7 Players, 4 per Match

[loripori]

Hi, 

 I am at a loss, hope you can help I would really appreciate it. I am trying to plan a boardgame league with 7 people. The game is played by 4 people per match. 

Is there any way to create a plan where every player is playing against each other player at least once and that all players have the same amount of matches in the end? 

Thanks in advance!

[Ian Wakeling]

To get balance, you must play 7 matches in total.  Each player plays in exactly 4 matches and plays against the other 6 players exactly twice.  For example:

1 3 4 5
2 4 5 6
3 5 6 7
4 6 7 1
5 7 1 2
6 1 2 3
7 2 3 4

[loripori]

Perfect, thanks so much for the quick reply  

Is there a way to adapt this also to 8 players? just in case one more wants to join...

[Ian Wakeling]

14 rounds are necessary for 8 players, but it can be arranged so that pairs of rounds have all players exactly once:

5 3 1 6
4 2 8 7
6 5 4 7
2 1 3 8
8 1 7 5
4 6 2 3
7 6 1 2
8 4 3 5
7 3 4 1
2 5 6 8
1 4 5 2
3 7 8 6
1 8 6 4
5 7 2 3

[loripori]

Thanks again! so helpful!