Real-Life Communication
Besides running recreation programs, programmers organize volleyball,
basketball, baseball and other sport leagues. Drawing up league schedules
and tournaments is a common task for the programming department.
Listed
below are the final points in the Monday night volleyball league. Now, the
league is ready for its tournament to determine the first place trophy winners.
Draw up a playoff schedule.
Want some advice? First, add up the points
from the regular season and rank the teams from one (first place) to eight.
In the round robin tournament, the first-place team will play the eighth-place
team, second will play the seventh-place team and so on.
The highest-ranked
teams should not meet each other (provided they keep winning) until the last
round. There are three courts in the gym (A, B and C) and your start time
should be 6 p.m. with the final match played at 9 p.m. (Each match is the
best out of three, with one hour allowed per match.)
- Win = 5 points
- Tie = 3 points
- Loss = 1 point
- Default = -5 (when team does not show up)
| Week Number |
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| Lab Boys | 5 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
| Spikers | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 1 |
| 6 Pack | 1 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 5 |
| Hammers | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 1 | -5 |
| Door Mats | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 5 |
| Leisure Beavers | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Jumbo Shrimps | 1 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| Cats Can | 1 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 1 |
Here is how the round robin will work:
| Team A | | | |
| Winner of A/B | | |
| Team B | | | |
| | Winner of A/B and C/D | |
| Team C | | | |
| Winner of C/D | | |
| Team D | | | |
| | | 1st place |
| Team E | | | |
| Winner of E/F | | |
| Team F | | | |
| | Winner of E/F and G/H | |
| Team G | | | |
| Winner of G/H | | |
| Team H | | | |
There are computer programs that help produce such schedules, so
you won't always have to do it from scratch.
What does your playoff
schedule look like? Who plays who?