Hi -
The North American Fighter Kite Association runs a "World Cup" competition in August each year. We usually have 14 to 20 flyers, but don't know the actual number until we gather on the day of the competition (so we need to have pairings ready to go for all the possibilities). We do a round robin, but are not particularly concerned with finishing it because the goal is to identify the top 5 flyers (based on winning percentage, say) for a final round. So getting 2/3, or even 1/2 way through the round robin pairings will be okay. We work our way through the pairings until a predetermined stopping time and then proceed to the final round.
We have three fields to work with and each match pairs 2 flyers (so 3 matches can be going at any one time). It is a bit of walk to get from one field to the other, so it most efficient to divide the flyers into groups that can fly a number of matches at a field before having to move to another field. One way we have done this is by dividing the flyers into 6 groups (say A through F). The round robin is accomplished for the A group by having A+B fly a round robin (while on the other fields C+D and E+F do the same), then have all flyers in A go against all flyers in C (AxC), then AxD, then AxE, and then AxF.
The other consideration is that we like each flyer to have about the same wait between his (or her) matches. So, in a round robin of 8, each flyer should be in about every fourth match. If we have to stop before the round robin is complete, all flyers will have about the same number of matches completed.
We have this worked out quite well for groups up to 16 when we have two fields, but are anticipating a larger number of flyers and 3 fields next year.
Anyone know of an elegant way to set this up?
thanks!
Scott (NAFKA co-president)
