Balanced Home & Away Draw with extra criteria

[geffish]

Hi,

I am looking for a formula or way to create a balanced Home & Away Draw. I also want to ensure there is one round where all paired teams play each other.

I am using Microsoft Excel.

I would like to display the draw in two adjacent columns so I can use a Lookup function to substitute numbers for teams.

Thanks in advance.

[Ian Wakeling]

Have you looked at my macro based spreadsheet that you can download here. It will make single or double round-robins with optimally alternating patterns of home and away games.  Note that you need to be logged in to the forum in order to see the download link.

[geffish]

I have downloaded the file previously. I works great. The only thing I want is a specific round where all paired teams play each other i.e. a 'local derby'. Two teams playing from the same venue would play each other.

[Ian Wakeling]

I have looked at your spreadsheet.  I am not aware of any general way of making the schedule where all the derby games are in the first round, so have you managed to do this for any other number of player apart from 8?  In your schedule players 3 to 8 each have 2 breaks from the strictly alternating pattern, while the original unrandomized schedule has only 1 break each for players 3 to 8 -  I am guessing this a compromise that needs to be made in order to obtain the derby games you want.

[geffish]

I guess having alternating home and away wouldn't have to be crucial as long as each team has an even as possible home and away draw. I understand the more criteria one adds to the equation the harder it would be to come up with a solution. The question is, is it still possible for other number of teams?