The Staircase method: In this method, teams have matches just similar to a staircase, e.g., of 6 teams participating.
Matches = n(n-1)/2 = 6(6-1)/2 = 15
But there are certain drawbacks in this method:
(a) It does not indicate the number of rounds to be played.
(b) It is not so easy to fixture concerned round as in case of cyclic and tabular method.
