 6.4. Six Team Modified Elimination, Seeding From Two Pools

                   A1 -----
                        C  -
           A3 -----        -----_
                A  --------     _
           B2 -----          E  _ _____
                   B1 -----     _
                        D  -    _         winner E: first place
           B3 -----        -----          loser E: second place
                B  --------               winner F: third place
           A2 -----                       loser F: fourth place
                        LC -----          winner G: fifth place
                             F  -----
                        LD -----
    
                   LA -----
                        G  -----
                   LB -----

Table 6.5. Six Team Modified Bracket - Only Two Qualify.

Note that this format is not to be used in situations where more than two teams qualify for the next level. 
                 A1 -----
                      C   -----------
                 B1 ----- first place
    
            A2 -----
                 A  -----_
            B3 -----     _
                      D  _-----_
            A3 -----     _     _
                 B  -----      _
            B2 -----           _ ------------
                               _ second place
                               _
                       LC -----