The Staircase method: In this method, teams have matches just similar to a staircase, e.g., of 6 teams participating.
Number of matches = (n) (n – 1)/2 = 6(6 – 1)/2 = 3(5) = 15
1 – 2
1 – 3 2 – 3
1 – 4 2 – 4 3 – 4
1 – 5 2 – 5 3 – 5 4 – 5
1 – 6 2 – 6 3 – 6 4 – 6 5 – 6
Drawbacks of the method:
- It does not indicate the number of rounds to be played.
- It is not so easy to fixture concerned round as in case of cyclic and tabular method.
