Ping Pong Round Robin Schedule: Fixture Lists for 4 to 8 Players

By the Breakroom Battles team. Copy the rounds, pin them up, start playing.

The short answer: number your players, fix player 1 in place, pair the list end to end, then rotate everyone except player 1 by one seat for the next round. That is the circle method, and it gives every player exactly one match per round until everyone has met everyone. If you have an odd number of players, add a "Bye" so the group is even, and whoever draws the bye sits out that round.

If you are still deciding between a round robin, a bracket and a ladder, the tournament formats guide covers that choice. This page assumes you already picked round robin and now need the actual fixture list, which is where most organizers end up drawing a grid on a whiteboard and missing a pairing.

Why rounds beat a big grid

The classic round robin chart is a grid with every name across the top and down the side. It tells you who has to play but not who should play next, so people pick the convenient matches first and the leftovers pile up at the end.

Rounds fix that. Nobody appears twice in a round, so the whole group can play one in the same week, and a stuck match is obvious because it is the only one left.

Ready-made schedules

Swap the numbers for names. Seeding does not matter much in a round robin because everyone plays everyone, so a random draw for numbers is fine.

4 players, 3 rounds, 6 matches

1. 1 v 4, 2 v 3
2. 1 v 3, 4 v 2
3. 1 v 2, 3 v 4

5 players, 5 rounds, 10 matches

1. 2 v 5, 3 v 4 (1 has the bye)
2. 1 v 5, 2 v 3 (4 has the bye)
3. 1 v 4, 5 v 3 (2 has the bye)
4. 1 v 3, 4 v 2 (5 has the bye)
5. 1 v 2, 4 v 5 (3 has the bye)

6 players, 5 rounds, 15 matches

1. 1 v 6, 2 v 5, 3 v 4
2. 1 v 5, 6 v 4, 2 v 3
3. 1 v 4, 5 v 3, 6 v 2
4. 1 v 3, 4 v 2, 5 v 6
5. 1 v 2, 3 v 6, 4 v 5

8 players, 7 rounds, 28 matches

1. 1 v 8, 2 v 7, 3 v 6, 4 v 5
2. 1 v 7, 8 v 6, 2 v 5, 3 v 4
3. 1 v 6, 7 v 5, 8 v 4, 2 v 3
4. 1 v 5, 6 v 4, 7 v 3, 8 v 2
5. 1 v 4, 5 v 3, 6 v 2, 7 v 8
6. 1 v 3, 4 v 2, 5 v 8, 6 v 7
7. 1 v 2, 3 v 8, 4 v 7, 5 v 6

For 7 players, use the 8 player schedule and make number 8 the bye. For 3 players, use the 4 player schedule the same way.

Building a schedule for any number: the circle method

For groups the lists above do not cover, here is the method that produced them. You only need a pen.

1. Make the count even. If you have an odd number of players, add "Bye" as an extra name.
2. Write the names in two rows. With 10 players, put 1 to 5 along the top and 10 down to 6 along the bottom, so 1 sits above 10, 2 above 9, and so on. Each column is a match. That is round 1.
3. Pin player 1. Player 1 never moves.
4. Rotate everyone else one seat clockwise. The player at the start of the bottom row moves up next to player 1, everyone on the top row shifts right, the player at the end of the top row drops to the end of the bottom row, and the bottom row shifts left. Read off the columns again. That is round 2.
5. Repeat until you are back where you started. You will have one fewer round than names on the paper.

How long a round robin takes on one table

The number that matters is matches, not rounds: n times (n minus 1), divided by 2. A small group stays small, but the count climbs fast. 6 players is 15 matches, 10 players is 45, and 12 players is 66.

One office table is the real limit. Time a best of three in your group, count the slots the table realistically gets each week, and divide your total matches by matches per week. That is the length of your season. The table space guide goes deeper on whether one table can carry a league.

A pattern that works well in offices is one round per week. Each player has one match a week, which is easy to fit in around meetings, and an 8 player round robin wraps up in seven weeks, which is short enough that people still care about the result at the end.

Deadlines, forfeits and the missing match

Every round robin has one match that never happens. Decide what to do about it before the first round, not when two people are tied in week seven.

• Give each round a deadline. Friday at 5pm is easy to remember. A match not played by the deadline is either forfeited by whoever did not show, or scored as a loss for both, depending on what your group agrees. The league rules template has wording you can copy.
• Allow playing ahead. If two people from round 5 are both free in week two, let them play. It only helps.

Then settle how the final table is ordered. Most wins is the obvious first rule; the points and tiebreakers guide covers what to do when two or three people finish level, which happens more often than you would think in a small group.

After the last round

A finished round robin gives you something useful: a fair order of everyone in the group, because everyone played the same opponents. That order is the best possible seeding for whatever comes next, whether that is a bracket final for the top four or a rolling league where people keep playing whoever they want. If you go the rolling route, a rating that weighs opponent strength keeps the board fair once people stop playing identical schedules.

Record the fixtures from your phone

The other thing that kills round robins is the results sheet. Someone keeps it, someone else forgets to report a score, and by round four nobody trusts it. In Breakroom Battles each player records the match on their phone, the opponent confirms it, and the board updates without anyone acting as scorekeeper.

It runs on the web and on iOS, and the Android app is in Google Play closed testing. Google will not publish it until 12 testers have opted in and stayed opted in for 14 days, and we are still collecting them. If you have an Android phone and five minutes, join the tester group at groups.google.com/g/brb-android-testers, then opt in at play.google.com/apps/testing/com.breakroombattles.league and install it. Logging your round robin results is all the testing we need. The tester page walks through both steps.

Frequently asked questions

How do you make a round robin schedule for ping pong?

Number the players, pin player 1, pair the list end to end, then rotate everyone else one seat for each new round. Stop when every pair has met once.

How many rounds does a round robin have?

One fewer than the number of players if the group is even. If it is odd, add a bye and the number of rounds equals the number of players.

How do you handle an odd number of players?

Add a pretend player called Bye. Whoever draws Bye sits out that round, and every player gets exactly one.

How many matches is a round robin for 8 players?

28, from 8 times 7 divided by 2. Each player plays 7.

Related: choosing a tournament format, points and tiebreakers, and the full office league playbook.