What is a round-robin tournament, and why is it called so?
In a round-robin tournament, each player (or team) plays each other competitor (usually once, sometimes twice in a double round-robin tournament). In some competitions (e.g., World Cup in soccer and cricket), there is a preliminary round-robin phase where members of a pool play each other to determine which go through to the later elimination stage of the competition. “The term round-robin is derived from the French term ‘ruban’, meaning ‘ribbon’. Over a long period of time, the term was corrupted and idiomized to ‘robin’.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round-robin_tournament The phrase round-robin had earlier been used to describe “correspondence to a single address authored or signed by numerous individuals (as found in a petition). … The modern use of the term dates from the 17th Century French ruban rond (round ribbon).
